FabricNano partners with Veolia for more efficient carbon capture

London-based biotech FabricNano and SaaS Veolia have announced the trial of carbon capture tech that has been enabled by their partnership. Carbon capture is a way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by capturing the CO2, transporting it and then permanently storing it deep underground.

Traditionally, this process relies on distributing chemicals on the ground which chemically react with rainwater to convert carbon into carbonates such as baking soda and chalk.

FabricNano’s patented technology immobilizes the Carbonic Anhydrase enzyme directly onto large particle basalt, accelerating carbon sequestration timelines from decades to just a couple of years. With net zero targets fast approaching, this innovation could make a huge difference to global decarbonisation efforts in the next decade.

This year, Veolia will be spreading 30,000 tonnes of basalt rock across farmland throughout the UK as it begins its ERW decarbonisation operations. This landmark trial with FabricNano will see protein powder, containing the Carbonic Anhydrase enzyme, combined with silicate rock being spread on a stretch of farmland near Bicester, UK and run by Oxford Agricultural Trials (OATs).

The trial uses locally sourced, larger rock particles that are a plentiful resource of nearby mining operations. Applying enzymes to speed up the natural rock weathering processes, this trial will incur less than 100 miles of rock transport to the farmland and consume no energy to grind up rocks. The aim is to prove the methodology for an efficient, scalable method to capture huge volumes of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

With 17 million hectares of utilised agricultural area and over 2 billion tonnes of basalt rock reserves in Great Britain, ERW presents real potential to help countries decarbonise, if it can be scaled up with economic viability. According to research by the University of Sheffield, ERW could deliver 6 to 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removal a year in the UK.

Marine Avisse, Head of Corporate Development of Veolia UK said:

“Wide scale adoption of viable, permanent and effective decarbonisation solutions is essential if we are to achieve net zero targets but we need to deploy these faster. This innovation, combining world leading biotechnology and established carbon removal practices, represents a huge step forward in ecological solutions. Not only will this trial see enzymes accelerate the rate of enhanced weathering, it will also provide us with the data we need to replicate this across more applications so industries can tangibly meet their fast-approaching decarbonisation goals.”

Grant Aarons, CEO and founder of FabricNano said:

“The holy grail of rock weathering is utilising large particle rock (>0.5mm) that’s applied to the top-dressing of cropland. We believe that biology, namely the immobilized enzyme Carbonic Anhydrase, has a role to play in enabling this breakthrough process which would allow instant global scalability of rock weathering for carbon sequestration.”