Shop Talk With Vertical Motion | July 2022 Edition

As most people learned from primary school, plants consume atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis, converting it into essential carbohydrates that allow them to grow. What you may not know is that as vegetation decomposes, it releases CO2 back into the atmosphere adding to overall greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Biochar — a technology developed thousands of years ago by indigenous farmers — allows us to break this cycle by turning biomass into a more stable form of carbon which stores carbon emissions for over 100 years. While this has long been used in agriculture to boost crop yield, startups are now working to deploy it as a carbon-removal method.

New start-up organizations including Climate Robotics, Carbo Culture, and Charm Industries are automating and accelerating the biochar production process to sequester CO2 and improve soil health in hopes of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. In fact, Shopify, Stripe, and Microsoft are among 40 companies that have purchased carbon removal credits from biochar producers for $600 per tonne of CO2. 

Despite biochar’s promising results, experts are concerned with how it will scale in the future. Today’s producers rely heavily on wood for raw materials which is costly and inefficient. Furthermore, large-scale transportation isn’t economical at this point. As a result, more extensive research is required to fully understand the viability of this approach and how best to implement it on a global scale.