--- kind: sector slug: biomass-burial title: Biomass Burial & Wood Caching pillar: carbon-removal status: live as_of: 2026-05-26 updated_at: 2026-05-26 canonical_url: https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial/ json_url: https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial.json license: CC BY 4.0 --- # Biomass Burial & Wood Caching > The cheapest engineered method available today. Waste biomass and harvested wood sequestered in oxygen-deprived burial sites and wood vaults — permanent storage that runs on logistics rather than energy and converts existing residue streams into durable removal. **Pillar:** [Carbon Removal](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/carbon-removal) · **Status:** live · **As of:** 2026-05-26 ## Key claims - Biomass burial is the cheapest engineered removal available because it runs on logistics rather than energy, sequestering existing residue streams instead of building a capture plant. _(The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal - 2nd Edition)_ - Single facilities are already at industrial scale: Graphyte's Pine Bluff project is rated at 50 kt CO2/yr of permanent storage. _(Graphyte Carbon Casting + JPMorgan Chase 60kt offtake)_ - The binding constraint is residue supply, not cost: a 3 Gt/yr ceiling against about 1 Gt credible 2050 deployment means biomass burial scales with the waste stream it depends on. _(The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal - 2nd Edition)_ ## Analysis The cheapest engineered method available today. Waste biomass and harvested wood sequestered in oxygen-deprived burial sites and wood vaults — permanent storage that runs on logistics rather than energy and converts existing residue streams into durable removal. ### What it is: Burying the photosynthesis. Trees pull CO2 from the atmosphere and store it as wood. Left alone, that wood decomposes. The carbon returns to the air on a timescale of years to decades. The engineering proposition of biomass burial is to interrupt the decomposition cycle: collect the wood, seal it from oxygen and microbes, place it underground where it sits for centuries to millennia. Photosynthesis is the free first-stage capture step. The engineering effort is on keeping the captured carbon from re-emitting. There are two operational lineages. The Graphyte Carbon Casting model collects timber and agricultural by-products, dries them, condenses them into dense blocks, wraps them in an impermeable barrier, and places them in monitored underground sites. Charm Industrial takes a different path: pyrolyze the biomass into bio-oil first, then inject the oil into Class V wells. Kodama Systems focuses on forest-thinning byproducts that reduce wildfire fuel loads, so collection has a co-benefit. The first commercial-scale facility is now ramping. Graphyte's Loblolly Project in Pine Bluff, Arkansas targets 50 kilotons of CO2 per year nameplate. JPMorgan Chase anchors the demand side with a 60-kiloton offtake. Logistics is the spine. > **Biomass burial isn't biochar, BECCS, or landfill diversion.** > > - **Biomass burial (this page)** — Whole woody biomass or pyrolyzed bio-oil transported to oxygen-deprived underground burial sites. The carbon ends up sealed below ground, not in soil; pyrolysis can be in the pre-processing but the burial step is what counts. > - **Biochar** — Plant biomass pyrolyzed into solid char, mixed into topsoil at the agronomic surface. Different storage layer; different durability class; different MRV. > - **BECCS (bioenergy + CCS)** — Burning biomass for energy and capturing the CO2 at the smokestack for geologic injection. The energy use is the product; CDR is the by-product. Biomass burial is the inverse — the storage is the product. > - **The rule** — Biomass burial counts as removal when the underground placement is engineered for anoxic preservation (impermeable barrier or geologic seal), the carbon stock is monitored, and the permanence claim is rated against methodology (Isometric, Puro.earth, Verra). Landfill diversion and conventional forestry-residue management are off-spec. ### Capacity: First commercial facility, gigaton-scale ceiling. Today's number is single-anchor: Graphyte's Pine Bluff Loblolly Project is the first commercial-scale biomass-burial facility globally. The 50-kiloton-per-year nameplate ramp is underway, anchored by a 60-kiloton offtake from JPMorgan Chase. CDR.fyi Q2 2025 showed biomass-direct + biomass-geological-sequestration at roughly 6.6% of 117 kilotons total BiCRS, around 7.7 kilotons CO2 in the quarter — the Graphyte ramp will dominate 2025 second-half figures. In integrated 2050 scenarios, IPCC AR6 sizes biomass burial in the 0.5-3 gigaton range, gated by sustainable feedstock supply and burial-site capacity. The realistic engineering ceiling MECP carries is 3 gigatons per year. **Figure — Biomass-burial capacity: operational today vs credible 2050 deployment vs realistic engineering ceiling, on a log Gt CO2/yr axis.