Natrx Awarded $1 Million Grant by the National Science Foundation to Develop Technology for Measuring Carbon Value in Coastal Wetlands

Small Business Innovation Research Program Funds R&D
to Fuel “Blue Carbon Economy”

RALEIGH, N.C. (Nov. 14, 2023) – Leading climate tech company Natrx has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to continue development of its remote-sensing technology designed to quantify the economic value of carbon stock in coastal wetlands. The $1 million award to advance Natrx’s Resilience for Waterfront Infrastructure (REWIRE) platform is also eligible for additional matching funds from NSF that would push the grant total to $1.7 million.

Natrx’s technology and data-driven approach to carbon and biodiversity accounting in wetland ecosystems will lead to the emergence of sustainable new business models. The REWIRE platform will also facilitate private financing of nature-based restoration projects that protect communities and fuel local economies. Natrx’s innovative approach integrates remotely-sensed and field-based data, and applies artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to map coastal erosion rates, blue carbon, and biodiversity at high spatial resolution.

“The REWIRE platform will be a critical tool in appraising the carbon value that exists in coastal areas,” said Leonard Nelson, CEO of Natrx. “We are deeply appreciative of the continued recognition and investment from NSF that will help unlock value that can lead to sustainable, blue carbon economies where they’re needed most.”

In 2021, Natrx was also awarded NSF funding for Phase I of this project. Phase I focused on the development of AI and geospatial software tools for assessing hyper-local, hydrodynamic and erosive conditions at high resolution.

As part of Phase II, the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University will help power the geospatial processing capabilities of the REWIRE approach using the GRASS GIS open-source software. Dr. Vaclav Petras, Research Software Engineer at NC State, will oversee integration of GRASS GIS APIs into REWIRE.

“The collaboration with Natrx allows us to contribute to open-source software development by enhancing the existing tooling, and contribute to open science by making more algorithms readily available,” said Dr. Petras.

All initiatives considered by the NSF for SBIR grants undergo a rigorous merit-based review. The program supports scientific excellence and technological innovation that is moving from the lab to the market.

Most of the world's coastal habitats are vulnerable to erosion which can have wide-ranging negative impacts on local economies. Enhancing shoreline resilience and biodiversity can unlock the value of coastal ecosystems by supporting nature-based infrastructure, sustainable fisheries, tourism, and clean water. These “blue economy” opportunities offer environmental benefits as well as social benefits of economic equity and environmental justice for low-income and underserved communities.

The work we're doing on the Pamlico River with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries was covered today by ABC News. They spent some time with our COO, Tad Schwendler, to understand the project, how our approach works, and what the project aims to achieve. The video they produced as well as the original article are available below.

We're thrilled that our advanced technology approach to delivering nature-based resilience and restoration is getting this kind of national attention. More attention will lead to more consideration of how to address these challenges. And more consideration, from us and from other innovative approaches, will be how we'll be able to make real impact.

(See the original story here at ABC News)

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Installation underway of 15 acres of 3D-printed artificial reefs in coastal North Carolina

Several acres of 3D-printed artificial reefs are currently being planted in coastal North Carolina to bolster the region's biodiversity and promote new growth of natural reef.

The reefs, 3-foot concrete cubes called "Exoforms" that contain a lot of void space to allow marine life to thrive, are being planted in the Palmico River, a large estuary system on North Carolina's Atlantic Coast, Tad Schwendler, COO of environmental solutions firm Natrx, told ABC News.

The roughness and irregularities of the structures leaves room for species at the bottom of the food chain, such as algae and other microorganisms, to grow, which then attract the larger species, Schwendler said.

The 15-acre installation is part of a two-year project by the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries,in Pamlico Sound and its tributaries. The deployment began on Oct. 20 and is expected to be complete by the end of the week.

The reef site will be one of 25 artificial reefs managed by the DMF. In May 2022, a similar artificial reef was deployed upstream, near the mouth of Bath Creek, Schwendler said.

The reefs will promote cleaner water and provide habitat for a variety of marine life, including fish, oysters, mussels, crustaceans and other invertebrates, Schwendler said. Important game fish, such as red drum, bass and speckled trout, are also expected to flock to the location once the reefs are settled and thriving.

Recreational fishing tends to cluster in certain locations in North Carolina, and promoting biodiversity in other parts of the state will allow that activity to spread out, Schwendler said.

"It's better for the ecosystem," he said.

The artificial reefs will also serve as skeletons for natural reefs to grow, Schwendler said. For the natural reefs to recur naturally, they need a substrate to grow upon, Schwendler said.

In recent years, coastal North Carolina has been experiencing environmental issues such as coastal erosion from sea level rise and more development along the coast.

"By creating these artificial reefs, it helps improve the resilience of our coastline, especially since a lot of the natural reefs in the U.S. have been lost over the years," Schwendler said.

The project is a prime example of using technology and natural systems to protect shorelines and make them more resilient, Schwendler said.

Natural systems are the most cost effective and environmentally friendly way to promote biodiversity, Schwendler said.

"These estuarine reef installations represent significant milestones in the use of adaptive infrastructure technology in North Carolina," Leonard Nelson, CEO of Natrx, said in a statement.

In addition to promoting biodiversity, artificial reefs have been found to capture carbon, according to a study published earlier this month by the Friends of the RGV Reef, a Texas-based conservation organization, and the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley.

The two-year study found that sponges and soft corals that cover the RGV Reef, the largest and most complex artificial reef off the Texas coast, do contain high amounts of carbon dioxide "in some significant proportion," the researchers found. Both the reef’s structure, the bottom or sediment, as well as the biomass, fish and other marine life in the water column, is capturing or trapping carbon, the scientists said.

A project that we've been working on in the Pamlico River with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and the North Carolina Coastal Conservation Association was featured on WITN news this past week. We're proud this piece demonstrates how our custom-designed ExoForms™ can be an ideal part of building back biodiversity in coastal waterways, but we're also proud of how this piece demonstrates that it takes positive and productive partnerships to bring these projects to life.

View the original piece with video on WITN here.

Environmental groups have partnered with the state Division of Marine Fisheries to improve one waterway in the east.

By Deric Rush
Published: Oct. 20, 2023 at 5:53 PM CDT

Concrete Exoforms are 3D-printed cement artificial oyster reefs designed by Raleigh-based environmental engineering group Natrx and purchased by the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina.

Once the project is complete officials say the reef site will cover 15 acres of the Pamlico River. It is the second artificial reef deployment.

The reefs are being deployed in an effort to provide refuge for oysters, and important fish species such as red drum, and sheepshead for example.

Environmentalists say it’s important to promote biodiversity and vibrance within the river ecosystem.

“They actually lower those into the water and then you know in the next handful of months invertebrates and other things will start to kind of grow on there we’ll have some moisture settle on there next spring and they’ll be great places to fish you know by next summer,” said Jordan Byrum with NC Division of Marine Fisheries.

“There’s been years and years of decline in our fisheries here in North Carolina and I think habitat projects like this are essential so this is one of those steps that that we can take you know using partnerships like this with Natrx that we can actually have an impact on today,” added Matthew Wallin with Coastal Conservation Association.

The department says they plan to have the reefs deployed by the end of the month.

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