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Google partners with startup to cut 100,000 tons of carbon

Jan 16, 2025 –Energy & Climate

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Exclusive: Google has a new contract with the carbon removal startup Charm Industrial for drawing down 100,000 tons of CO2 through 2030.

Why it matters: It’s Charm’s first deal using biochar, which it produces using biomass from forest management.

  • This deal — and a separate purchase unveiled Thursday with the Indian firm Varaha — are Google’s first forays into buying CO2 removal using biochar, a method various startups are advancing.

“It’s a big deal for us…it’s a really strong proof point with a really sophisticated buyer on a core thesis for Charm,” CEO Peter Reinhardt said in an interview.

  • Terms were not disclosed in the deal between Google and Charm, which was founded in 2018 and has raised $130 million.

The big picture: Charm’s removal to date has focused on bio-oil it produces from heating biomass without oxygen to very high temps. It’s injected into legacy oil and gas wells for sequestration.

  • But advances in verifying that biochar — a co-product of this “pyrolysis” heating process — can remove carbon for centuries enables the second commercial line, they said.
  • Charm points to recent research on biochar permanence. They also cite the removal registry Isometric’s 2024 protocol for calculating carbon that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere via decomposition or burning.

State of play: Its uses include applying the material to farmland to boost productivity and soil health.

  • Reinhardt said offering removal from both bio-oil and biochar produced from the same feedstocks helps improve the economics.

Zoom out: Google’s Randy Spock said Charm’s tech fits well into its wider removal portfolio that’s staking a range of methods.

  • “It’s about finding solutions that can have certainty of impact and scale of impact, and biochar is promising on both of those fronts,” Spock, Google’s carbon removal lead, said in an interview.
  • He notes “the mechanics of this are well understood,” and that it works with various types of biomass widely available worldwide.

The intrigue: The biochar contract is Google’s second with Charm, with the first coming in mid-2023 for bio-oil removal via the Frontier consortium of buyers.

  • Tech giants have emerged as leading removal buyers. It comes as they’re juggling ambitious climate goals with the scale-up of power-hungry AI data centers.
  • Charm’s bio-oil and biochar production uses trees that aren’t suitable for commercial lumber.
  • They’re harvested for wildfire prevention — all in Colorado right now. It’s a topic getting more attention amid the tragic LA blazes.

Reality check: Charm is a relatively established player in the young removal space.

  • But who knows whether various methods that corporate giants are staking can get cheap enough to become a real weapon against global warming.
  • Volumes are growing but remain far from the billion-ton annual scale that backers envision decades from now.

What’s next: “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,” the announcement states.

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