Biochar application to soils

This is a Carbon Storage Module and covers the biochar application to soils. This module is part of the Riverse BiCRS methodology, which allows Project Developers to choose the relevant modules for their project, and shall be used with the necessary accompanying modules.

See more details on how modules are organized in the BiCRS home page.

How to use this module

BiCRS Methodology

Scope of the module

This module covers industrial biochar projects that meet all of the following criteria:

Biochar may be applied directly to soils or incorporated into soil-related products, such as soil additives, horticultural substrates, potting soils, fertilizer mixes, or compost.

Projects may be designed to prioritize bio-oil or bioenergy production, where biochar is the co-product. Such projects may still be eligible for removal Riverse Carbon Credits under this module, if they meet all criteria outlined herein.

This module also covers any potential avoided horticultural products from the use of biochar.

This module issues removal RCCs on the basis of biochar end use/delivery, i.e. application to soils and permanent storage, not on the basis of biochar production.

Eligible Project Developers

The Project Developer and entity eligible for receiving carbon finance may be either:

• the operator of the biochar production site, or

• land owners or managers who purchase biochar and apply it to their soil.

Pyrolyzer and gasification equipment manufacturers are not eligible Project Developers.

Production batches

A production batch is the biochar produced under the same conditions regarding production temperature and feedstock mix. It is assumed that all biochar from the same production batch has similar characteristics (i.e. $H/C_{\text{org}}$, moisture content…).

Specifically, the definition of a production batch follows the European Biochar Certificate Guidelines definition, where pyrolysis temperature and biomass feedstock composition must not change by more than 20%.

Measurements and reporting are performed at the production batch level. Verification and credit issuance may be done per production batch, or annually on the cumulative production batches from that year.

A production batch has a maximum validity of 365 days, after which biochar shall be considered part of a different production batch even if conditions are unchanged. In other words, the production batch ID number resets and a new production batch is created, and new monitoring requirements applied, after 365 days, regardless of if feedstock or pyrolysis conditions change or not.

Eligibility criteria

The eligibility criteria requirements specific to this module are detailed in the sections below. Other eligibility criteria requirements shall be taken from the accompanying modules and methodologies:

BiCRS methodology

• Additionality

• No double counting

• Targets alignment

• ESDNH

Other modules

• Substitution

• Co-benefits

• No double counting

• ESDNH

• Leakage

Riverse Standard Rules

• Measurability

• Real

• TRL

• Minimum impact

Permanence

Estimating permanent carbon fraction

Projects issuing removal RCCs from biochar application to soil may claim one of two different permanence horizons, depending on their GHG reduction quantification method: a permanence horizon of 100 years or 1000 years.

Permanence is ensured by measuring one of the following characteristics of biochar that are known indicators of carbon stability:

• 100 year pathway: Hydrogen and organic carbon content ($H/C_{\text{org}}$). $H/C_{\text{org}}$ must be less than 0.7 to be considered eligible for 100-year permanent removals.

• 1000 year pathway: Random reflectance. The fraction of the biochar that has a random reflectance of 2% or higher can be considered inertinite, which is an extremely stable, permanent storage of mineral-like organic carbon.

The distinction between the two permanence horizons is supplementary, qualitative information that does not affect the inherent attributes of the removal RCC.

These indicators are suitable proof that a substantial fraction of the carbon present in biochar is permanently stable. The specific amount of permanently stored carbon is determined using the models and equations detailed in the GHG reduction quantification section.

These indicators shall be monitored for each production batch according to the Riverse Sampling Requirements.

Risk of reversal

Project Developers shall fill in the Riverse Biochar application to soils risk evaluation to evaluate the risk of carbon storage reversal, based on social, economic, natural, and delivery risks.

Project Developers shall assign a likelihood and severity score to each risk, and provide an explanation of their choices. The Riverse Certification team shall evaluate the assessment and may recommend changes to the assigned scores.

