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What is Graphyte?
What is Graphyte and what inspired its creation?
Jay Dessy - Each year, over 3 billion tons of biomass is either burned or left to decompose, releasing methane and CO2 back into the atmosphere. This presents major problems across the United States and globally – unmanaged forests lead to massive wildfires, huge amounts of agricultural residues are burned in the field polluting rural communities, wood waste at sawmills are piled up and left to decompose.
Graphyte was created to transform this unutilized biomass into high quality carbon removal. We saw an opportunity to take advantage of these biomass resources and a need for a durable CDR approach that is simple, efficient, and ready to scale today.
Carbon Casting
Carbon Casting sounds revolutionary! Can you break down how it works and why it’s such a game-changer for CDR?
Jay Dessy - Graphyte has a new way to return carbon to long-term underground storage with minimal tech and maximum impact. Our approach can be broken down into three simple steps:
- Collect biomass that would be burned or left to decompose.
- Compress biomass into inert “Carbon Blocks” that don’t decompose.
- Store these blocks in an engineered chamber where we can monitor them directly.
We leverage readily available biomass inputs, utilize off the shelf equipment, and require little energy in the process. As a result, our solution can be deployed anywhere in the world and at a fraction of the cost of high durability alternatives.
CDR Durability
Durability is key in carbon removal—how does Carbon Casting ensure CO2 stays locked away for 1,000+ years?
Jay Dessy - When left on the farm or in the forest, biomass will naturally decompose as a result of microbial activity. This causes the carbon stored in the biomass to be released back into the atmosphere in the form of methane and carbon dioxide. Graphyte prevents biomass from decomposing for over 1000 years through a series of engineering steps.
- First, we dry biomass to a point below which microbes cannot survive. Microbes can’t live without water and without microbes, biomass will not decompose.
- Second, we compress and wrap the biomass in a polymer designed to last for a long period of time. This keeps the biomass dry and maintains conditions that don’t support microbial life.
- Third, we store the blocks in a controlled environment to ensure the wrapped blocks remain intact and no water interacts with the biomass.
One of the key benefits of this approach is that we can directly measure conditions where the blocks are stored to ensure the carbon stays locked away.
Energy Usage
Energy use is a major concern for CDR tech. How does Carbon Casting achieve such low energy requirements?
Jay Dessy - Graphyte has a simple and efficient approach to carbon removal. We let plants do the hard work of taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Then we dry, compress, and wrap biomass using equipment that requires very little energy. This process doesn’t involve thermochemical transformations or energy intensive CO2 separation.
Graphyte CEO Barclay Rogers and CTO Hannah Murnen recently published a paper with Dan Sanchez and Pete Psarras about the importance of energy requirements and efficiency with respect to CDR. It shows that Graphyte’s process requires ~15% of the energy needed for biochar and 10% of the energy needed for direct air capture on average.
CDR Impact
What’s the most exciting impact story you’ve seen so far from one of your projects, like the Loblolly Project?
Jay Dessy - Graphyte’s first project is in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. We were able to build and commission this project within 14 months of Graphyte’s founding. The most exciting part of the Loblolly Project has been working with the community to bring a new industry to Pine Bluff. We’ve created 30 jobs, partnered with the local university on a training program, and supported dozens of local contractors. We’ve also helped fund community projects like a new park in Ward 3 of the city, which was the only Ward without green space. We’ve enjoyed working with the Pine Bluff community to support economic development and bring local environmental benefits.
Investment
How has Graphyte secured support from climate investors, and what role do they play in scaling your impact?
Jay Dessy - Graphyte raised a $30M Series A funding round over the summer from Prelude Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Overture VC. These investors believe in the growing market opportunity for durable CDR and Graphyte’s simple, cost-effective, and scalable approach.
Graphyte’s venture funding will play a critical role in the company’s scale up. It will accelerate project development for Graphyte’s commercial projects and support R&D to improve our solution and continue reducing costs.
A New Approach to MRV
Other CDR approaches rely on estimates or proxy data, but Graphyte offers direct MRV. What impact does that have on trust and credibility with your clients?
Jay Dessy - The most important thing for a CDR buyer is certainty – they want to know that each carbon credit they buy leads to the removal of 1 metric ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. The challenge with some types of carbon credits is that there is uncertainty with respect to (1) how much CO2 has actually been removed and (2) how long the CO2 will stay out of the atmosphere.
Graphyte’s direct measurement and monitoring approach seeks to address these challenges. We directly measure biomass for carbon content and weigh each carbon block to determine how much CO2 has been removed. Then we monitor our storage site directly to make sure the carbon stays locked away. We measure CO2, methane, moisture, pressure, and temperature on a weekly basis to ensure there is no biomass decomposition.
One of the cool features of this approach is that we can point to exactly where each buyer’s CO2 is stored. This gives buyers the certainty and confidence they need to support new CDR technologies.
CDR Hurdles
What do you see as the biggest hurdle to scaling affordable carbon removal, and how is Graphyte overcoming it?
Jay Dessy - Demand is the biggest barrier to scale in the CDR market today. We need more buyers to purchase high quality CDR and commit to offtake agreements over multi-year periods. This revenue certainty enables CDR suppliers to access financing and get projects built.
Graphyte aims to lower the barrier to entry for these buyers by offering a solution that can be deployed in the near-term and at a competitive price relative to other parts of a company’s decarbonization portfolio.
Carbon Credits
When can we expect to see Graphyte's first issuance of carbon credits hit the market?
Jay Dessy - Graphyte issued our first credits in November through our carbon registry Isometric. You can find out more about the project and the issued credits on the Isometric registry.
Policy Shifts
Jay Dessy - As I mentioned above, the biggest barrier to scale in the CDR sector is demand. Policies that create lasting demand will meaningfully accelerate deployment of CDR. This can take different forms like the 45Q tax credit in the US or inclusion of CDR into carbon pricing schemes in places like Canada, the UK, and the EU.
The key policy shift that’s needed across all of these countries is to open up these policies to all forms of CDR. For example, the 45Q tax credit in the US only applies to DAC and point source carbon capture. By making policies inclusive and tech neutral, we can level the playing field and help scale many forms of high quality CDR.