** Interactive chart and accessible data table: [/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands](/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands). ### Cost: The cost is logistics. The cost-curve spine is not electricity and not a chemical reaction. It is logistics: biomass collection, transport, processing (drying and baling for Carbon Casting; pyrolysis-and-pump for bio-oil), and the underground burial well itself. Today's band runs $100 to $250 per ton CO2 at commodity-grade biomass collection. At scale, with logistics amortized across larger deployments and burial-well capex spread across more tons, the band drops to roughly $80 to $200. Energy intensity is low. Pyrolysis is self-fueling from biomass. Drying uses modest grid electricity. Cheap electricity barely moves this number. The biggest cost-band move is logistics scale and feedstock pairing with industries (forestry, agriculture) that already pay to handle their residues. **Figure — Biomass-burial cost ($/tCO2) at two logistics anchors: today ($100–$250) and at-scale logistics-amortized ($80–$200).** Interactive chart and accessible data table: [/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver](/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver). ### Durability + MRV: Multi-century by engineering. Biomass burial's durability comes from the engineered anoxia: without oxygen and without microbial access, lignin and cellulose are stable for centuries to millennia. Graphyte claims durability greater than 1,000 years for its Carbon Casting blocks (impermeable barrier + monitored underground storage). Charm Industrial's bio-oil injection into Class V wells delivers durability rated against geologic-sequestration MRV standards — the oil polymerizes underground and stays put on geologic timescales. Kodama's forest-thinning-byproduct burial sits at the lower end of the durability range (multi-century, depending on site conditions and barrier integrity). MRV is dominated by site monitoring (sensors and tracers for Graphyte; well integrity for Charm; site sampling for Kodama) and methodology certification through Isometric, Puro.earth, or Verra. ### Why it matters: The logistics CDR. Biochar competes on durability of soil. DAC competes on permanence via geology. Biomass burial competes on the engineering of logistics. Logistics, the global economy already solves at gigaton throughput, for less interesting end uses. The 2050 ceiling is feedstock-supply-bound. The supply is already there. Forest residues alone in the US run hundreds of millions of tons per year, the vast majority of which decomposes or burns within a decade. The thesis treats biomass burial as the method whose 2050 number depends on how aggressively the forestry and agriculture industries can be paired into co-benefit arrangements: fire-fuel reduction (Kodama), mill-residue handling (Graphyte), bio-oil offtake from existing pyrolysis (Charm). The unit economics work today without policy support. The scale is gated on integration with existing material streams. Move the carbon. That is the engineering. ### Policy drivers: Voluntary market, with one statutory gray zone. Biomass burial sits in the same voluntary-market territory as biochar and ERW — not 45Q-eligible under the current statutory definition (above-ground biomass is not "secure geologic storage"). Charm Industrial's bio-oil injection into Class V wells is the closest thing to a 45Q-edge case, since the bio-oil is liquid and the underground placement is regulated; whether the carbon-bound bio-oil qualifies under the §45Q "secure storage" definition has been raised but not clarified by Treasury. The anchor buyers are the same coalition that funds the rest of durable CDR: Frontier (Stripe / Alphabet / Meta / Shopify / McKinsey), Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase (Graphyte 60kt agreement, the first major non-tech-coalition buyer in this sector), Carbon Direct as project-level partner. On the supply-side R&D ledger, the relevant programs are USDA Climate-Smart Commodities partnerships (forestry residue co-benefit framing) and DOE's biomass-CDR portfolio (the FECM CarbonSTORE program also accepts biomass-burial submissions). Forward, the EU Carbon Removals Certification Framework (first units 2026) is the compliance-market lever most likely to surface biomass-burial demand by 2027–2028. ## Cost Today: 100–250 USD/tCO2. With cheap energy: 80–200 USD/tCO2. Shape: two-anchor-bands. Physical scale potential: 3 Gt CO2/yr. Source: