.jpg)
Isometric today released a protocol for durable carbon removal through biochar production and storage into public consultation.
Biochar is a carbon-rich solid material produced when biomass is pyrolized—heated to high temperatures in a low-oxygen environment—and it can be durably stored in many ways. This version of the protocol covers biochar, produced from pyrolized waste biomass, that is applied to agricultural surface soils as a soil amendment. Storage on agricultural surfaces has several potential co-benefits for soil, including nutrient retention, improved water holding capacity and drainage, which results in improved plant health.
Buyers can be sure that credits issued from biochar projects under the Isometric protocol represent a tonne of durably stored carbon for three key reasons.
First, when biochar is applied to agricultural soils some of the carbon will be released back into the atmosphere according to a predictable decay rate. The chemical makeup of the biochar, as well as environmental factors associated with the application site, affect the rate at which this happens. This is accounted for in the protocol.
Second, the protocol adopts a conservative approach to crediting, with only the durable portion of the organic carbon content in the biochar being eligible for the generation of credits. This requires a lower threshold for the ratio of carbon to hydrogen than other methodologies and accounts for losses incurred during application.
Third, the protocol includes guidelines for project-specific measurements and assessments of durability, sustainable biomass sourcing criteria and environmental safeguarding information.
With this level of scientific rigor, buyers can be confident in the high quality of Isometric’s biochar credits. Isometric will only issue credits where a durability of at least 200 years has been established. This reflects the European Union’s position as established in its forthcoming regulation on carbon removal (Carbon Removal Certification Framework Regulation).
Earlier this year, novel work was published by Hamed Sanei et al. (2024), which has been incorporated into the development of this protocol. The Isometric Biochar Protocol is the first to allow for biochar credits to be certified with a higher durability of 500+ years. To achieve this, projects will be required to collect and submit robust evidence to demonstrate the inertinite fraction of the biochar, which is effectively permanent over geological time frames.
The protocol was created in collaboration between Isometric’s in-house Science Team and interdisciplinary expert reviewers from the Isometric Science Network, a group of over 200 carbon removal scientists. It will now undergo a full public consultation. Comments received during the public consultation period will be considered before finalizing the protocol. Final guidelines regarding durability—and any corresponding updates required to the Isometric Standard—will be implemented before any credits are issued.
Two biochar suppliers welcomed the news.
Mart de Bruijn, Director Carboneers, said:
"Carboneers welcomes the publication of this highly rigorous new protocol for biochar. When reviewing this protocol, instead of feedback-mode we found ourselves switching into learning-mode. Our target is to implement these stringent criteria for distributed biochar models in Global South."
William Cowell de Gruchy, founder and CEO of Liferaft, said:
"The carbon capture industry needs two things urgently; rigor and scale. Isometric publishing this draft protocol on biochar is a hugely positive step forward on the gigaton path. In their short history, Isometric have proven they adhere to the highest standards when assessing and verifying carbon capture. With governments and the climate action group deferring to industry to self regulate at present, it's incumbent on our generation of providers and registries to define 'what good looks like'. I can think of no better organization to direct that than Isometric, and we are delighted to partner with them on this journey."
The public consultation period for the Isometric Biochar Production and Storage Protocol is a key step towards helping carbon removal scale to the level that the planet needs. This is what Isometric was founded to do.