The Project Developer, Riverse Certification team, or the third-party auditor may suggest additional risks to be considered for a specific project.

Each reversal risk with a high or very risk score is subject to:

• risk mitigation plan, developed by the Project Developer, that details the long-term strategies and investments for preventing, monitoring, reporting and compensating carbon removal reversal, or

• additional contributions to the buffer pool, at a rate of 3% of verified removal Riverse Carbon Credits for each high or very high risk

No double counting

See the BiCRS methodology No double counting section for general requirements on this topic. Since both biochar producers and users are eligible for removal RCCs under this methodology, additional details are provided here.

If only one party intends to issue carbon credits, this must be proven through signed agreements, minimizing the risk of double counting.

If both the biochar producer and the farmer intend to issue carbon credits, they must agree on how to divide the annual biochar production for credit issuance. The credited biochar amount must be tracked and reported separately, governed by agreements outlining which party receives credits.

Co-benefits

Project Developers shall prove that their project provides at least 2 co-benefits from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework (and no more than 4).

Common co-benefits of projects certified under this methodology, and their sources of proof, are detailed in Table 1. Project Developers may suggest and prove other co-benefits not mentioned here.

SDG 13 on Climate Action by default is not considered a co-benefit here, since it is implicitly accounted for in the issuance of carbon credits. If the project delivers climate benefits that are not accounted for in the GHG reduction quantifications, then they may be considered as co-benefits.

Table 1 Summary of common co-benefits provided by projects certified under this methodology. Co-benefits are organized under the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) framework.

Substitution

If Project Developers can prove that their biochar product replaces a specific and known amount of a specific product, (e.g. a known fraction of a horticultural substrate mix), then the product may be considered as replaced and avoided. The Project Developer shall justify the amount of material actually replaced by biochar, and may not simply use a 1:1 mass replacement ratio. A non-exhaustive list of possible replaced products include:

• Horticultural peat/peat moss

• Lime

• Perlite and vermiculite

• Synthetic mineral fertilizers (only when biochar is used as an ingredient in fertilizer mixes, not when it is directly applied to soils)

By default, it shall be assumed that biochar application to soils does not replace any measurable, verifiable product.

If only removal RCCs are issued, then this eligibility criteria is not applicable.

Note that avoidance from energy co-products is covered in a a separate module.

Environmental and social do no harm

Project Developers shall prove that the project does not contribute to substantial environmental and social harms.

Projects must follow all national, local, and European (if located in Europe) environmental regulations related to, for example, pyrolysis, gasification, waste feedstock management, and biochar spreading on soils.

Feedstock sustainability risks shall be taken from the Biomass feedstock module.

Biochar applied to soils must be below the pollutant concentration thresholds outlined in Table 2, defined by the World Biochar Certificate Guidelines (for WBC-Agro). This shall be measured for each production batch.

Table 2 The thresholds for pollutant concentrations allowed in biochar, as detailed in the World Biochar Certificate Guidelines.

ESDNH risk evaluation

Project Developers shall fill in the Riverse Biochar application to soils risk evaluation, to evaluate the identified environmental and social risks of projects. The identified risks include:

• Heavy metal or other pollutants in biochar applied to agricultural soils

Project Developers shall assign a likelihood and severity score of each risk, and provide an explanation of their choices. The VVB and Riverse’s Certification team shall evaluate the assessment and may recommend changes to the assigned scores.

All risks with a high or very high risk score are subject to a Risk Mitigation Plan, which outlines how Project Developers will mitigate, monitor, report, and if necessary, compensate for any environmental and/or social harms.

Additional proof may be required for certain high risk environmental and social problems.

The Project Developer, the Riverse Certification team, or the VVB may suggest additional risks to be considered for a specific project.

GHG quantification

The GHG reduction quantification instructions from all other modules used by the project must be used in conjunction with the present module in order to obtain full life-cycle GHG reduction quantifications.

