Biochar Fact Sheet

What is Biochar?

Biochar is a kind of charcoal produced by burning biomass (organic material) in a low-oxygen environment. This process, known as pyrolysis, converts the carbon in the biomass to a form that resists decay. When the charcoal is buried or added to soils, most of the carbon can remain in the charcoal or soil for decades to centuries, given the right conditions. The process of growing plants or collecting waste biomass, converting that biomass to biochar, and adding the biochar to soils removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere: as plants grow, they remove CO2 from the atmosphere and use it to make more biomass; the carbon in that biomass gets converted to a stable form in biochar; and burying the biochar can keep the carbon out of the atmosphere for long periods of time. This makes producing and burying biochar a form of carbon removal.