14: Using rocks to capture carbon at big scale! Interview with Lithos Co-Founder and CEO, Mary Yap

SustainNOW Podcast - Learn from entrepreneurs & scientists about climate solutions

English - November 17, 2022 20:00 - 46 minutes - 32.3 MB
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Previous Episode: 13: Building the Stripe for energy or how your Tesla can earn money. Interview with Thomas Folker, co-founder of Leap

Next Episode: 15 - The Renaissance of fungi and ancient fermentation process in the food tech industry. Interview with founder and CEO of Bosque Foods, Isabella Iglesias-Musachio

In todays episode, I am speaking with May Yap, co-founder and CEO of Lithos Carbon. The team's mission is to accelerate mineral weathering at the gigaton scale. They are using volcanic stone basalt to speed up the Earth’s naturally carbon capture process in the soil and ocean. Farmers are spraying individual adapted basalt on their farmland to capture carbon in the soil while improving their yield at the same time. This complex method is very difficult to measure but is seen as one of the most promising technologies to capture CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Mary studied plant biology at The University of Chicago and geology and planetary sciences at Yale University, where she conducted award-winning scientific and urban research on the climate crisis. Mary started her journey in entrepreneurship at the age of 18 and spent 6+ years building early-stage startups before devoting her life to climate solutions.

We are speaking about her passion for stones and geology, why enhanced weathering is so complex to measure but also has a great opportunity to fight the climate crisis. You will learn about the process, the risks and chances for investors and farmers.

In this episode we are addressing the following questions:

Could you please introduce yourself in a few sentences? 2:07What was your motivation in the first place to study geology at Yale? 3:00You mentioned that your grandmother also worked in agriculture. Is that something that inspired you as well? 4:38Based on the Wikipedia definition of enhanced weathering, is that what you would say it is or would you frame it differently? 8:48Can you pull us through the whole cycle of enhanced weather? 9:54Do you use probes? 12:31How is the chemical reaction working and how does it differ to taking another stone like Limestone? 14:05How do you accurately measure the carbon captured? 18:38How much percent is getting captured in the soil and how much flows away? 21:59Is there a limitation on the types of crops? 23:34Are there other methods of enhanced weathering?

Please check out show notes and background information: www.sustainnow.ch
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