Plans for the UK’s largest biochar production facility in Royal Wootton Basset, Wiltshire have been announced by A Healthier Earth.

The British firm has partnered with German net-zero technology specialists PYREG to produce biochar at scale. If the project goes ahead, it the production facility will be able to produce up to 9,000 tonnes of biochar a year, capturing and storing 17,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Biochar is a catch-all term describing any organic material that has been carbonised under high temperatures and is recognised by the IPCC as a carbon removal technology created from end-of-life plant material. This process, called pyrolysis, releases bio-oils plus gases and leaves a solid residue of at least 80 per cent elemental carbon.

A Healthier Earth will use local organic waste, preventing it from ending up in landfill or incineration. The site is set to be operational from the beginning of 2025 and will produce circular biochar with multiple global uses and secondary environmental benefits, from soil remediation to water filtration to decarbonising construction materials.

The company will ramp up its biochar production over the next three years to produce up to 9,000 tonnes of biochar a year. The climate tech firm will then sell high-integrity biochar carbon credits, representing long-term sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere.

Alastair Collier, chief R&D officer at A Healthier Earth said: “Biochar has the potential to have a huge impact in tackling climate change, but it currently isn’t being sufficiently scaled to reach it. Our new partnership with PYREG will help us do that by creating up to 9,000 tonnes of biochar each year, which means we’re sequestering significant and meaningful amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.”

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