{"id":1328,"date":"2024-08-07T08:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-foundation\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2024-08-07T08:40:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T14:40:54","slug":"our-investment-in-applied-carbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-foundation\/2024\/08\/07\/our-investment-in-applied-carbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Our investment in Applied Carbon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sinking carbon, improving soil health for farmers<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Excessive atmospheric carbon\u2014especially carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) from burning fossil fuels\u2014is causing our planet to overheat at an alarming rate. So much so that in addition to reducing and avoiding emissions from our economy as fast as possible, scientists believe we\u2019ll likely need to remove CO2<\/sub> from the atmosphere at astonishingly high levels\u2014on the order of 20% to 40% of global emissions, or 10 to 20 gigatons, per year<\/a> by 2100.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, a growing number of entrepreneurs and innovators are rising to the challenge and developing carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies that pull CO2<\/sub> from the atmosphere and convert it into products or permanently store it underground. While many exciting CDR approaches<\/a> are emerging, few are as affordable, scalable, immediate, and long-lasting as biochar<\/a>: a charcoal-like, nutrient-rich substance that sequesters carbon while also providing benefits beyond carbon removal, like improving agricultural soil health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biochar solution <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Earth\u2019s soils store roughly 2,500 gigatons<\/a> of carbon\u2014more than three times the amount of carbon in its atmosphere. Soil sequesters carbon for around two years before most of it is released back into the atmosphere as CO2<\/sub> during natural decomposition cycles. Biochar, on the other hand, has the potential to store the same organic matter for thousands of years. Using biochar for soil improvement is an ancient practice that originated more than 2,500 years ago in the Amazon and is now being adapted for modern applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biochar is a byproduct of heating biomass at high temperatures (500 to 1,000 degrees C) in oxygen-limited environments, often using a process called pyrolysis. The biomass thermochemically degrades to form carbon-rich biochar, which has unique properties that make it both a powerful agricultural soil amendment<\/a> and an economically and technically viable solution for long-term carbon sequestration.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the IPCC, biochar\u2019s global carbon reduction potential is enormous, ranging between one and 35 gigatons<\/a> of CO2<\/sub> per year by 2050. However, as a soil amendment or CDR solution, it hasn\u2019t effectively scaled, mostly due to an underdeveloped supply chain owned by a few hyper-centralized suppliers. Conventional pyrolysis systems are housed in centralized facilities, requiring cross-country transport of both biomass (input) and biochar (output). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Applied Carbon?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Applied Carbon<\/a>, a startup founded in 2020, is leveraging advanced robotics and precision automation to accelerate and scale biochar production and availability. The company is commercializing a proprietary tractor-based pyrolysis system, enabling farmers to convert agricultural waste from their own crops into soil-enriching biochar that improves agronomic productivity without ever leaving the farm.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tractors equipped with Applied Carbon pyrolysis technology and sensors autonomously navigate fields to collect post-harvest agricultural waste, which the mobile system then processes into ready-to-use biochar. The biomass is collected, processed into biochar, and returned to the soil in a matter of minutes. In that way, Applied Carbon\u2019s in-field system operates a closed-loop process that maintains value locally and can be powered by the biomass it collects.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n