Dear reader,
This week, I would like to present you with the concept of “farming ecosystem services” (as I call it). This concept is similar to regenerative agriculture and aquaculture, where ecosystem services (such as increasing biodiversity or habitat creation) are provided in addition to food production.
“Farming ecosystem services” entails leveraging known biological occurrences and biogeochemical pathways by replicating them in controlled environments for delivering quantifiable ecosystem services. These services, or products thereof, could then be monetized and traded through different financial platforms. Examples include the novel development of credits to represent standard amounts of these products or services, such as biodiversity credits and nutrient credits, including nitrogen and carbon credits (representing nitrogen and carbon removal from the environment).
More specifically, I want to focus on Brilliant Planet Ltd., a company which facilitates controlled microalgal blooms in closed onshore tank systems for the purpose of carbon capture and long-term carbon sequestration. They achieve this by drying and burying the microalgal bloom(s) in the inactive desert surrounding their production facilities, locking it away and thereby ensuring long-term carbon storage, without displacing existing agricultural land or resources. This almost sounds too good to be true…
An example of one of their operations. Source: Brilliant Planet.
In a nutshell, their production model consists of pumping nutrient-rich upwelled (or bottom-) seawater ashore into open paddle raceways for the aquaculture of microalgal blooms. The aquaculture raceways are continually exposed to the environment (as they are uncovered) and their microalgal cultures are thus constantly at risk of contamination. However, Brilliant Planet have isolated dominant microalgal strains (common diatom species) from the local environment which outcompete and outgrow other local microalgae, thus ensuring that their desired strain blooms in the raceways and produces significant biomass.
The microalgal cultures are started in a controlled laboratory environment, and are upscaled through batch culture (increasing in volume and density with each subsequent batch), before being introduced to the raceways. The microalgae absorb carbon (and other nutrients) from the seawater in order to bloom (produce vast amounts of microalgae). The microalgae are then pumped to a drying facility (on-site), dried, weighed, and buried in the desert for carbon sequestration. Burial sites are carefully selected (at elevations above sea-level) and are lined with a geomembrane to ensure protection from water intrusion and that the biomass remains well aerated (improving the stability of long-term storage). Burial in the desert is also space-efficient as the company also states that “every 100,000-tonnes of CO2 that is buried requires the same amount of space as a 47m x 47m x 47m cube.”
The amount of carbon sequestered is calculated from the difference in carbon content of the seawater that is expelled from the raceways, and the seawater that is pumped ashore. The nutrient-depleted water seawater is treated and returned to the open ocean. Once there, the company samples and tracks the water body as it absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere (the water expelled water tends to rest at the surface owing to increased temperature from having been on-farm, exposing it to the atmosphere where CO2 can diffuse into the water), to ensure that the process results in CO2 removal from the atmosphere directly.
Brilliant Planet’s production operations also do not produce much CO2, which means that their activities result in net carbon removal:
“We have performed a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to ISO 14040-14044 standards which shows that, for every tonne of CO2 sequestered, we emit 0.13 tonnes of CO2. This factors in Scope 1-3 emissions across the production system, accounting for cradle-to-grave emissions for both infrastructure and process-related emissions.” - Source: Brilliant Planet.
This, as a model system, has several benefits:
i) Microalgae are more efficient than terrestrial plants at carbon capture
ii) Microalgae grow quickly, meaning that production cycles (and thus carbon removal) can happen relatively quickly
iii) The biomass that is buried is dry, salty, and acidic which prevents microbial decay and ensures that the carbon stays locked away over long periods of time
iv) Carbon burial in the desert is advantageous due to high heat and lack of water, contributing to the long-term stability of the carbon burial. This also avoids competing with productive land for other uses such as agriculture or forestry.
v) The model is highly scalable as there is lots of desert land around the globe that is not currently being used as productive land. This also contributes to the affordability of the venture as prime land would be very expensive.
vi) Burial is space-efficient.
vii) Delivers effective and direct carbon sequestration (net CO2 reduction).
Replicating ecosystem services is a daunting prospect and has for long been perceived to be highly costly. For example, the ecosystem services of three Caribbean Island nations have been estimated at of USD 800 million per year (Failler et al. 2015), whereas the ecosystem services of one island, Martinique, have been estimated at USD 250 million (Failler et al. 2015).
However, Brilliant Planet seems to have a developed a model for “engineered” carbon sequestration that is economically viable, and further states that “as their technology matures, we are working to achieve sub-$100/ton at larger scales.” Brilliant Planet has operated a pilot project in Southern Morocco since 2018, in addition to its previous pilot sites in South Africa (2013) and Oman (2014). The company intends to modularly increase its carbon removal capacity, reaching 1 million tons of CO2 per year by 2030.
In 2023, the tech. company, Block Inc., purchased carbon offset services by Brilliant Planet, marking the first services the company has successfully committed on behalf of the private sector. “On behalf of Block, Brilliant Planet will remove 1,500 tons of carbon by 2027 at its planned demonstration facility in Morocco” – Brilliant Planet.
If this transaction was conducted on the voluntary carbon credit market, and assuming the price for removing 1 metric ton of CO2 equivalent (i.e., 1 carbon credit) is USD 7.37 (in 2022, carboncredits.com), and that the theoretical price quoted was valid over the course of the carbon removal (from now until 2027), this purchase would have equated to a potential total price of USD 11055 for 1500 tons of carbon equivalent. However, the price for carbon credits could be considerably higher if traded on regulated compliance markets, or on private markets. This purchase from Block Inc. was facilitated through the Watershed platform (who vet and connect buyers with certified sellers).
Considering the increasing need for emissions reductions around the globe (from both private and public stakeholders), offering carbon capture and sequestration services as an entrepreneurial enterprise has significant potential of financial success. The potential for financial success may also incentivise the development of other carbon removal projects and businesses, which may collectively succeed in emissions reductions at globally significant scales in future. However, this would only be possible if such ventures were appropriately monitored and certified, to verify permanent carbon removal from the environment.
The Brilliant Planet model of entrepreneurial carbon capture presents us with a last few questions:
Which other natural occurring biogeochemical cycles (such as the biological pump) can we leverage (intensify) through farming, for supplying measurable ecosystem services at large scales?
Which other ecosystem services can we, as a society, benefit from farming, going forward?
Something to think about I suppose…
Ciao for now.
The Cultured Carp
Want to know more about Brilliant Planet? Visit their FAQ page here: https://www.brilliantplanet.com/what-we-do/faqs
More info on carbon credits: https://carboncredits.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-carbon-credits/
and carbon markets: https://www.investopedia.com/carbon-markets-7972128#toc-types-of-carbon-markets
References:
Failler P, Pètre É, Binet T, Maréchal JP. (2015). Valuation of marine and coastal ecosystem services as a tool for conservation: The case of Martinique in the Caribbean. Ecosyst Serv.;11:67-75.