Mafix
Agriculture faces growing pressure to increase profitability while reducing its burden on the environment. Mafix addresses both these challenges with a mineral-based soil additive that provides multiple agronomic benefits while removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The product is made from abundant, low-cost feedstocks using a proprietary mineral conversion process that can leverage assets already available at the gigaton scale. When added to soil, it undergoes a natural process known as weathering. When Mafix’s product weathers, it captures CO2 in the form of stable bicarbonate ions and releases plant-available silicon, which improves yields by up to 50% and increases plant resistance to disease. Unlike competing technologies that are plagued by extremely slow weathering rates (i.e., requiring decades to remove CO2 from the atmosphere), Mafix’s technology produces all-natural materials that weather completely in a single growing season. By delivering farmer profitability and climate impact CO2 removal in the same season, Mafix has the potential to transform sustainable agriculture into a driver of food security and climate stability carbon management.
Team: Jade Marcus (PhD, ChemE), PI: Matt Kanan (Professor, Chemistry)