We accelerate mineral weathering by spreading basalt on croplands to increase dissolved inorganic carbon with eventual storage as ocean carbonates. Our technology uses novel soil models and machine learning to maximize CO₂ removal while boosting crop growth. Removed carbon is tracked from the farm to rivers and the oceans, monitoring for permanence and additionality.
How it Works: Basalt is applied to farmland with a spreader.
Basalt reacts with rainwater, converting atmospheric CO2 to dissolved bicarbonate and releasing macro- and micronutrients to the soil. Lithos measures this empirically with our high-accuracy proprietary approach.
Dissolved bicarbonate is transferred by rivers and streams to the coastal ocean, where it is stable for thousands of years. Lithos monitors for leakage in river networks and tracks the carbon in a cradle-to-grave lifecycle.
Eventually, dissolved bicarbonate reacts to form calcium carbonate minerals that are permanently deposited at the ocean floor.
The Team
Chris Reinhard, PhD
Co-founder
Chris is co-founder at Lithos. Originally from Kansas, he's an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he focuses on carbon dioxide removal. Chris is co-inventor of our software for predictive management and pH buffering. He and Noah completed their postdoctorates at Caltech.
Noah Planavsky, PhD
Co-founder
Noah is co-founder at Lithos. Originally from Wisconsin, Noah still co-runs the family farm in the Midwest. Associate professor of geochemistry and planetary science at Yale University, Noah co-invented our isotope dilution technology to enable cost-effective verification of carbon removal in soil.
Mary is co-founder and CEO at Lithos. She studied geology and planetary science at Yale, where she conducted award-winning scientific and urban research on the climate crisis. Mary previously spent 6+ years scaling early-stage startups, and her family are generational farmers in Taiwan.
Johannes Tyralla
Head of Growth
Johannes leads growth and farmer experience at Lithos. Before Lithos, Johannes spent a decade in food and agriculture, working alongside row crop and subsistence farmers globally and then building early operations and strategy teams at Afresh. He earned his MBA and Masters in Environment from Stanford University and is thrilled to help growers boost their profitability while capturing carbon out of the air.
Henry Liu
Head of Engineering
Henry leads our research and engineering team to translate R&D insights into operational and scalable systems. Prior to this role, he spent a decade leading software and data engineering products at early-stage startups and started his career as the youngest founder in the Y Combinator W12 batch. Before Lithos, he also spent three years as a researcher for hardware design and machine learning for quantum computers. Henry studied Applied Physics at Yale University and is now working towards his Masters in Soil and Crop Sciences.
Lily Schacht
Researcher, Biogeochemistry
Lily leads research and analysis of soil, plant, and microbe biogeochemistry at Lithos. Prior to joining us, she worked as a scientist in carbonate biomineralization and scaled process chemistry, metrology and monitoring, and cross-functional tech transfer for a production plant. She comes from a background in soil chemical kinetics, analytical instrumentation, and statistical modeling with projects at the US EPA and the DOE’s Advanced Photon Source. She’s also spent time as a farm hand in North Carolina! Lily holds a MS in Environmental Engineering from University of Wisconsin Madison and a BS in Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
Mark Baum, PhD
Researcher, Silicate Weathering
Mark drives research and computational modeling at Lithos. Before joining the team, Mark published research on the silicate weathering and carbon cycle. Today, Mark is applying his expertise in climate physics, hydrology, machine learning, and numerical modeling to develop and productionize Lithos’ foundational models. Previously, Mark also worked as an environmental science & engineering consultant, developed devices for clay mineral characterization at NASA JPL, and published an open-source Python library with 24k downloads! Mark earned his PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences from Harvard University while studying silicate weathering, along with a BA in Physics and Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College.
Ben is our Chief of Staff at Lithos and is plugged into everything from quarry sourcing, rock deliveries, to our grower experience! Part of Ben’s passion comes from his roots: his family were wheat farmers in eastern Washington. Ben studied Environmental Science at the University of Washington and prior to Lithos had an accomplished career in logistics, supply chain, systems innovation, and analyzing data for brands including Costco, Brooks Running, Convoy, and Henkel. In his free time, he climbs rocks, including the basalt pillars in Vantage, WA! He is excited to be a part of Lithos and to be scaling our tech as quickly as possible.
Jonny drives carbon removal demand and strategy for Lithos. He started his career in consulting and spent the past 5 years advising incubated startups and leading corporate strategy at Google. Recently he scaled up a 300+ person regulatory program and managed the strategy & operations team of Google's Chief Compliance Officer. Jonny lives in the Pacific Northwest and loves hiking through the North Cascades. He earned his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and Bachelor’s in Accounting from the University of Washington.
Steve brings over a decade of operations experience to Lithos. Before Lithos, he oversaw the construction of greenfield mining operations and managed a national distribution network that delivered 1.6 million tons of sand annually as an Operating Partner at Northern Capital Partners. Steve is educated in Finance, Applied Economics, and Communication Studies from the University of Minnesota, and actively supports the Minnesota Climbers Association, Protect Our Winters, and ImpactHub Minneapolis.
Shane Gooding
Growth Lead Extern
Shane drives growth acceleration at Lithos, focused on scaling our approach to developing relationships with farmers whom we deeply partner with. Prior to Lithos he has worked as a consultant at Bain & Co. His cases there included landscape-scale reforestation strategy and enterprise tech growth strategy. He is a graduate of Princeton University in Economics with certificates in Finance, Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science. He loves the great outdoors and is excited to work towards a more sustainable future!
Jesse is a farmer and was founder and CEO of FarmLogs — a powerful and purpose-built farm management software used by 1 in 3 row crop farms in America! We spoke with Jesse for advice even before Lithos had a name, and he's generously been on call through the founding days, sharing his profound insights into what it's like to scale a farmer-centered business. Jesse is a beast at developing teams that are extraordinary at execution and articulating the right mindset for world-class farmer interactions and product. Jesse grew up on a 3rd generation farm and now runs a farm in Michigan!
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