Collect Sustainable Biomass
Waste biomass like dead trees or leftover crops, which would normally rot and release their stored carbon back into the atmosphere, is gathered up before that can happen.
Process the Biomass into Biochar
The biomass is superheated in a low-oxygen environment to create biochar, similar to the charcoal bricks in your barbecue. This locks the carbon into a stable solid form that resists decay for centuries.
Spread the biochar on Soil
The biochar is worked into agricultural soils, keeping the carbon locked underground while improving soil health by adding nutrients, helping the ground hold water to guard against drought, and boosting farmer revenue.
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How does Biochar work?
Biochar is made by heating agricultural and forestry waste at high temperatures with almost no oxygen present. This process, called pyrolysis, transforms the waste into a carbon-rich material that resembles charcoal.
Unlike regular charcoal, which releases its stored carbon when burned, biochar locks carbon away permanently. The heating process creates a material so dense and stable that the CO2 that the plant pulled from the atmosphere when it was alive stays trapped in the biochar, instead of returning to the air.
When spread on farmland, biochar does double duty: retaining extra water and nutrients. This improves the soil health, helps grow crops, and stores carbon underground. This transforms Canada’s agricultural and forestry waste into a profitable product that generates revenue for farmers and forest companies, creating healthier and more productive soil from materials that would otherwise be burned or left to decompose.
Co-Benefits from Biochar
Increase Crop Yield
Biochar enhances soil health, helping farmers grow more with less fertilizer and lower emissions.
Wildfire Risk Reduction
Biochar turns a wildfire hazard into a fertilizer, as it removes and utilizes forest waste that would otherwise intensify fires and threaten communities.
Industries Supported
Farming
Biochar gives dead crops a valuable second use and can substitute for costly fertilizer by adding nutrients and helping soil retain water, improving soil health and boosting crop yields so farmers can grow and sell more.
Forestry
Biochar turns sawdust, dead trees, and woody waste into a valuable product for the forestry sector, generating new income and jobs from material that would otherwise rot on the forest floor.
Project snapshot
Carbonity
Port-Cartier, Quebec
Carbonity is Canada’s first industrial-scale biochar plant, turning roughly 58,000 tonnes a year of forest residue into biochar and locking away carbon in the process. Microsoft has signed on as a carbon credit buyer, and the plant is on track to become the largest of its kind in North America.
BioLesna & McBride
BC & SK
BC Biocarbon converts forestry and agricultural residue into biochar at its Carrot River facility, sequestering carbon while producing a soil amendment for Prairie farms. The project has scaled its removal capacity as it moves from pilot to commercial output.
Saskatoon - Ontario Ave
Saskatoon, SK
NULIFE converts local biowaste into a concentrated bio-oil through hydrothermal liquefaction, then injects it more than 1,000 metres underground into salt caverns for permanent storage. Their Ontario Avenue site has logged thousands of operating hours and delivered credits independently verified by Isometric, backed by a $44.2 million, 122,000-tonne offtake agreement with Frontier running through 2030.
Ruby Creek
BC
Emergent Waste Solutions runs its Advanced Thermolysis System at Ruby Creek, converting biomass and other waste into biochar and other carbon-rich products. The facility has been operating and selling biochar commercially since 2022.
