Lucent Bio releases environmental footprint assessment for Soileos crop nutrition system

Lucent BioSciences, Inc. ("Lucent Bio") is on a mission to deliver novel, smart crop nutrition solutions that improve yield and soil health while sequestering carbon.

In early 2022, Lucent Bio contracted two independent consulting firms, Viresco Solutions and SAISS Consulting, to provide insight into the environmental benefits of manufacturing and using Soileos Zinc and Soileos Iron and the carbon emissions offset potential of Soileos Zinc.

Soileos Pellets - bio-active crop nutrition

Lucent Bio has now released a whitepaper entitled 'Environmental Footprint of Soileos' that describes the cradle-to-gate assessment of manufacturing Soileos and its climate change mitigation potential. This whitepaper can be downloaded for free at https://hello.lucentbiosciences.com/environmental-footprint

Key findings:

• For each tonne of Soileos applied to growing corn, soybeans or canola, an estimated GHG benefit of 7-9 tonnes of CO2 may be achieved;

• The GHG manufacturing footprint of Soileos is about 1/4th of the footprint of Zinc EDTA and about 1/6th of the footprint of Iron EDTA;

• The manufacturing process of Soileos requires around 1.5x less water, 4x less energy, and generates 5x fewer air pollutants than EDTA.

"These environmental assessments show that Soileos is more than carbon neutral. This makes it one of the first climate-positive fertilizers," CEO of Lucent Bio Michael Riedijk said. "With Soileos, farmers don't have to choose between profitability and sustainability."

These findings will be presented on November 12th in the Canadian Pavilion at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. This panel is titled "From the Ground Up: Sustainable Agriculture Solutions for Food Security," and it will focus on how Saskatchewan is leading the way with sustainable practices and systems that not only increase productivity but also sequester carbon.

Soileos field trials 2022 - Canola - science driven , field proven, bio-activated

Lucent Bio's flagship product—Soileos^®—is a soil-applied, smart crop nutrition delivery system. It enhances yields, crop resilience, and soil health with on-time nutrient delivery and sustained bioavailability, allowing the crop to maximize its genetic potential. Lucent Bio's patented technology binds micronutrients to cellulose fiber and uses the soil's natural biological activity to release nutrients to growing crops.

Soileos is made from repurposed cellulose derived from crop processing residuals, such as pea and lentil hulls and rice husks. Unlike conventional micronutrient fertilizers, Soileos's organic substrate improves microbial biomass in the soil and enhances soil organic carbon levels. The net result is higher crop yields, improved nutrient density, and healthier soils.

Soileos production capacity will significantly increase in 2023 with the completion of a new 7,000 tonne per year manufacturing facility in Rosetown, Saskatchewan. This facility, which operates as AGT Soileos, will manufacture enough product to treat 1.5 million acres of cropland.