Millie: AI-Powered Digital Platform for Predicting Sequestration Permanence in Geological Carbon Storage

Climate change is one of the single biggest challenges facing the world right now.

Born of public demand and policy, emissions trading schemes now exist in many markets whereby organisations are rewarded for reducing their emissions profiles. The UK government alone has mandated the capture of 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030\.

Industries in all sectors urgently require immediate solutions that capture their emissions either remotely or on-site. This need has generated an influx of carbon capture storage and utilisation (CCUS) technologies.

CCUS Technologies capture and remove carbon dioxide using their own methods and technologies. However, companies require a safe way to store carbon effectively for 1000+ years to prove the permanence of carbon storage.

One of the key ways companies store carbon is through biochar or fertiliser in soil to help improve soil quality and agricultural growth. CCUS providers must prove the viability of their biochar or fertilisers in the soil in order for them to receive certification for their methods and to prove to customers and stakeholders that their methods are effective. This is where Millie comes in.

Millie is an AI monitoring system that exists to monitor changes in soil health after the application of CCUS technologies to a site. It uses a support vector mechanism (SVM) to predict and test the outcomes of carbon sequestration methods in local soils. Millie can accurately and effectively predict how the sequestration method will affect the soil over time by analysing the soil composition and the impact of carbon sequestration methods on it.

This allows the user to see predicted soil health outcomes for up to 20-years in the future, which are calculated based on the analysis of key soil health indicators including nutrient content and microbial activity and the effect CCUS has had on these previously.

Millie will work alongside a range of CCUS and agricultural partners. By using data from the effects of this carbon sequestration method on soil health, Millie will predict the effectiveness of different CCUS technologies on improving soils.

Understanding and predicting soil health is important because soil health is critical to the maintenance of ecosystem biodiversity, and also forms the basis of food security and agricultural productivity and sustainability.