The system boundary of this quantification section starts at the arrival of biochar at the site of permanent incorporation/application (i.e. field for spreading, mixing into potting soil...) and ends at the biochar end of life, after accounting for decay and re-emission in its end use application.

Quantification shall be done at a minimum for each biochar production batch, and may be done more frequently for Continuous issuance.

GHG emissions covered in this module include:

• Permanent carbon storage modeling

• Production of avoided baseline scenario materials

Data sources

The required primary data for GHG reduction calculations from projects are presented in Table 2. These data shall be provided for each production batch and made publicly available.

Table 2 Summary of primary data needed from projects and their source for initial project certification and validation. Asterisks (*) indicate which data are required to be monitored and updated during verification (see Monitoring Plan section).

The ecoinvent database version 3.10 (hereafter referred to as ecoinvent) shall be the main source of emission factors unless otherwise specified. Ecoinvent is preferred because it is traceable, reliable, and well-recognized. The ecoinvent processes selected are detailed in Appendix 1.

No other secondary data sources are used in this module.

Co-product allocation

The rules outlined at the methodology-level in the BiCRS methodology document shall be applied for allocating GHG emissions between co-products.

Assumptions

1. By default, biochar application to soils does not replace any product.

2. The fraction of biochar with an $R_o$ below 2% does not contribute to any permanent carbon storage. This fraction, classified as semi-inertinite rather than inertinite, likely plays a role in long-term carbon storage. However, due to limited research on its quantification, it is conservatively excluded from this analysis.

3. All biochar from the same production batch has the same characteristics (e.g. , $H/C_{\text{org}}$, $R_o$).

Baseline scenario

The baseline scenario for the purpose of Removal vs Avoidance RCCs issuance is detailed below.

Project scenario

Project Developers must choose between one of two approaches to quantify the total carbon removals from their biochar product, as described in the Permanence section. A single approach must be used consistently throughout each reporting period, though a different approach may be chosen for subsequent reporting periods.

1. Modeling 100-year removals using bulk measurements of $H/C_{\text{org}}$, or

2. Estimating 1000-year removals using random reflectance measurements as proxies for inertinite.

Approach 1: Modeling 100-year removals with $H/C_{\text{org}}$

This approach is based on research from Woolf et al., 2021, and the IPCC modeling method. It is rooted in soil ecology and soil biochemistry disciplines. The permanent fraction of biochar carbon remaining after 100 years ( $F_{\text{perm 100}}$) is modeled according to the local average annual soil temperature.

Soil temperature shall be obtained for the location of each biochar spreading/end use event, using the GPS coordinates provided in the Verification of end use report and the global soil temperature dataset from Lembrechts et al., 2021. The Riverse Certification Team can provide soil temperature values for Project Developers based on the provided GPS coordinates.

For verification, Project Developers shall provide primary project data in the form of laboratory measurements for $H/C_{\text{org}}$ and following the Sampling requirements.

Table 3 Soil temperature ranges are categorized and their corresponding c and m regression coefficients are presented, which are used in Eq. 1 below to calculate $F_{perm}$. Values are taken from Woolf et al., 2021.

Approach 2: Estimating 1000-year removals using random reflectance

This approach is based on research from Sanei et al., 2024, and is rooted in organic petrology and geochemistry disciplines. This approach is built upon research showing that fractions of inertinite in biochar samples are:

• inert and permanent and will not re-release their carbon for at least 1000 years.

• represented by the fraction of the sample with a Random Reflectance ($R_o$) of 2% or higher.

For verification, Project Developers shall provide primary project data in the form of laboratory measurements for $R_o$ distribution and per production batch following the Sampling requirements.

$R_o$ distribution shall be calculated on at least 500 measurements, yielding a distribution diagram similar to the examples in Figure 1.

