How This Company Uses Biochar to Reverse Soil Degradation

In 2023, a study by scientists from the University of Massachusetts with support from the US National Science Foundation found that the rate of soil erosion in the Midwestern United States was between ten and a thousand times faster than the rate of erosion before the advent of agriculture.

A 2022 United Nations report estimated that up to 40 percent of all soils worldwide are moderately or severely degraded. If deforestation, overgrazing, intensive farming, urbanization and other harmful practices continue, that number could rise to 90 percent by 2050.

“Modern agriculture is unsustainable,” said Kathryn Radovan, Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Co-Founder of Terra Vera. “Our society is trapped in a vicious cycle: demand for food continues to outstrip supply; farmers have no choice but to use toxic solutions to meet demand; overuse of these solutions leads to resistance and yield declines; and ultimately, climate change worsens, contributing to the ongoing public health crisis and biodiversity loss.”

“The main contributors to climate change include chemical runoff, plastic waste and CO2 emissions from the production, transport and use of pesticides and fertilisers, which also harm our soils,” Radovan adds.

Radovan says most agricultural products available at farmers markets are made with ingredients that are intended to extend the shelf life of chemicals.

“You’re probably wondering why growers choose synthetic and often toxic chemicals when they know they’re harmful to the environment, pollinators and workers,” Radovan said. “There are biological approaches that are more environmentally friendly, but unfortunately they can be less effective and more expensive.”

Radovan says that while growers may want to use more sustainable solutions, it is not always economically feasible.

TerraVera specializes in biomimetic solutions and amino acid-based nutrient delivery without harmful chemicals and synthetic fertilizers for protected crops.

Biochar

Thor Kallestad, CEO and co-founder of Myno Carbon, a Washington state-based company that produces carbon-negative biochar, says the primary reason our soils are degrading is because we’ve stripped them of carbon and filled them with synthetic fertilizers.

“There’s a growing awareness in the agricultural sector that soil health = plant health = business health, and biochar is a key part of that arsenal,” Kallestad said. “Biochar is a clean, stable form of carbon—it can last for hundreds of thousands of years—so by adding it to the soil, biochar can directly address soil degradation while also improving soil health by increasing nutrient and water retention and repairing the soil microbiome.”

“We believe biochar is key to reversing soil degradation,” Kallestad said.

Reducing barriers

Kallestad says that, like many products that aren’t made from fossil-fuel carbon, it all comes down to incentives and scale. “Climate-friendly products like biochar are simply better products, period, but they have to compete with centuries of policies, industrial infrastructure and standardized practices for fossil-fuel products.”

“In addition, the lack of a mature and transparent carbon pricing market and a sufficient number of buyers is a significant barrier to scaling the biochar industry, even if biochar suppliers are leaders in supplying the carbon removal market to buyers,” Kallestad said.

Kallestad believes that if a uniform price were introduced for carbon dioxide pollutants, biochar and other products with a negative carbon footprint, they would quickly increase their market share across the economy at the expense of products made from fossil carbon.

“We simply need to level the playing field, not gain special advantages,” he added.

Early implementation of biochar

Biochar is best known as an effective soil additive in home gardening.

“There are many proven applications beyond soil improvement in home gardening that are on a much larger scale,” Kallestad said. “Biochar can be used as an additive in industrial agriculture to improve the nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of both organic fertilizers like compost and humic acid, and common synthetics like urea or potassium sulfate — while also reducing irrigation water use.”

The world is built

“The built environment is the next big opportunity – we all know the crazy statistics about how much cement we will produce in the coming decades, and the huge carbon footprint of the cement industry,” Kallestad said.

Forty percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. If no mitigation or corrective action is taken, this number will double in 25 years, i.e. by 2050.

“We’ve done some preliminary tests that show that our biochar improves the strength of cement while also permanently binding carbon for thousands of years,” Kallestad said. “We expect this to be a big market in the future.”

Environmental remediation

“Environmental remediation is becoming increasingly urgent and, ironically, it now relies heavily on activated carbon,” Kallestad said.

“Studies show that biochar is more effective at removing emerging contaminants such as PFAS when it comes to price-performance, but scalability has slowed its implementation,” Kallestad added.

Ten years ago, in 2014, the Yale School for the Environment published a study that showed biochar from plant feed and/or even chicken manure could be used to remove mercury from power plant emissions and clean up contaminated soil. The report noted that the big question was whether biochar could be produced on a large scale to slow or reverse global warming.

“Environmental remediation, because competitive products like activated carbon are very expensive, and biochar is broadly comparable as a viable substitute,” Kallestad said. “Liquid fertilizers are another market where early adopters will incorporate biochar.”

Kallestad says the liquid form allows for direct transport to the root system, where biochar provides the greatest benefit. This, he says, increases biochar’s value proposition.

The next five years

“We are in the process of building a new infrastructure: a network of carbon dioxide removal facilities (CRFs), essentially plants that will each produce tens of thousands of tons of biochar and ultimately permanently remove five million tons of CO2 per year,” Kallestad said.

He believes this will solve the scale problem facing the biochar industry and accelerate the adoption of biochar in key markets by providing a reliable supply at a lower price than was previously possible.

“The biochar market is already growing rapidly—with most analyst firms forecasting ~15% CAGR over the next decade,” Kallestad said. “That’s a great reason to be bullish on biochar in the near term, although this will clearly vary by sector.”

Kallestad says that uptake could be slower in some sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, over the next five years. “But we hope to reach tipping points in other industries as scale drives down costs, new climate and environmental regulations come into play, and our scientific studies confirm the effectiveness of biochar in emerging areas of environmental remediation, for example.”

Kallestad adds that, given the strong market pressures, U.S. biochar production has the potential to remove more than one billion tons of CO2 equivalent per year and prevent another five billion tons of emissions.

“This whole process is accelerating the reduction in spending in agriculture and other sectors, it’s absolutely huge,” he said.

“As a climate solution, biochar is far from the most technologically complex — but it’s the one with the most non-climate benefits,” Kallestad said. “For every pound of biochar produced, two pounds of CO2 are removed from the atmosphere. That’s an impact.”