Many of us at some point in our lives have expressed a desire to help save our planet and solve the world’s climate crisis. For Jason Aramburu and Morgan Williams, it’s a philosophy they live by.

The duo co-founded Climate Robotics in 2020, a Houston-based developer of mobile biochar production technology for commercial agriculture. Specifically, the company’s next-generation system helps farmers to affordably collect and process agricultural waste, convert it to biochar and sequester carbon on a massive scale.

“We have the ability to make a big impact on global climate change, in the range of billions of tons of CO₂ that we’re storing in the soil per year,” said Aramburu, who also serves as the company’s CEO. “That’s relevant today because it allows us to generate and sell carbon removal credits to large companies that need to offset.”

Biochar is a carbon-negative soil amendment made from waste biomass that helps reverse global climate change. When biochar is applied to the soil, it boosts water and nutrient retention and improves crop yields by about 16 percent, explained Aramburu.

“It’s like putting a sponge into your soil. Charcoal is very absorbent, so it will hold on to nutrients and water in the soil so that they don’t run off,” he said. “It also has the benefit of increasing soil pH. For areas that have acidic soil, biochar can replace lime in the soil or reduce the need to use lime.”

Climate Robotics’ innovations have garnered several recognitions since its inception. The company was the winner of the 2023 AgSharks® Pitch Competition at the 97th Annual Western Growers Meeting last November, earning an equity investment offer of $250,000 from the event’s judges and exposure to Western Growers’ expansive network of leading fresh produce companies.

Aramburu first took an interest in regenerative farming
and climate change mitigation when studying ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University. It was during a semester abroad in Panama with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute where he learned more about biochar while working with indigenous farmers.

“I thought to myself, ‘Some of these techniques seem pretty good. Why aren’t we using these techniques in North American agriculture? We eventually figured out that one of the barriers, a big reason why biochar hadn’t taken off, was the production cost, mostly due to transport of the material,” Aramburu said.

Climate Robotics’ trailer-mounted system allows for low-cost, distributed production of high-value biochar directly on the farm. The unit is powered by the tractor, so there’s no need for electricity. “We designed this to be mobile and portable, which is one of the biggest costs,” he said.

The system allows growers to bypass the time-consuming, energy-intensive effort needed for transporting bulky materials over long distances. “We realized we need to have a system that
you can actually bring to the farm and make biochar from material that’s available locally,” he said. “For fields that have a lot of residue, the system can drive through the field, harvest the material and produce biochar in a single pass. That’s by far the lowest cost way to make biochar, and it’s the only system of its kind.”

The next major objective for Climate Robotics is to advance and scale its technology. “There are a lot of incentives for growers to use this technology. We’re always looking to partner with farmers in North America, so if anyone is interested, this is an open call to reach out to us,” Aramburu said.