The fraction of the distribution with an $R_o$ above 2% shall be assumed to equal the fraction of the biochar carbon that is stored permanently for 1000 years. The fraction

The fraction of the distribution with an $R_o$ below 2% shall represent the fraction of biochar carbon that is not permanently stored, and for which no removal RCCs are issued.

Future Approach 3: Using H/C as a proxy for inertinite

Riverse is actively monitoring ongoing research and seeking expert advice on the potential development of a third approach that uses $H/C_{\text{org}}$ measurements as proxies for inertinite content. For example, if the $H/C_{\text{org}}$ value is less than 0.2, it could be interpreted as indicating that 95% of the biochar is inertinite. While this simplification has been suggested by experts and holds promise, it is currently considered insufficiently rigorous due to a lack of supporting evidence and clear guidance.

Uncertainty assessment

See general instructions for uncertainty assessment in the Riverse Standard Rules. The outcome of the assessment shall be used to determine the percent of RCCs to eliminate with the discount factor.

The three assumptions presented in the Assumptions section have moderate uncertainty, but the most conservative approach is taken in the quantifications.

The baseline scenario selection (if applicable) has low uncertainty, because the specific circumstances, amount and type of baseline material must be proven by the Project Developer.

The equations and models have low to moderate uncertainty. The model for 100-year permanence from Woolf et al., 2021 has moderate uncertainty because it is a model fitted to experimental data, which always introduces variability. The equations for 1000-year permanence from Sanei et al., 2024 have low uncertainty because they are basic conversion equations.

The assumption that biochar characteristics are the same throughout the production batch is low, thanks to the strict definition of a production batch ensuring low-variability, and the exhaustive sampling requirements ensuring a representative sample.

The uncertainty at the module level is estimated to be low. This translates to an expected discount factor of at least 3% for projects using this module.

Sampling requirements

The following indicators shall be measured for each production batch:

• $H/C_{\text{org}}$

• Carbon content (organic and/or total)

• moisture content

• random reflectance (only if applying for 1000-year permanence)

Measurements shall be performed by laboratories with at least one quality assurance accreditation, such as:

• ISO/IEC 17025

• CEN/TS 17225-1

• ISO 10694

Unaccredited laboratories from academic settings shall be evaluated on a case by case basis by the VVB and the Riverse Certification team.

The sampling procedure detailed in sections below and summarized in Figure 1 is the recommended approach for representative sampling. However, Project Developers may implement their own approach if it is detailed in the PDD and in Sampling Records; ensures one representative sample per production batch; addresses samples and composite samples amount and frequency; and ensures homogenization. The VVB and the Riverse Certification team must validate the rigor and representativeness of the proposed sampling approach.

The recommended approach sampling requirements are based on the following sources:

• EU Fertilizing Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009

• European Biochar Certificate Guidelines Annex 4 Representative Sampling

Representative sampling

One representative sample per Production Batch shall be created and sent for laboratory testing. This sample ensures that any within-batch variability is captured in the measurements.

Table 1 details the number of composite samples that should be taken per Production Batch to obtain one representative sample, based on the EU Fertilizing Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009.

The representative sample size should be be 24 liters * the n number of composite samples per Production Batch detailed in Table 1.

Table 1

The European Biochar Certificate Guidelines Annex 4 Representative Sampling should be followed for taking composite samples. Those requirements are summarized below.

Homogenization

The representative sample shall be homogenized by the Project Developer or by the laboratory that performs testing. The biochar shall be ground to a size of <3 mm.

The ground sample is mixed by shoveling the pile three times from one pile to another.

A sub-sample of 1.5 liters shall be taken from 15 spots in the mixed pile.

The 15 sub-samples are re-combined, and then mixed by shoveling the pile three times from one pile to another.

From the mixed pile of the combined sub-samples, 15 subsamples of 150 ml each should be taken at 15 different spots in the pile and combined. This combined homogenized representative cross sample is used for laboratory testing.

