Removal Carbon Offsetting: How Emerging Tech Projects Are Reshaping Sustainability

Voluntary carbon markets for carbon removals enable companies to finance negative emissions technologies and biological natural carbon removal activities that can help the planet stay within 1.5°C of warming.

As more companies look to address their carbon footprints, many realize that efforts to reduce their own emissions can be time-consuming and complex. Reaching long-term sustainability goals, like becoming a net zero organization, can take decades, and along the way, you might find that certain sources of carbon emissions are difficult or nearly impossible to truly abate.

As we have mentioned in previous blogs, carbon credits are based on two different type: Removal and Avoidance. These carbon removals come from carbon projects that remove existing greenhouse gases (GHGs), either through natural source or man-made technology process. Companies are exploring to use carbon removals technology offsets to mitigate for their ongoing emissions while still looking for reductions.

However, as human activities are off-track to meet the emission reduction targets set out under the Paris Agreement, but there are some organizations that are taking advantage of both avoidance and removal offsets mechanism within and beyond their value chains today to avoid the climate crisis.

Natural and technological based strategies exist to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it through various means, such as in trees and plants, soils, underground reservoirs, rocks, the ocean and even through products like concrete. Carbon removals are becoming important for reaching long-term climate goals that will likely require reducing the historical high level of emissions. So, carbon removals is good alternative to fill those gaps.

Lets see different type of carbon removal technology projects which are available in the market.

Biochar

n the quest for sustainable solutions, biochar emerges as a most feasible project type —a powerful, charcoal-like substance derived from agricultural and forestry waste. Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (also called biomass) are burned in a container with very little oxygen. As the materials burn, they release little to no contaminating fumes. During the control burning, the organic material is converted into biochar, a stable form of carbon that can’t easily escape into the atmosphere.

But it’s not just another eco-friendly trend; biochar is a carbon-storing, soil-boosting, energy-producing powerhouse with the potential to revolutionize farming and fight climate change. Let’s dive into why biochar deserves a spot in the sustainability spotlight.

Biochar isn’t just another sustainability buzzword—it’s a proven, scalable solution with benefits for agriculture, energy, and the environment. As we look for ways to build a greener future, biochar stands out as a simple yet transformative tool in the fight against climate change.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Projects: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is stepping into the spotlight as a critical climate solution. aim to capture Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes, power plants, or direct air capture technologies, and store them underground or use them for other purposes. CO₂ is injected deep underground into geological formations (like depleted oil fields or saline aquifers), where it mineralizes over time. CCS helps in reducing the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.

This type of technology is yet to be fully operational for a offset project.

Biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS)

This project type includes a range of processes that use biomass from plants or algae to remove carbon dioxide from the air and then store it for long periods of time. These methods aim to leverage the carbon storage capacity of plants beyond their natural lifecycles: Whereas trees remove and store carbon only until they die and decompose, biomass carbon removal and storage aims to sequester the CO2 that plants capture more permanently.

Several promising methods are leading this carbon storage revolution. Biochar production converts biomass into a stable, charcoal-like substance through oxygen-limited heating, creating both a carbon sink and soil enhancer. The bio-oil approach uses similar thermal conversion to produce liquid carbon that can be safely injected underground. Alternatively, specially designed biomass vaults preserve carbon-rich plant materials indefinitely. These technologies offer exciting pathways to achieve truly long-term carbon sequestration while utilizing nature's own carbon capture systems.

Unlike reforestation, where carbon storage ends when trees die, biomass carbon removal provides more permanent sequestration. By processing agricultural residues, fast-growing crops, and algae into durable carbon products, we can turn biomass into a powerful climate tool. As these technologies scale, they could play a key role in balancing emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industries while improving soil health and creating new green energy sources. The challenge now is refining these methods to make them cost-effective at a global scale.

Direct Air Capture

Direct air capture is the process of chemically scrubbing carbon dioxide from the ambient air and then sequestering it either underground or in long-lived products like concrete. This technology is similar to the carbon capture and storage technology mentioned above. The difference is that direct air capture removes excess carbon that’s already been emitted into the atmosphere, instead of capturing it at the source.

Direct air capture also requires substantial heat and power inputs: Scrubbing 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide from the air could require nearly 10% of today’s total energy consumption. To result in net carbon removal, therefore, direct air capture technology would need to be powered by low- or zero-carbon energy sources.

Investing in technological development and deployment experience, together with increasing availability of cheap, clean energy, could advance prospects for direct air capture at a large scale.

Carbon Mineralization

Enhanced mineralization, sometimes called as enhanced weathering, is a carbon removal technology that accelerates the natural process of minerals absorbing (CO2) from the atmosphere, converting it into stable, long-term storage in rocks.

This type of artificial technology accelerates the natural processes by which various minerals absorb (CO2) from the atmosphere. This natural process which takes hundreds of years, called weathering, currently converts about one billion tons each year of atmospheric CO2 into minerals, providing reliable, long-term storage. Enhancing or speeding up this weathering process would get in motion with the mining and processing of specific kinds of rock, such as olivine or basalt, or with waste materials from mining, steelmaking, or other industries

But scientists are figuring out how to speed up the carbon mineralization process, especially by enhancing the exposure of these minerals to CO2 in the air or ocean. This technology is still in development stage and requires more time to make it practically execute at large scale.

Conclusion

New advancement in carbon removal technology is a encouraging news for carbon markets. But overall large-scale application will require time, and evolution of standards. Till the time, we can delve into the existing level of avoidance and nature-based removal technology-based carbon projects. Once we have these new technology-based project ready, we can make a transition to such trend.

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