Hyderabad: 

Announcing the award on Wednesday, authorities at XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition said Mati Carbon demonstrated a highly durable approach to Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), by applying finely crushed basalt over agricultural lands in India to accelerate a natural weathering process that permanently draws down atmospheric CO₂.

 Mati Carbon, a company founded by Indian-American entrepreneur in 2021, has beaten 1,300 teams gloablly to win a grand prize of $50 million (over Rs 400 crore) in a global competition on carbon removal funded by Elon Musk's foundation. Founded by Shantanu Agarwal, an experienced climate tech serial entrepreneur and IIT Roorke, MIT and Harvard alumnus, Mati Carbon is carrying out multiple projects with farmers in India and African countries.

It managed to beat over 1,300 other teams from 88 countries that participated in the four-year XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, launched in 2021 to encourage deployment of carbon-removal technologies.

Shantanu, who is also the CEO of the company, says the low-cost approach that they follow “has a potential to really solve some planetary scale problems” while helping small farmers in countries like India who often bear the brunt of climate change, including extreme weather events like drought and floods that destroy crops. Apart from India, the company has similar projects in Zambai and Tanzania, according to its website.

On his LinkedIn profile, Shantanu describes Mati Carbon as a company that deploys enhanced weathering based carbon removal solutions in rural marginal farmer communities under the aegis of Swaniti Initiative.

Describing its work, Mati Carbon says it is the pioneer of Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) at scale in India. "We’ve demonstrated that smallholder-led ERW can deliver high-integrity carbon removal, with over 1,000 tons of CO₂ drawdown verified by buyers to date," the company says.

Mati Carbon claims it has fully operationalized their model across Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, and are actively expanding into three more states.

"So far, we’ve deployed over 130,000 tons of basalt dust, partnering with more than 12,000 smallholder farmers—and we aim to deploy over 300,000 tons in India in 2025 alone. Our deployments have already increased farmer incomes by over $1.5 million, driven by higher yields and reduced input costs," it adds.

ERW, according to Jake Jordan, Mati Carbon's chief science officer, is fairly straightforward. Speaking to Associated Press, he explained the process: When it rains, water and carbon dioxide mix in the atmosphere, forming acid that breaks down rock. Carbon dioxide is converted to bicarbonate, which eventually is washed to the ocean, where it is stored for about 10,000 years.

Mati Carbon spreads powdered basalt rock — plentiful in many parts of the world — on the fields to speed up (rock weathering) that happens anyway. The powdered rock also releases nutrients that help rejuvenate soils and increase crop productivity.

More About Shantanu Aggarwal:

Describing himself, Shantanu says: "I am an entrepreneur working on rejuvenating soils and improving sustainability and resilience of smallholder farmers by increasing their incomes. My passion lies in driving entrepreneurial ventures that leverage technology or innovative business models to scale and create meaningful impact."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Shantanu is an IIT Roorkee alumnus and a university gold medalist. He also has an MBA from Harvard Business School and has studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he completed two full credit courses focused on technology, innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship.

Why Was Mati Carbon Chosen For The Award:

"These farmers are among the least responsible for and the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Mati Carbon’s deployments bolster farmers’ livelihoods through improved soil health, reduced agricultural inputs, and increased income at zero cost to them," they said. Describing the grand prize winner's work, XPRIZE authorities said beyond carbon removal, Mati Carbon’s process delivers significant benefits to smallholder farmers.

"Mati Carbon’s team has developed a scientifically rigorous approach to monitoring and verification, and excelled across each of XPRIZE’s prize evaluation criteria – operational, sustainability, and cost metrics – giving the XPRIZE judges the highest confidence in Mati Carbon’s solution’s long-term scalability," read the XPRIZE note describing why the company was chosen for the award.

Why Is Carbon Removal Crucial:

Many scientists believe removing carbon is crucial in the fight against global warming, caused by the burning of fossil fuels like gasoline, coal and oil, which release carbon dioxide.

“It's important that we not promote carbon dioxide removal as a replacement for emissions reduction,” said Michael Leitch, the technical lead for the global competition. “But the race is really on both to dramatically reduce our existing emissions (and) also ... deploy carbon dioxide removal solutions at very, very large scales globally.”

While the Musk Foundation sponsored XPRIZE Carbon Removal, which distributed a total of $100 million, it is not formally affiliated with the California-based organization, XPRIZE officials said.

XPRIZE runs other contests to try to solve societal challenges. Executive director Nikki Batchelor said the organization is considering more climate-related competitions addressing such issues as removal of the potent greenhouse gas methane, reforestation and climate adaptation and resilience.

Read More :

'Grief Speaks The Same Language': Pakistani Celebs Condemn Pahalgam Terror Attack