Retention samples

A one-liter retention sample shall be collected each day that biochar is produced. These samples should be combined for storage over the calendar month. Retention samples must be stored for a minimum of two years.

Sampling records

For each Production Batch, Project Developers shall submit a Sampling Record for verification to prove their adherence to the requirements above. Sampling Records shall include the following information for each sample taken:

• Date of sampling

• Amount of biochar sampled

• Description of representative sampling process (either followed the recommended approach, or describe the individual approach)

• Sample ID

• Visual description and observation of biochar

• Description of any potential anomalies

• Proof of retention sampling

• Photos showing the date, sample ID, and amount of biochar that is included in the present Sampling Record

Validation and verification requirements

Ex-ante validation data requirements

Biochar projects often use carbon financing to launch new projects, and validation is done ex-ante before the project begins operations. In this case, provisional RCCs are estimated using reasonable project data estimates. These provisional credit estimates are converted to verified issued credits upon verification using real project data. Required project data estimates are detailed below.

A project may use one quantification approach for ex-ante estimation, and use a different approach for verification.

Ex-ante validation delivery risk

When validation is conducted on non-operating projects that are in the planning stage, Project Developers shall prove during validation that the biochar is reasonably expected with strong certainty to end up in its intended use (application to soil). This shall be provided by either:

• Option 1: Signed agreements with the end-buyers that they intend to purchase the agreed upon quantity of biochar annually (preferable).

• Option 2: If the project is in planning stages and has not yet secured a buyer, a signed agreement from the Project Developer of their intended buyer/user of biochar. Note that the delivery risk is higher for this option, so Option 1 is preferable. An increased discount factor may be applied.

Verification of biochar end use

Upon verification, once the project has started operating, Project Developers shall prove that biochar has been used in the intended application for each Production Batch, (e.g. incorporated into soils, added to fertilizer mixes…). This shall be done in Biochar Application Verification Reports that shall contain all of the following:

• Tracking records of the purchase and/or delivery of the biochar to its end use point of use, specifying the date, amount of biochar and Production Batch ID.

• GPS coordinates of all end use points with according amounts of biochar, if known to the Project Developer.

• Company name and individual contact information for each buyer/user of biochar, for traceability and random checking by VVBs.

• Photo diary of biochar application, including photos of for example the biochar being delivered, tags/labels with information, road signs during delivery, process of biochar spreading.

Monitoring plan

Monitoring Plans for this module shall include, but are not limited to, tracking of the following information for each Production Batch:

• Description of the pyrolysis conditions (temperature and residence time) and any variability in the process

• Amount of biochar produced, in tonnes of fresh biochar

• Moisture content of biochar

• Organic carbon content

• $H/C_{\text{org}}$ (only for Approach 1: Modeling 100-year removals with H/C org)

• Random reflectance ( $R_o$) mean and distribution (only for Approach 2: Estimating 1000-year removals using random reflectance)

• ESDNH pollutant measurements

• Biochar Application Verification Reports, with names and GPS coordinates of spreading locations, among other information

• Sampling records

Monitoring Plans for this module shall include, but are not limited to, tracking of the following information for each calendar year:

• Number of Production Batches

• Total amount of biochar produced per year, in tonnes of fresh biochar

The Project Developer is the party responsible for adhering to the Monitoring Plan.

Appendix

The table below presents a non-exhaustive selection of Ecoinvent activities that may be used in the GHG reduction calculations for this module. Additional activities may be used for any project, if the following selection does not cover all relevant activities.

Table A1 List of ecoinvent 3.10 processes used in the GHG reduction quantification model, all processes are from the cutoff database

Risk evaluation template

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Version history

This page describes the changes in the Biochar application to soils module.

Because this module is considered the V2.0 of the Riverse BECCS and Biochar V1.0 methodology, the table below also includes changes from the Riverse BECCS and Biochar V1.0 methodology that are covered in other modules (e.g. Biomass feedstock).