On farms in Texas and Mississippi, this giant mobile machine is helping fight climate change

Applied Carbon just raised $21.5 million to deploy a fleet of machines that turn agricultural waste into biochar.

Last fall, on a 1,000-acre family farm in Texas, a tractor drove through a cornfield pulling a shipping-container-sized machine behind it. In front, a mechanical harvester picked up cornstalks and other agricultural waste left behind after a recent harvest, chopping it into small pieces. Then the plant material went into the machine in the back, where it was heated to as high as 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit—and turned into biochar, a charcoal-like material that can help fight climate change.