Biochar

A durable carbon sink that also restores degraded soils in India

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Project facts

Type of credit: Carbon removal - nature-based
Project ID: Verra ID: 4679
Volume: Approx. 110,760 tCO2e removed annually
Location: Odisha, India

Biochar as a durable removal

Biochar is an inert carbonized material and a stable carbon sink for over a thousand years. Besides being a direct carbon sink, biochar offers strong benefits in tropical agriculture: it stores nutrients that increase crop yields, it increases water holding capacity which helps with climate adaptation, and it houses microorganisms that raise the organic carbon content of degraded soils.

This is a grouped project in India. The first instance is implemented with 5,000 farmers (defined as biochar producers in the project) in the state of Odisha. The project has a crediting period of 7 years, renewable twice, and the first instance is expected to remove an estimated 110,760 tCO2e annually - around 775,320 tCO2e over the first crediting period.

Several dual benefits

These are more than statistics. They translate directly into progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and real change in people's lives. Farmers grow tomatoes on previously depleted, dry land where farming was close to impossible before biochar application, and often reinvest climate finance income into machinery for their farms.

Carbon credit finance increases farmers' average income by 23% to 80%
Over 51% of the jobs created through the project are filled by women
After applying biochar and manure, crop yields rise by 19% to 40%
Dependency on chemical fertilizers decreases by 20% to 50%
Soil nutrient retention improves by 15% to 25% and water-holding capacity grows by 10% to 20%

Biochar is produced with a pyrolysis method

Farmers use the flame curtain pyrolysis method in steel-shield soil pits to process agricultural waste into biochar. The fire on top creates a 'flame curtain' that limits oxygen access to the biomass below. This initiates the pyrolysis process, producing high-quality biochar.

Once the pit is full, the fire is extinguished using water, nutrient solutions, or soil. The dried biochar is then mixed with manure and applied deep into the soil (more than 10 cm subsurface).

This project is developed by Carboneers

Carboneers empowers smallholder farmers by providing investments, advanced technology, and education to transform agricultural biomass waste into biochar. They have projects in a variety of locations, please contact us for more information about more locations.