Graphyte is a carbon removal and sequestration firm backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Operations began at its Arkansas-based plant in February 2024. What is notable about this carbon sequestration solution is its price, which is considerably lower and can work faster than other sequestration solutions.
Carbon removal is essential to fighting climate change. Billions of tons of carbon dioxide need to be removed from the atmosphere annually by 2050 to achieve climate change goals, but unfortunately, the world is not on track to make the goal. In the spirit of doing more with less, SCS Engineers supports Graphyte’s new solution to capture more carbon. As a leading environmental engineering firm in the Americas, we are experts in designing and implementing safe and long-lasting solutions that reduce, reuse, or store waste.
How Graphyte’s Carbon Casting Works
By-products of the timber and agriculture industries, otherwise burned or left to decompose, are collected. These by-products are considered biomass, dried to stop decomposition, and then condensed into dense blocks. The blocks wrapped with an impermeable polymer sheet make them environmentally safe and ensure that decomposition does not restart.
Then, the blocks are stored in state-of-the-art sites with sensors and tracers, enabling robust long-term monitoring. Storage sites can serve multiple purposes, such as solar farms or agricultural land, designed to last up to 1,000 years.
Sustainable Solution
Industries and businesses are moving to be as carbon-neutral or carbon-negative as possible, looking at carbon sequestration as an attractive reduction solution because it ticks so many boxes that make it sustainable. It sequesters carbon and does it for centuries while meeting environmental, social, and economic considerations that are extremely important. To be sustainable, a solution’s return on investment must be reasonable so customers can still afford the product or service.
Closing the Gap Between Plans and Results
Many industries and businesses combine sequestration with additional strategies that lower their produced carbons. For example, landfills and municipalities encourage diversion and recycling programs to lower methane and produce useful by-products from a large portion of what remains. Energy audits identify how to run facilities and processes more efficiently and may incorporate renewable energy from organic material, methane, or solar to power facilities.
Carbon removal is necessary to manage Climate Change and ultimately save the planet. Using an upstream and downstream approach, Graphyte offers a safe, affordable, and scalable way to sequester carbon dioxide as North America implements more reuse and recycling infrastructure to lower waste generation upstream.
Additional Resources for Carbon Mitigation and Sequestration
