On a hot morning in July, Ray Apy stood in a vacant lot in upstate New York and pointed to the mowed grass, explaining what he wanted to build there: a pilot plant to convert waste into something useful. He tipped the contents of a small glass jar into his cupped palm, revealing tiny black pellets the size of peppercorns.
The pellets were a substance called biochar. It’s created by heating organic matter — any substance originating from plants, animals, or other organisms — at high temperatures in the absence of oxygen. This turns it into a charcoal-like substance that can be sold as an additive to concrete or soil — and, crucially, locks carbon inside.
Heralded as “black gold,” biochar promises to dispose of waste, enrich soil, and fight climate change, all which has made it the darling of the growing carbon removal industry. A 2018 report from a panel of United Nations scientists estimated the world will need to remove between 100 billion and 1 trillion metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere this century to limit warming to 1.5 degrees... Read more
