American Airlines is collaborating with a startup that subterranean stores bricks of plant material in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
With delivery planned for early 2025, the airline and Graphyte announced a deal on Tuesday for the purchase of credits equal to 10,000 tons of permanent carbon removal.
Graphyte’s first commercial client is American.
Byproducts from the agricultural and forestry sectors, such as wood bark, rice hulls, and plant stalks that have absorbed carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, are converted into graphyte through a process known as carbon casting.
After being dried to stop it from decomposing, the plant material is made into bricks that are dense in carbon and sealed with a polymer barrier. The company claims that these bricks are kept in subterranean chambers and are tracked by sensors to ensure that the carbon does not leak out.
The United States wants to be carbon neutral by 2050, but there are currently few practical ways for the aviation sector to lessen its environmental impact. Although Americans have made investments in hydrogen as a substitute fuel, it will take some time for it to become economically viable.
In a statement released on Tuesday, American’s chief sustainability officer Jill Blickstein stated, “Hard to abate industries like aviation will need high-quality, permanent, affordable and scalable carbon credits – including removals – to achieve our emissions reduction goals.”
Usually burned or allowed to decay, plant waste from the logging and agriculture sectors releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Graphyte estimates that this biomass material has the capacity to remove 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually.
According to Graphyte, carbon casting is a low-cost, scalable substitute for costly, high-tech techniques for removing and capturing carbon dioxide. Bill Gates founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investment firm that provides funds for clean energy technologies, to support the company.
