Project Vesta

Harnessing the power of the oceans to remove excess CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Project Vesta is working to reverse climate change and ocean acidification by greatly accelerating the Earth’s natural long-term process of rock weathering through Coastal Carbon Capture (CCC). 

Carbon-removing sand made of the mineral olivine is added to the ocean. There, the sand dissolves, countering ocean acidification and permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Nature,
accelerated.

Could the Earth's natural process for carbon sequestration, the carbonate-silicate cycle, be accelerated?

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As rain falls on volcanic rock, a chemical process removes C02 from the atmosphere.

Through the natural process of weathering, rocks are dissolved by rain, slowly transporting carbon through waterways and into the ocean - where CO2 is permanently fixed into rock.

This is how our planet has naturally captured the CO2 emitted by volcanoes over geological time.

We can accelerate this process by taking carbon-removing olivine sand and spreading it in coastal areas - using the free energy of the ocean and supporting coastal resilience.

Most of Earth’s carbon — about 65,500 billion metric tons — is stored in rocks. The rest is in the ocean, atmosphere, plants, soil, and fossil fuels.

Project Vesta’s approach, called Coastal Carbon Capture, dramatically accelerates Earth’s long-term CO2 removal process while de-acidifying the ocean and supporting coastal resilience.

Olivine is a widely abundant volcanic mineral. It makes up over 50% of the Earth's upper mantle, and is the most effective mineral for enabling CO2 removal through rock weathering.

1 – Olivine makes up 90% of the Earth's mantle.

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Science first.

We’re laser-focused on rigorously conducting the experiments which could prove that Coastal Carbon Capture works in the real world.

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This could be big…

Coastal Carbon Capture:
A nature-based, permanent, scalable, and affordable solution to climate change.

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It's permanent.

Through Coastal Carbon Capture, carbon dioxide stays locked for years.

vs. Forestry

We love trees, and want many more of them planted. But they require lots of arable land, and the carbon they capture is released if they ever burn.

vs. Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is mandatory for a healthy future, but it's not enough to count on as a carbon sequestration method: it's not permanent, and it demands a lot of land.

vs. Direct Air Capture

DAC is impressive, but expensive. Plus, when DAC is productized, it often puts carbon back into the atmosphere or into waste streams.

It's scalable.

With only 0.1%-0.25% of shelf seas we could capture 1 gigatonne of CO2.

Efficient

Coastal Carbon Capture utilizes the free energy of waves to grind and crush the olivine.

Turn-Key

We don’t need any clever new technology breakthroughs... It's ready for development now.

Abundant

Available on every continent and making up over 50% of the upper mantle, olivine is globally abundant and accessible.

It's smart.

Sequester carbon for
as little as $35 / tonne.

AFFORDABLE

At full scale, costs less than 10% of the price of other carbon capture technologies.

LEVERAGED

For every tonne of CO2 emitted in the process of extraction and transportation of olivine, 20 tonnes of CO2 are removed from the atmosphere (~95% efficiency).

BENEFICIAL

Coastal Carbon Capture can also support de-acidification in the local ocean ecosystem.

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We could reverse climate change.

Help us advance the science of CCC today.

For all large gift inquiries, please email our Director of Development