The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal - 2nd Edition. Key constraint: Feedstock availability without competing with food/forest use; permanence verification. ## Data | indicator | value | goal (year) | as of | source | |---|---|---|---|---| | Graphyte Pine Bluff Loblolly Project (nameplate) | 50 kt CO2/yr (= 0.00005 Gt CO2/yr) | 1,000,000 kt CO2/yr (2050) | 2025-12-31 | Graphyte Carbon Casting + JPMorgan Chase 60kt offtake | | Credible 2050 biomass-burial deployment (IPCC AR6 Ch12 midpoint) | 1 Gt CO2/yr ⚠ stale | 1 Gt CO2/yr (2050) | 2022-04-01 | AR6 WG3 Chapter 12: Cross-sectoral perspectives | ## Companies - **[Charm Industrial](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/ecosystem#company/charm-industrial)** (series_b) — Pyrolyzes agricultural and forestry waste into bio-oil and biochar, then injects the bio-oil into regulated underground storage for permanent carbon sequestration. - **[Graphyte](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/ecosystem#company/graphyte)** (foak) — Carbon Casting process: timber and agricultural by-products dried, condensed, wrapped in impermeable barrier, buried in monitored underground sites with sensors and tracers. Loblolly Project Pine Bluff AR ramping to 50 kt CO2/yr by early 2025 — the first commercial-scale biomass-burial facility globally. - **[Kodama Systems](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/ecosystem#company/kodama-systems)** (series_a) — Forest biomass carbon removal company that collects small-diameter forest thinnings (wildfire fuel reduction byproduct) and buries the biomass to permanently sequester carbon while also reducing California wildfire risk. ## FAQ ### What is biomass burial as a carbon removal method? Biomass burial interrupts the natural decomposition cycle of plant matter to keep its carbon out of the atmosphere. Trees pull CO2 from the air and store it as wood, but left alone that wood decomposes and re-emits the carbon within years to decades. The method collects the wood (or pyrolyzes it into bio-oil first), seals it from oxygen and microbes, and places it underground where it can sit for **centuries to millennia**. Photosynthesis is the free first-stage capture step; the engineering effort is on keeping the captured carbon from re-emitting. ### Is biomass burial the same as biochar or BECCS? No — they store carbon differently. **Biochar** is pyrolyzed into solid char mixed into topsoil at the agronomic surface, a different storage layer and durability class. **BECCS** burns biomass for energy and captures the CO2 at the smokestack, so energy is the product and removal is a by-product. Biomass burial is the inverse: whole woody biomass or pyrolyzed bio-oil is placed in oxygen-deprived underground sites where the storage itself is the product. It's also not landfill diversion, which is off-spec. ### Why is biomass burial's cost driven by logistics instead of energy? The cost spine isn't electricity or a chemical reaction — it's logistics: biomass collection, transport, processing, and the underground burial well itself. Energy intensity is low (pyrolysis is self-fueling from biomass and drying uses only modest grid power), so **cheap electricity barely moves the number**. Today's band runs **$100–$250 per ton CO2**, dropping to roughly **$80–$200** at scale as logistics and burial-well capex spread across more tons. The biggest cost reductions come from logistics scale and pairing feedstock with industries like forestry and agriculture that already pay to handle their residues. ### How much carbon can biomass burial actually remove, and is it operating yet? Graphyte's Loblolly Project in Pine Bluff, Arkansas is the first commercial-scale biomass-burial facility globally, with a **50-kiloton-per-year** nameplate ramp anchored by a **60-kiloton offtake from JPMorgan Chase**. In integrated 2050 scenarios, IPCC AR6 sizes the method in the **0.5–3 gigaton** range, gated by sustainable feedstock supply and burial-site capacity, with MECP carrying a realistic engineering ceiling of **3 gigatons per year**. The thesis treats the 2050 number as supply-integration-bound rather than supply-limited — US forest residues alone run hundreds of millions of tons a year, most of which decomposes or burns within a decade. ## Charts (embeddable) - **Biomass burial capacity: today, the scenario, the ceiling.** — https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands (https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands.svg · https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands.png) - **Biomass burial cost vs. logistics.