Why Biochar

Biochar is a powerfully circular way to fight climate change.

Biochar not only removes carbon from the atmosphere, but also creates a valuable material for agriculture, the built environment, and other uses. Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous material that is made from biomass such as agriculture byproducts, forestry residues, and solid waste (sewage sludge). Biochar is made by high-heat, low-oxygen processes, i.e. pyrolysis or gasification.

Biochar as a sustainable and multi-purpose climate change solution technology can help build resilience in local communities that are high-risk and sensitive to the impact of climate change. In the face of rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, and the resulting need for adapted agriculture, biochar offers an intersectional solution to issues around soil degradation, carbon removal, land-use challenges, food insecurity, and economic development.

Why Biochar

Cool a boiling planet

Biochar carbon removal (BCR) is a negative-emissions technology endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that creates biochars using residual biomass from agriculture, forestry, or solid waste industries. The biochar is then applied in soil or put in durable materials such as cement or asphalt. Instead of the biomass decomposing and releasing carbon dioxide (CO2), the CO2 is sequestered and stored in the biochar for hundreds to a thousand years or more. BCR is also creating essential funding sources for producers, farmers, and others via the voluntary carbon market.

Help global agriculture systems adapt to climate change

Turning agricultural residues into biochar reduces the need for farmers to burn residues, while also creating a valuable soil amendment that can improve soil, reduce water usage, lower methane emissions, and save on input costs for expensive and polluting chemical fertilizers.  

Provide carbon-negative materials

As a highly-porous material that reacts to extreme temperature changes with ease, biochar is used to decarbonize the built environment, packaging, and other materials towards a carbon-negative, circular economy. 

What is Biochar

Photo by Von Wong

Biochar is a Valuable Material and Creates Bioenergy

Biochar is a highly-absorbent material that is valuable for soil health, as a climate resilient material in the built environment, as a way to remediate highly polluted industrial sites, for water filtration, and for bioenergy generation.

Biochar Moves Carbon to Where it is Needed

When biochar is created, it locks in the carbon dioxide that would be emitted by the biomass it is made from. This simple act stops carbon from being emitted into the atmosphere, locking it into the biochar itself. The carbon-rich biochar is then used as a highly valuable soil amendment, as an industrial material, as a carbon-negative part of concrete, and for cleaning up contaminated soil and water.