About ECOERA

Removing carbon with biochar since 2009

Our mission is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at industrial scale, on the way back to 350 ppm before the end of this century, and to make farmland more resilient while we do it.

Why we exist

One material for two problems

The climate problem

There is too much carbon in the air. Crops take some out every growing season, but the residues of seed production would otherwise be pelletised and burned for heat, which sends their carbon straight back. Pyrolysis breaks that cycle: heating the pellets with almost no oxygen leaves a solid, stable form of carbon that was in the atmosphere a season ago.

The soil problem

Farmed soils have lost much of the carbon they once held, and with it their ability to hold water and nutrients. Biochar puts stable carbon back, and its porous structure can give moisture, nutrients and microbes somewhere to stay.

History

From a field trial to an industrial plant

ECOERA was founded in 2007 through Chalmers’ incubator, now Chalmers Ventures, together with Skånefrö, and is recognised by WWF as a Climate Solver. Skånefrö owns about a third of ECOERA. The plant is run by Bioagro Energy Österlen AB, a Skånefrö subsidiary.

2007
ECOERA is founded through Chalmers’ incubator, now Chalmers Ventures, together with Skånefrö. Co-founder Bengt-Erik Löfgren brings in the idea of biochar.
2009
Our first biochar field application, near Falkenberg in West Sweden, and our first carbon removal certificate.
2018
ECOERA Millennium 1 opens in Hammenhög with two PYREG reactors.
2019–24
1,530 removal credits issued on Puro.earth for this period, all of them since retired.
2025
The plant joins the Rainbow Standard. Removals from April 2024 onwards were validated and verified at the 100-year permanence tier in May 2026.

Feedstock silos and stack at the Hammenhög plant during construction — Feedstock silos during construction. Hammenhög, 2018.

Our mark

Sun, air, life, earth

The four bars of the ECOERA mark are the four things carbon removal with biochar depends on.

Sun powers photosynthesis.
Air is where the carbon comes from.
Life captures it as crops grow.
Earth is where it stays.

Network and research

Part of how biochar carbon removal was defined

Rest till Bäst
A project part-funded by Vinnova (2017–2023, 27 partners) that turned park and garden waste, sewage sludge, seaweed and seed-production residues into biochar for street trees, green roofs, football pitches, farmland and stormwater filters. ECOERA sat on its steering group and led work on carbon sinks from sewage sludge and on trading biochar carbon sinks. We also coordinated a spin-off pilot that turned restaurant waste from Max Burgers into biochar.
biokol.org
BIOAGRO
An EU LIFE project (2006–2009) that turned residues from seed production into pellet fuel and heat, and pointed to biochar as the next step for the same pellets. ECOERA sat in its project management group. The European Commission named it one of the four “Best of the Best” LIFE Environment projects of 2010, and we presented it in the European Parliament in 2011.
Fossil Free Sweden
ECOERA takes part in the national initiative for a fossil-free Sweden.
International Biochar Initiative
In 2012 ECOERA sat on the International Biochar Initiative’s expert panel that developed the biochar carbon stability test used in IBI’s carbon offset methodology.
Published research
David Andersson co-wrote chapter 11, “Current and Future Applications for Biochar”, in “Biochar in European Soils and Agriculture: Science and Practice” (Routledge).

Team

The people behind ECOERA

Founders who have worked with biochar, bioenergy and farming for decades.

David Andersson
Co-founder and CEO
Science, certification and carbon markets
Molecular biologist with an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and an M.Sc. in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and a background in agriculture. More than ten years of hands-on work in biochar field trials, applications and carbon removal policy. Co-author of the International Biochar Initiative’s Biochar Carbon Stability Test Method.
Sven-Olof Bernhoff
Co-founder and Chairman
Production and agriculture
Former CEO of the seed company Skånefrö. Project manager of the EU LIFE project BIOAGRO, named “Best of the Best” by the European Commission.
Bengt-Erik Löfgren
Co-founder and Business Developer
Bioenergy and business development
More than 30 years in the bioenergy industry, much of it in close collaboration with universities and research institutes. Former coordinator of the Swedish Pellet Association. Brought the idea of biochar to ECOERA.