** — https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver (https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver.svg · https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver.png) ## Sources - **graphyte-pine-bluff-jpmorgan** — [Graphyte Carbon Casting + JPMorgan Chase 60kt offtake](https://www.graphyte.com/) _(self-reported, report)_ - **ipcc-ar6-wg3-ch12** — [AR6 WG3 Chapter 12: Cross-sectoral perspectives](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/chapter/chapter-12/) _(primary, report)_ - **state-of-cdr-2024** — [The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal - 2nd Edition](https://www.stateofcdr.org) _(academic, report)_ ## Related sectors [Biochar](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biochar.md) · [Direct Air Capture](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/dac.md) · [Enhanced Rock Weathering](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/erw.md) · [Mineralization](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/mineralization.md) · [Afforestation, Reforestation, Soil](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/nature-based.md) · [Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement](https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/ocean-alkalinity.md) ## Machine access - Structured data: https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial.json - Live data via MCP: https://mcp.moreenergycleanplanet.com/mcp — tools: get_sector, get_cost_curve, list_indicators, get_sources - License: CC BY 4.0 ```json { "schema_version": "1.2", "kind": "sector", "slug": "biomass-burial", "title": "Biomass Burial & Wood Caching", "pillar": { "slug": "carbon-removal", "title": "Carbon Removal" }, "status": "live", "theme_color": "#10B981", "summary": "The cheapest engineered method available today. Waste biomass and harvested wood sequestered in oxygen-deprived burial sites and wood vaults — permanent storage that runs on logistics rather than energy and converts existing residue streams into durable removal.", "analysis": "## What it is: Burying the photosynthesis.\n\nTrees pull CO2 from the atmosphere and store it as wood. Left alone, that wood decomposes. The carbon returns to the air on a timescale of years to decades. The engineering proposition of biomass burial is to interrupt the decomposition cycle: collect the wood, seal it from oxygen and microbes, place it underground where it sits for centuries to millennia. Photosynthesis is the free first-stage capture step. The engineering effort is on keeping the captured carbon from re-emitting.\n\nThere are two operational lineages. The Graphyte Carbon Casting model collects timber and agricultural by-products, dries them, condenses them into dense blocks, wraps them in an impermeable barrier, and places them in monitored underground sites. Charm Industrial takes a different path: pyrolyze the biomass into bio-oil first, then inject the oil into Class V wells. Kodama Systems focuses on forest-thinning byproducts that reduce wildfire fuel loads, so collection has a co-benefit.\n\nThe first commercial-scale facility is now ramping. Graphyte's Loblolly Project in Pine Bluff, Arkansas targets 50 kilotons of CO2 per year nameplate. JPMorgan Chase anchors the demand side with a 60-kiloton offtake. Logistics is the spine.\n\n> **Biomass burial isn't biochar, BECCS, or landfill diversion.**\n>\n> - **Biomass burial (this page)** — Whole woody biomass or pyrolyzed bio-oil transported to oxygen-deprived underground burial sites. The carbon ends up sealed below ground, not in soil; pyrolysis can be in the pre-processing but the burial step is what counts.\n> - **Biochar** — Plant biomass pyrolyzed into solid char, mixed into topsoil at the agronomic surface. Different storage layer; different durability class; different MRV.\n> - **BECCS (bioenergy + CCS)** — Burning biomass for energy and capturing the CO2 at the smokestack for geologic injection. The energy use is the product; CDR is the by-product. Biomass burial is the inverse — the storage is the product.\n> - **The rule** — Biomass burial counts as removal when the underground placement is engineered for anoxic preservation (impermeable barrier or geologic seal), the carbon stock is monitored, and the permanence claim is rated against methodology (Isometric, Puro.earth, Verra). Landfill diversion and conventional forestry-residue management are off-spec.\n\n## Capacity: First commercial facility, gigaton-scale ceiling.\n\nToday's number is single-anchor: Graphyte's Pine Bluff Loblolly Project is the first commercial-scale biomass-burial facility globally. The 50-kiloton-per-year nameplate ramp is underway, anchored by a 60-kiloton offtake from JPMorgan Chase. CDR.fyi Q2 2025 showed biomass-direct + biomass-geological-sequestration at roughly 6.6% of 117 kilotons total BiCRS, around 7.7 kilotons CO2 in the quarter — the Graphyte ramp will dominate 2025 second-half figures. In integrated 2050 scenarios, IPCC AR6 sizes biomass burial in the 0.5-3 gigaton range, gated by sustainable feedstock supply and burial-site capacity. The realistic engineering ceiling MECP carries is 3 gigatons per year.