Biochar company announces plans for multiple large-scale carbon removal parks

German company Novocarbo has announced it is building and implementing the country’s first network of "carbon removal parks". In a press release, the Hamburg-based firm said it will open two new parks in Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania in the next quarter, followed by another three over the next two years.; it predicts its carbon removal capacity will increase to over 30,000t CO2 per year by 2025. Novocarbo uses a technology called Pyrogenic Carbon capture and Storage (PyCCS), which is based on the carbon contained in plant residues. In the natural carbon cycle, this would be released back into the atmosphere as CO2 through decay of the biomass or through forest fires, but PyCCS transforms the carbon into a stable form so that it is safely storedjust vi for thousands of years, the company says. The resulting product (biochar) can for example be used to improve soils in agriculture. During pyrolysis, the (CO2-neutral) heat generated can be supplied to local heating networks and neighbouring industries. "With our blueprint for Carbon Removal Parks, we have developed a holistic solution that works in any location in the world,” CEO Casper von Ziegner said. Novocarbo sells carbon removal certificates to finance its activities.

With the market for carbon emission offsets booming, investors are getting ready to grow technological carbon removal and storage solutions. Directly capturing CO2 fom the air, or an industrial point source, and its subsequent sequestration are considered necessary to fully decarbonise economies. However, it is also often perceived as drawing away attention from the task of changing energy use and processes, in all sectors, so drastically that emission reduction talks are avoided altogether.