About Us

Our mission is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at an industrial capacity with the aim to reach 350 ppm CO2 before the end of the century, while making the agricultural land climate-resilient.

Solving our climate and food challenge

ECOERA uses an industrial symbiosis solution starting with using agricultural residues rich in carbon and creating a pellet out of them. The pellets are then carbonized where heat is released and utilized. After carbonization, the result is a carbon-rich substance; biochar. The biochar is, in essence, embodied carbon dioxide and used as a soil enhancement providing better nutrient-holding capacity for agricultural soils – creating a climate resilient food production. We see it as the most promising solution in the carbontech field as we remove the actual carbon atom from the carbon cycle with no need to bring the whole CO2 molecule down in (deep underground) storage. Biochar Carbon Removal is permanent CDR - with benefits.

The food challenge – degraded soils

Soil quality is decreasing globally. The amount of carbon in present soils have lost up to 75% of the bound carbon. This has an impact on soil productivity and crop yield. This can be solved by adding a biochar to agricultural soils. As this carbon is bound into the soil, it remains stable and therefore acts as a carbon sink and a holding matrix for moisture, nutrients and microbes.

The climate challenge – getting to 350ppm.

Nature’s most efficient way of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere is by photosynthesis. The CO2 is converted into biomass. By using a low-oxygen pyrolysis process, the biomass is converted into syngas (mainly methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen) this syngas is combusted for heating. In the process, another fraction is formed; biochar. The carbon atoms in the biochar, hence are bound from the atmospheric CO2, which in effect is historically emitted carbon.

Deposits of biochar charcoal up to 9500 years old have been found in wet tropical forest soils in Guyana (Hammond et al, 2007), up to 6000 years old in Amazonia (Soubies 1979), and up to 23,000 years old in Costa Rica (Titiz & Sanford, 2007). The carbon bound in Amazonian Terra Preta soils is still stable and the soils still have a high fertility. 

Our network

ECOERA is part of the steering committee of the Vinnova-funded project "Rest till Bäst". This project aim to create more biomass residue sources to be used for biochar production and subsequent carbon sequestration. Read more at: www.biokol.org

At ECOERA we are part of Fossil Free Sweden. 

ECOERA was part of the International Biochar Initiative Expert Panel forming the IBI Biochar Carbon Offset Methodology document. This is now one of the core fundaments in all BCR methodologies.

ECOERA has generated publications and is a co-author to the Biochar in European Soils and Agriculture - Science and Practice from Routledge.

More research from ECOERA can be found here.