\n\n**Figure — Biomass-burial capacity: operational today vs credible 2050 deployment vs realistic engineering ceiling, on a log Gt CO2/yr axis.** Interactive chart and accessible data table: [/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands](/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands).\n\n## Cost: The cost is logistics.\n\nThe cost-curve spine is not electricity and not a chemical reaction. It is logistics: biomass collection, transport, processing (drying and baling for Carbon Casting; pyrolysis-and-pump for bio-oil), and the underground burial well itself. Today's band runs $100 to $250 per ton CO2 at commodity-grade biomass collection. At scale, with logistics amortized across larger deployments and burial-well capex spread across more tons, the band drops to roughly $80 to $200. Energy intensity is low. Pyrolysis is self-fueling from biomass. Drying uses modest grid electricity. Cheap electricity barely moves this number. The biggest cost-band move is logistics scale and feedstock pairing with industries (forestry, agriculture) that already pay to handle their residues.\n\n**Figure — Biomass-burial cost ($/tCO2) at two logistics anchors: today ($100–$250) and at-scale logistics-amortized ($80–$200).** Interactive chart and accessible data table: [/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver](/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver).\n\n## Durability + MRV: Multi-century by engineering.\n\nBiomass burial's durability comes from the engineered anoxia: without oxygen and without microbial access, lignin and cellulose are stable for centuries to millennia. Graphyte claims durability greater than 1,000 years for its Carbon Casting blocks (impermeable barrier + monitored underground storage). Charm Industrial's bio-oil injection into Class V wells delivers durability rated against geologic-sequestration MRV standards — the oil polymerizes underground and stays put on geologic timescales. Kodama's forest-thinning-byproduct burial sits at the lower end of the durability range (multi-century, depending on site conditions and barrier integrity). MRV is dominated by site monitoring (sensors and tracers for Graphyte; well integrity for Charm; site sampling for Kodama) and methodology certification through Isometric, Puro.earth, or Verra.\n\n## Why it matters: The logistics CDR.\n\nBiochar competes on durability of soil. DAC competes on permanence via geology. Biomass burial competes on the engineering of logistics. Logistics, the global economy already solves at gigaton throughput, for less interesting end uses.\n\nThe 2050 ceiling is feedstock-supply-bound. The supply is already there. Forest residues alone in the US run hundreds of millions of tons per year, the vast majority of which decomposes or burns within a decade. The thesis treats biomass burial as the method whose 2050 number depends on how aggressively the forestry and agriculture industries can be paired into co-benefit arrangements: fire-fuel reduction (Kodama), mill-residue handling (Graphyte), bio-oil offtake from existing pyrolysis (Charm). The unit economics work today without policy support. The scale is gated on integration with existing material streams.\n\nMove the carbon. That is the engineering.\n\n## Policy drivers: Voluntary market, with one statutory gray zone.\n\nBiomass burial sits in the same voluntary-market territory as biochar and ERW — not 45Q-eligible under the current statutory definition (above-ground biomass is not \"secure geologic storage\"). Charm Industrial's bio-oil injection into Class V wells is the closest thing to a 45Q-edge case, since the bio-oil is liquid and the underground placement is regulated; whether the carbon-bound bio-oil qualifies under the §45Q \"secure storage\" definition has been raised but not clarified by Treasury. The anchor buyers are the same coalition that funds the rest of durable CDR: Frontier (Stripe / Alphabet / Meta / Shopify / McKinsey), Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase (Graphyte 60kt agreement, the first major non-tech-coalition buyer in this sector), Carbon Direct as project-level partner.