Andes Microbial Carbon Mineralization

Andes MCM project works with farmers to apply microorganisms alongside crop seeds to accelerate the natural mineralization of atmospheric CO₂ in soil. These microbes grow with the crop roots. The resulting stable carbonate minerals are then securely and durably stored in the soil for up to thousands of years. To accomplish this, Andes’ microbe facilitates three steps: CO₂ hydrolysis, silicate mineral weathering, and carbonate mineral precipitation. These chemical processes occur in the root zone and not only sequester carbon, but also can lead to other benefits for crops.

Beyond removing carbon, Andes farmers have observed soil and plant health benefits as the microbes help stabilise organic matter, prevent soil erosion, and enhance soil buffering capacity. By participating in the program, farmers also receive cash payments and also may increase their crop yield by up to 30%. The Andes team has already deployed this technology on 50,000 acres of farmland across the US Midwest, with plans to expand—improving climate and community outcomes with every additional acre.

By leveraging the power of biology and the existing installed capacity of agriculture, this unique pathway has the potential to be deployed at an exceptional speed, scale and price point distinct from existing CDR approaches.

Andes has been recognised across several standards and awards including:

• Methodology validated against ISO 14064;
• Carbon Negative Shot winner with LLNL and DOE;
• AWS Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0 winner;
• Earthshot Prize semi-finalist.

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Co-founders of Andes, Tania and Gonzalo are originally from Chile. While studying the interactions between plants and microbes, they initially set out to improve agricultural efficiency using nitrogen-fixating microbes when they stumbled across a microbe that could build up soil inorganic carbon on agricultural land.

Andes project presents a novel pathway to permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere efficiently and at scale. Alongside farmers, Andes has already implemented the project on agricultural land across the Midwest with plans to expand internationally.

"Our planet’s soils hold immense potential for carbon sequestration and microbial carbon mineralization can provide high permanence, co-benefits, and great economics for farmers."
- Gonzalo Fuenzalida, CEO and Co-founder