Generating Income and Lowering GHG Emissions for Pakistan

Mentioned below are technologies that farmers and companies can use in Pakistan to aid in generating income while lowering greenhouse gas emissions:

1) Biochar from Wood, Crop or Animal Waste
Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that’s made by heating organic waste in an oxygen-limited environment.  It can be combined with organic matter and incorporated into the soil to enhance its ability to grow food. This pathway can help both sequester carbon and help earn carbon credits while also helping to increase crop yield. To find out more information regarding the use and implementation of Biochar, visit our sister websites CharityHelp International- Biochar Review and iClimateTech-Biochar.
Companies and Organizations involved with Biochar include:

a) BioChar Life, Phrao, Thailand
Helps smallholder farmers to receive payment for producing biochar. Therefore, small-holder farmers and rural schools that generate and utilize biochar can earn money from this biochar as well as grow more food.

b) International Biochar Initiative, Canandaigua, NY
IBI provides a platform for fostering stakeholder collaboration, good industry practices, and environmental and ethical standards to support biochar systems that are safe and economically viable.

c) Puro.Earth, Lapinlahdenkatu, Finland
Their mission is to help companies to reverse climate change by removing its carbon emissions from the atmosphere and creating growth with carbon-neutral products for its customers. They focus on verified net-negative technologies that can remove carbon at an industrial scale and store it for a minimum of 100 years. Their innovation is harmonizing different methods of CO2 removal and turning them into digital tradable assets called CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs).

Example of manure dewatering equipment: Manure Separator for Dairy Farms by Trident TNZ (Note: The dewatered manure made by this separator may be able to be converted into biochar by this biomass burner: RocketChar by High Plains Biochar.

Forbes article was written about how “Biochar From Cow Manure Could Be Key To Sustainable Agriculture”, by Amin Mirkouei. Jul. 23, 2021

2) Algae
Algae is a blossoming industry for carbon capture and has many other proven provided benefits as well from being a source of nutritionally-dense food to creating bio-degradable plastics. For example, algae is able to reduce methane emission in cattle by 80%, see here: Red seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis) supplementation reduces enteric methane by over 80 percent in beef steers. For more information regarding algae and related companies, market size and estimated growth, and news articles visit, ClimateSAN’s Algae Related Information webpage.
Companies involved with Algae include:

a) Brilliant Planet, London, United Kingdom
Facility operations on the coastal shore of Morocco

b) Global Algae InnovationsLihue, Hawaii
Grows algae in open ponds, and recently won a $1,000,00 carbon removal XPrize for their algae-related technology and proposed scale-up.

c) Bioponica,Atlanta, Georgia
Grows algae for fish consumption with the end goal of improving the quality of fertilizer used from fish waste

Note: On October 20, 2022, Paul Stevers from iClimateTech & Think Renwablesheld an information session regarding the growing investments in the algae industry at this year’s  Algae Biomass Summit with featured guests Bill Reichert from Pegasus Tech Ventures and Jason Ingle from Third Nature Investments, to find out more visit ClimateSAN’s Growing Investments in the Algae Industry webpage.

3) Microbes
Nitrogen is essential for growing crops and industries are able to extract tonnes of it from specific nitrogen-fixing bacteria. They are able to reprogram this bacteria so that it is able to fix more nitrogen than before. This process allows these companies to be able to sell nitrogen-packed fertilizers to help farmers increase their crop yield instead of using traditional chemical fertilizers. Researchers from Washington State University state that, “Successful widespread adoption of these biofertilizers for farming would reduce pollution, provide sustainable ways of managing the nitrogen cycle in soil, lower production costs and increase profit margins for farmers and enhance sustainable food production by improving soil fertility”.
Companies involved with Microbes Include:

a) Pivot Bio, Berkeley, California
This company indicates that their microbes deliver more than a 90% reduction in GHG emissions. Their science involves identifying microbes that are able to fix nitrogen and then reprogramming those microbes to improve nitrogen-fixing efficiency. They then produce and distribute on a large-scale.

b) Kula Bio, Natick, Massachusetts
Kula-N offers all types of farmers a high performance and cost-effective replacement for traditional nitrogen fertilizer using their technology to leverage a specific bacteria’s ability to synthesize atmospheric nitrogen. Bloomberg wrote an article about their current endeavours and backings in “Venture Firms Back Startup Behind `Next Generation’ Nitrogen Fertilizer”, (Jan 27, 2022).

c) Joyn Bio (Newly intergrated into Ginkgo Bioworks)- Boston Massachusetts
“[They] help [their] partners grow key ingredients for vaccines, crops that rely less on fossil fuel-based fertilizers, plant-based meat that tastes like the real thing, materials for the next generation of circular fashion, and so much more.”

4) Olivine Sand
Producing olivine sand from the mineral rock and spreading it onto coastal areas of Pakistan could be a good way of generating income and removing carbon from the atmosphere. See this article:“One tonne of olivine sand can take in up to one tonne of CO2”, (15 June 2021). For more information regarding Olivine Sand and a leading company in the field of distributing the product in coastal areas, visit ClimateSAN’s Coastal Carbon Capture with Olivine Sand Webpage.
Companies involved with Olivine Sand include:

a) VestaSan Francisco, California
“[They] add the natural mineral olivine, milled down to beach-compatible sand, to coastal protection projects. There, it gradually dissolves in the seawater, reducing ocean acidity and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

b) FieldcodeNuremberg, Germany
A software development company that is working on an olivine project to help reduce carbon emissions and help reach their climate positivity vision

c) GreensandEnkhuizen, Netherlands
“[They] have developed products from olivine-rich rocks with which [they] can replace almost all current sand and stone applications. In this way, [they] offer sustainable and climate-proof alternatives for, among other things: walking paths, parking spaces, potting soil, lime, etc.”

5) Cactus Farming
Cactus farming can capture a substantial amount of carbon from the atmosphere while producing valuable products. There is already substantial cactus farming occurring in the world using different species of cacti with several groups advocating for a large scale-up of this type of farming.

a)
Regeneration International, Bloomington, Minnesota
Is promoting its Billion Agave Campaign, which is to plant one billion agaves globally to draw down and store one billion tons of CO2.

b)The International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Beirut, Lebanon
Promotes the growing of spineless cactus pear (nicknamed the “green-gold”) as a source of fodder for livestock.

For more information about technologies that farmers can use to generate profits: How Farmers Can Make Money by Storing Carbon in Soil and Reducing Fertilizer Costs.

Additionally, to find more information and articles regarding companies, organizations and processes related to carbon sequestration, visit Carbon Tech Companies and Related Information.