Google has signed a second carbon removal agreement with Charm Industrial. Under the agreement, Google will acquire 100,000 tons worth of removals credits to be delivered through 2030.
The carbon offsets are tied to Charms' biochar carbon removal program. The company claims that, through its pyrolysis process, it produces 0.2 tons of biochar and 0.5 tons of bio-oil for every ton of biomass it processes.
Industrial biochar captures and stores carbon through pyrolysis, a method involving high heat in a low-oxygen setting. This technique produces a stable, porous solid material that effectively traps CO2.
Commenting on the agreement, Randy Spock, carbon credits and removals lead at Google, said: “With these partnerships, we’re adding biochar to a growing toolkit of carbon removal solutions Google supports (such as enhanced rock weathering and direct air capture), and as a complement to our ongoing efforts to kickstart the carbon removal field through Frontier and Symbiosis.”
Charm, based in San Francisco, was founded in 2018 and is headed by Peter Reinhardt. It produces bio-oil and biochar from trees unsuitable for commercial lumber, with operations centered in Colorado.
"Biochar will now play a key supporting role in Charm's production model: enhancing total carbon removed, maintaining nutrient availability for new biological growth, improving soil health, and improving hydrology," says a company statement.
The first agreement between the companies was signed in 2023 and was tied to Charms bio-oil production. The agreement was facilitated through Frontier, an advance market commitment to buy an initial $1B+ of permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030, founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey.
Under the 2023 agreement, Charm will remove 112,000 tons of CO2 on behalf of Frontier buyers between 2024 and 2030. The offtake agreements total $53 million, and buyers will pay a price per ton that will decline by at least 37 percent between 2024 and 2030.
Charm has claimed that, according to its techno-economic modeling, there is a clear path to low-cost, permanent carbon removals by maximizing bio-oil production and sequestration at roughly two times the volume of biochar production.
The deal with Charm is Google's second biochar carbon removal agreement in a matter of days. Earlier this week, it agreed to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon removal credits from Indian biochar startup Varaha, the company’s first in India.