Google announced that is has signed the largest-ever biochar-based carbon removal agreements, with two new 100,000 tonne deals to buy carbon removal credits from India-based Varaha and California-based Charm Industrial, for a total of 200,000 tonnes by 2030.
Biochar, or biological charcoal, is produced by heating biomass, such as forest residue, wood or crop waste, in the absence of oxygen, creating a stable form of carbon, which when buried in soil enables centuries-long carbon sequestration, in addition to leading to improved soil fertility.
Founded in 2022, Varaha specializes in nature-based solutions, with a focus on working with smallholder farmers to help remove carbon from the atmosphere at a planetary scale, with a mission to sequester 1 billion tonnes of CO2e on smallholder lands.
The company’s Gujarat facility, launched in 2023, uses Prosopis juliflora, an invasive woody species as a feedstock for high-temperature pyrolysis into biochar, which is then applied as a soil amendment to enrich fertility, with smallholders involved in the collection of biomass feedstock and in the application of biochar in agricultural fields. In addition to removing carbon and enhancing soil fertility, the project also combats the invasion of the species, which disrupts local ecosystems by depleting groundwater and suppressing native flora.
Additional benefits of the agreement highlighted by Varaha include demonstrating the viability of smallholder-led carbon removal, seeding demand for physical biochar through farmer education, and supporting research into using invasive species as feedstock, with Google planning to partner with Varaha on examining the effects of Prosopis removal in India.
In a post announcing the new agreement, Madhur Jain, Co-Founder and CEO of Varaha, said:
“Our team is thrilled that Google has chosen to invest in Varaha’s mission of mobilizing smallholder farmers to remove carbon from the atmosphere at a planetary scale. Smallholders steward 12% of the world’s agricultural land, including in some of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. Varaha’s efforts to strengthen smallholder livelihoods through carbon finance rely significantly on digital innovation. Google’s role at the forefront of technology and leadership in climate action will accelerate Varaha’s work of building the digital, physical, and market infrastructure for smallholder-led carbon removal in India and beyond.”
Charm began operations in 2021, and has focused primarily on bio-oil production and sequestration, using plants to capture CO2 from the atmosphere, collecting agricultural residue from harvests or forest fire management, converting the biomass into bio-oil through pyrolysis, and pumping the bio-oil underground in EPA-regulated wells, where it sinks and solidifies in place.
With the new agreement, Charm will now begin offering biochar as an additional product, paired with bio-oil sequestration, noting the different attributes of the two approaches, with bio-oil featuring longer-term carbon sequestration, while biochar enables ecosystem benefits.
The agreement marks the second between Google and Charm, following a bio-oil-based deal through carbon removal buyer coalition Frontier in 2023.
In a post announcing the agreement, Charm CEO Peter Reinhardt said:
“Today we at Charm Industrial are excited to announce a new 100,000 tonne carbon removal purchase from Google. This expanded partnership is the largest biochar purchase of all-time and takes advantage of Charm’s unique polygeneration approach to carbon removal.”
The agreements mark the latest in a series of large-scale carbon removal purchase agreements by Google, following a commitment announced in March by the company to contract for at least $35 million of carbon removal credits over 12 months.
Randy Spock, Google’s Carbon Removal Lead, said:
“We’re purchasing these 200,000 tons to help Google achieve our net zero emissions goal – and start to catalyze biochar production toward a scale that can help the planet mitigate climate change.”