Frequently asked questions

How is biochar produced?

Biochar is produced through pyrolysis — the thermal decomposition of organic material in the absence (or near-absence) of oxygen. Here is the basic process:

• Feedstock collection: Local biomass waste such as wood chips, crop residues, or green organic waste is gathered.

• Heating: The biomass is heated to high temperatures (typically 500–700 °C) in a pyrolysis reactor.

• Stabilisation: Without oxygen, combustion cannot occur; instead the organic carbon rearranges into a highly stable aromatic structure.

• By-products: The process also yields bio-oil and syngas, which can be captured as renewable energy, improving the overall energy balance.

Better Carbon sources feedstocks locally, reducing transport emissions and supporting circular waste management.

What other applications exist for biochar?

Beyond agriculture and construction, biochar knows a growing range of industrial uses:

• Water filtration: Its porous structure adsorbs heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants from water streams.

• Animal feed additive: Small amounts can improve gut health in livestock and reduce methane emissions from cattle.

• Composting accelerator: Biochar mixed with compost speeds up decomposition and reduces nitrogen losses.

• Asphalt and road materials: Research is exploring biochar as an additive to improve asphalt performance and durability.

• Battery anodes: Bio-derived carbon materials show promise in next-generation energy storage.

Is biochar the same as charcoal or activated carbon?

They are related but different. All three are produced from biomass through heat, but their purposes and properties differ:

• Charcoal (e.g. barbecue charcoal) is optimised for combustion — burning it releases all the stored carbon back into the atmosphere.

• Activated carbon undergoes additional activation (steam or chemical) to maximise surface area, primarily for filtration and purification applications.

• Biochar is specifically produced and applied to soils or materials to sequester carbon long-term, with the additional benefit of improving soil health and enabling other industrial uses. It is not burned.

What does Better Carbon do and how does biochar contribute to CDR?

We are a Netherlands-based climate tech company that produces high-value biochar from local biomass waste and transforms it into carbon-negative materials for agriculture and industry. Our approach goes beyond simply selling biochar as a carbon credit instrument. By turning biochar into genuinely useful products — for soil health, concrete, and other industrial uses — we ensure that every atom of carbon actively reduces new emissions while simultaneously being stored away permanently. Our mission is to make carbon removal a driver of decarbonisation, not merely a supplementary offset.

Plants naturally absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. When plant material decomposes or burns, that CO₂ is re-released. Biochar interrupts this cycle: by converting biomass into a stable carbon form through pyrolysis, the carbon that the plant absorbed from the atmosphere is locked away for centuries rather than returning to the air. This makes biochar a genuine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology, recognised alongside direct air capture and enhanced weathering in climate science frameworks.

Standard carbon offsets often involve avoided or reduced emissions rather than actively removing historic CO₂ emissions already in the atmosphere. Better Carbon's approach is different in two key ways:

• Active removal: Biochar production physically extracts carbon from the biogenic cycle and stores it durably — this is a genuine removal, not an avoidance claim.

• Double impact: By converting biochar into useful materials (soil amendments, concrete additives, industrial products), Better Carbon ensures the carbon also displaces emissions in the supply chains it enters — creating a compounding climate benefit on the route to permanent storage.

What are the main benefits of applying biochar in agriculture?

Biochar's highly porous structure makes it a powerful soil amendment with multiple benefits:

• Water retention: Its sponge-like pores hold moisture, reducing irrigation needs — particularly valuable in dry climates.

• Nutrient retention: Biochar reduces leaching of nitrogen and other nutrients, making fertilisers more efficient and reducing runoff pollution.

• Soil microbial activity: The porous structure provides habitat for beneficial soil microorganisms, improving soil biology and fertility.

• pH buffering: It can help neutralise acidic soils, reducing the need for lime applications.

• Carbon sequestration in the field: Every tonne of biochar applied to farmland locks in approximately 2.5 to 3 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent carbon.

Yes - our biochar produced in the Netherlands is available on Bol.com

Can I try and use the biochar you produce?