Biochar - potential to enhance carbon dioxide removal and gain financial benefit at carbon markets?

The systemic transition towards circular economy can be enhanced by the utilization of agricultural and forest side streams as a raw material for biochar.
Biochar provides an opportunity to increase carbon neutrality by binding carbon dioxide as carbon back to ground. Ravindiran et al. presents in their
article, “Production and modifications of biochar to engineered materials and its application for environmental sustainability: a review”, biochar’s multiple
utilization opportunities e.g. as a soil enrichment, wastewater treatment, biogas production, construction industry, as well as an additive in composting. On
the other hand, the main recognized challenges are about feedstock selection and availability, biochar production inconsistency, and technological barriers.
The financial barriers are considered to be one of the biggest barriers for the commercial production of biochar. To enhance the financial balance of the
production and utilization of biochar, the question of biochar as part of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal in carbon markets has emerged. The Finnish R&D
project, “Versatile uses of Carbon– Local production in the green transition– The era of biochar”, studies the biochar value chain. Alongside with already
mentioned barriers, to enhance the economical balance of production and lowering the biochar price for customers requires also the development of
carbon dioxide removal crediting methodologies