Addressing climate change will require strategies that reduce both the rate of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions and also the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a gigaton scale. The implementation of biochar production and pyrolysis technology in a carbon capture and carbon credit market framework will provide an excellent opportunity for expanding current climate change mitigation measures, while also creating alternate streams of revenue and industrial opportunity for agricultural and waste management sectors. Further economic benefits could be extended into developing nations through pyrolysis stove technology and an increased contribution to sustainable carbon-neutral development.

Revenue streams may come from tipping fees or cost savings associated with feedstock processing (e.g. diverting waste materials from landfills), sales of biochar-as-soil-amendment, energy product sales and revenues from carbon offsets.

To enable biochar to access the carbon offset markets, there is a need for approved GHG emission reduction quantification protocols to be developed. Within the North American context, two opportunities for industry-led GHG protocol development are of particular interest: the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Alberta Offset System (AOS). Protocols for these systems are required to meet the ISO 14064-2 standard.

Our strategy is to develop rigorous protocols that will address the likely range of project types. The development of universally applicable biochar protocols for carbon capture and storage will enable biochar operators to meet and participate in the VCS and AOS markets, with the potential for greater global reach, without the costs of developing a project-specific methodology. The public domain nature of protocol documents will then provide all biochar operators an opportunity to take advantage of the burgeoning carbon market and play an important role with less initial overhead allocated to protocol approval and more investment in pyrolysis technology.

Click on the link below to view a schematic mapping the project’s steps for moving forward toward recognition of the GHG benefits from potential biochar projects.