Climate technology · materials
Ankura Solutions
Exploring whether a steel-industry byproduct can become a useful soil amendment.
Ongoing work
At a glance
- Co-founder
- Product development and experimentation
- Laboratory and backyard testing
- Business modeling and market research
Overview
The question behind the work.
Ankurite began with a practical question: could steel slag—an industrial byproduct—be processed into a soil amendment worth testing? The idea touches materials science, agriculture, and carbon chemistry, but the day-to-day work has been much more concrete: preparing samples, designing early tests, recording what changes, and deciding what to investigate next.
My role has moved between the technical and commercial sides of the project. I have worked on product development, research, material processing, experiments at Caltech and at home, market research, pitch preparation, and coordination with teammates.
Process
How it took shape.
Specific methods and outcomes are included only where the supplied information supports them.
- 01
From material to testable sample
Steel slag is not a finished product. Early work has involved thinking through preparation and processing so that tests are repeatable and comparisons are useful.
- 02
Learning from small experiments
Backyard and laboratory work created a place to observe, document, and improve the setup. This page will eventually show the variables, controls, and results that are cleared for publication.
- 03
Keeping the claim smaller than the idea
The possible applications are exciting, but they are still questions. The project is presented here as an investigation—not proof of agronomic performance, carbon removal, or commercial viability.
Photo story & artifacts
Evidence from the process.
Outcome & reflection
The most useful part of the project has been moving between scales: from the texture of a sample, to the design of an experiment, to the question of whether someone would actually use the result. More detail will be added once procedures, collaborators, and publishable findings are confirmed.