\n\nOn the supply-side R&D ledger, the relevant programs are USDA Climate-Smart Commodities partnerships (forestry residue co-benefit framing) and DOE's biomass-CDR portfolio (the FECM CarbonSTORE program also accepts biomass-burial submissions). Forward, the EU Carbon Removals Certification Framework (first units 2026) is the compliance-market lever most likely to surface biomass-burial demand by 2027–2028.", "canonical_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial/", "markdown_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial.md", "json_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial.json", "updated_at": "2026-05-26", "as_of": "2026-05-26", "staleness_window_days": 400, "license": "CC BY 4.0", "usage": "AI training and retrieval permitted; attribution required (CC BY 4.0). Cite as More Energy, Clean Planet.", "cite_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/sectors/biomass-burial.cite", "key_claims": [ { "text": "Biomass burial is the cheapest engineered removal available because it runs on logistics rather than energy, sequestering existing residue streams instead of building a capture plant.", "source_id": "state-of-cdr-2024" }, { "text": "Single facilities are already at industrial scale: Graphyte's Pine Bluff project is rated at 50 kt CO2/yr of permanent storage.", "source_id": "graphyte-pine-bluff-jpmorgan" }, { "text": "The binding constraint is residue supply, not cost: a 3 Gt/yr ceiling against about 1 Gt credible 2050 deployment means biomass burial scales with the waste stream it depends on.", "source_id": "state-of-cdr-2024" } ], "indicators": [ { "id": "biomass-burial-operational-capacity-global", "name": "Graphyte Pine Bluff Loblolly Project (nameplate)", "value": 50, "unit": "kt CO2/yr", "value_gt": 0.00005, "goal": 1000000, "goal_unit": "kt CO2/yr", "goal_year": 2050, "target_year": 2050, "as_of": "2025-12-31", "staleness_window_days": 400, "stale": false, "methodology": "display: ~50 kt/yr | Graphyte Pine Bluff nameplate target 2025; single-source Graphyte/JPMorgan partnership.", "anchor_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/scorecard/carbon-removal/biomass-burial-operational-capacity-global", "source_id": "graphyte-pine-bluff-jpmorgan" }, { "id": "biomass-burial-credible-2050-deployment", "name": "Credible 2050 biomass-burial deployment (IPCC AR6 Ch12 midpoint)", "value": 1, "unit": "Gt CO2/yr", "goal": 1, "goal_unit": "Gt CO2/yr", "goal_year": 2050, "target_year": 2050, "projection": true, "as_of": "2022-04-01", "staleness_window_days": 540, "stale": true, "methodology": "IPCC AR6 WG3 Ch12 biomass-burial midpoint of 0.5-3 Gt/yr range.", "anchor_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/scorecard/carbon-removal/biomass-burial-credible-2050-deployment", "source_id": "ipcc-ar6-wg3-ch12" } ], "cost_curve": { "methodology_version": "1.0", "today": { "low": 100, "high": 250, "unit": "USD/tCO2" }, "cheap_energy": { "low": 80, "high": 200, "unit": "USD/tCO2" }, "shape": "two-anchor-bands", "scale_potential": { "value": 3, "unit": "Gt CO2/yr" }, "energy_intensive": false, "key_constraint": "Feedstock availability without competing with food/forest use; permanence verification.", "as_of": "2026-05-26", "stale": false, "source_id": "state-of-cdr-2024" }, "companies": [ { "id": "charm-industrial", "name": "Charm Industrial", "stage": "series_b", "one_line_description": "Pyrolyzes agricultural and forestry waste into bio-oil and biochar, then injects the bio-oil into regulated underground storage for permanent carbon sequestration.", "ecosystem_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/ecosystem#company/charm-industrial" }, { "id": "graphyte", "name": "Graphyte", "stage": "foak", "one_line_description": "Carbon Casting process: timber and agricultural by-products dried, condensed, wrapped in impermeable barrier, buried in monitored underground sites with sensors and tracers. Loblolly Project Pine Bluff AR ramping to 50 kt CO2/yr by early 2025 — the first commercial-scale biomass-burial facility globally.", "ecosystem_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/ecosystem#company/graphyte" }, { "id": "kodama-systems", "name": "Kodama Systems", "stage": "series_a", "one_line_description": "Forest biomass carbon removal company that collects small-diameter forest thinnings (wildfire fuel reduction byproduct) and buries the biomass to permanently sequester carbon while also reducing California wildfire risk.", "ecosystem_url": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/ecosystem#company/kodama-systems" } ], "faqs": [ { "question": "What is biomass burial as a carbon removal method?", "answer_md": "Biomass burial interrupts the natural decomposition cycle of plant matter to keep its carbon out of the atmosphere. Trees pull CO2 from the air and store it as wood, but left alone that wood decomposes and re-emits the carbon within years to decades. The method collects the wood (or pyrolyzes it into bio-oil first), seals it from oxygen and microbes, and places it underground where it can sit for **centuries to millennia**. Photosynthesis is the free first-stage capture step; the engineering effort is on keeping the captured carbon from re-emitting.", "source_id": null }, { "question": "Is biomass burial the same as biochar or BECCS?", "answer_md": "No — they store carbon differently. **Biochar** is pyrolyzed into solid char mixed into topsoil at the agronomic surface, a different storage layer and durability class. **BECCS** burns biomass for energy and captures the CO2 at the smokestack, so energy is the product and removal is a by-product. Biomass burial is the inverse: whole woody biomass or pyrolyzed bio-oil is placed in oxygen-deprived underground sites where the storage itself is the product. It's also not landfill diversion, which is off-spec.", "source_id": null }, { "question": "Why is biomass burial's cost driven by logistics instead of energy?", "answer_md": "The cost spine isn't electricity or a chemical reaction — it's logistics: biomass collection, transport, processing, and the underground burial well itself. Energy intensity is low (pyrolysis is self-fueling from biomass and drying uses only modest grid power), so **cheap electricity barely moves the number**. Today's band runs **$100–$250 per ton CO2**, dropping to roughly **$80–$200** at scale as logistics and burial-well capex spread across more tons. The biggest cost reductions come from logistics scale and pairing feedstock with industries like forestry and agriculture that already pay to handle their residues.", "source_id": null }, { "question": "How much carbon can biomass burial actually remove, and is it operating yet?", "answer_md": "Graphyte's Loblolly Project in Pine Bluff, Arkansas is the first commercial-scale biomass-burial facility globally, with a **50-kiloton-per-year** nameplate ramp anchored by a **60-kiloton offtake from JPMorgan Chase**. In integrated 2050 scenarios, IPCC AR6 sizes the method in the **0.5–3 gigaton** range, gated by sustainable feedstock supply and burial-site capacity, with MECP carrying a realistic engineering ceiling of **3 gigatons per year**. The thesis treats the 2050 number as supply-integration-bound rather than supply-limited — US forest residues alone run hundreds of millions of tons a year, most of which decomposes or burns within a decade.", "source_id": null } ], "related_sectors": [ { "slug": "biochar", "title": "Biochar" }, { "slug": "dac", "title": "Direct Air Capture" }, { "slug": "erw", "title": "Enhanced Rock Weathering" }, { "slug": "mineralization", "title": "Mineralization" }, { "slug": "nature-based", "title": "Afforestation, Reforestation, Soil" }, { "slug": "ocean-alkalinity", "title": "Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement" } ], "embeds": [ { "id": "biomass-burial-capacity-bands", "title": "Biomass burial capacity: today, the scenario, the ceiling.", "permalink": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands", "svg": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands.svg", "png": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-capacity-bands.png" }, { "id": "biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver", "title": "Biomass burial cost vs. logistics.", "permalink": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver", "svg": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver.svg", "png": "https://moreenergycleanplanet.com/embed/biomass-burial-cost-vs-driver.png" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "graphyte-pine-bluff-jpmorgan", "title": "Graphyte Carbon Casting + JPMorgan Chase 60kt offtake", "url": "https://www.graphyte.com/", "publisher_tier": "self-reported", "source_type": "report", "note": "Carbon Casting: collect + dry + condense + wrap + store. Pine Bluff AR ramping to 50 kt/yr by early 2025. JPMorgan Chase 60,000 metric ton carbon removal agreement. Carbon Direct partnership." }, { "id": "ipcc-ar6-wg3-ch12", "title": "AR6 WG3 Chapter 12: Cross-sectoral perspectives", "url": "https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/chapter/chapter-12/", "publisher_tier": "primary", "source_type": "report", "note": "Canonical definition of CDR (\"anthropogenic activities removing CO2 from the atmosphere and durably storing it\"). DAC theoretical scale potential 20 Gt/yr; cumulative DACCS 2020–2100 range 29 (0–339) GtCO2. The \"capture ≠ removal\" rule lives here." }, { "id": "state-of-cdr-2024", "title": "The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal - 2nd Edition", "url": "https://www.stateofcdr.org", "publisher_tier": "academic", "source_type": "report", "note": "Primary source for the CDR method cost table. Supplements: IEA DAC 2022 (=fn65), IPCC AR6 WGIII (=fn40), Frontier/Lithos data." } ], "mcp": { "server": "https://mcp.moreenergycleanplanet.com/mcp", "tools": [ "get_sector", "get_cost_curve", "list_indicators", "get_sources" ] } } ```