Carbofex Nokia 1

Carbofex offers a premium grade of biochar for the horticulture industry and water filtering applications. Our biochar captures and stores more CO2 than is emitted in the manufacturing. One tonne of Carbofex biochar removes 3,2 tonnes of CO2 eq. from the atmosphere into long-term storage in the product. The feedstock is spruce thinnings of sustainably managed Finnish PEFC-certified forests, that would otherwise decompose or be burnt.

Carbofex is the first Puro.earth-certified biochar producer in the world and participated in Puro's Biochar methodology working group when it was first launched in 2019.

How it works

Biochar is produced from biomass or biowaste, through pyrolysis (heating in high temperatures in the absence of oxygen). Pyrolysis creates a very stable, solid form of carbon that can endure in soil for thousands of years, making it an ideal technology for scalable carbon removal. Carbofex biochar is manufactured from spruce thinnings of sustainably managed Finnish PEFC-certified forests. The raw material would thus decay, as CO2 to the atmosphere, without the project.

After the state-of-the-art process a kilo (kg) of the resulting biochar embodies 3,4 kg of CO2 and has caused 0,24 kg of fossil CO2 emissions from cradle-to-grave i.e. from harvesting the wood to the end-customer use phase.

The resulting biochar has high fixed carbon content (94,8%) and chemical and structural stability far greater than in the original materials and removes 3,2 tonnes of CO2 eq. from the atmosphere. It has multiple commercial uses at potentially industrial volumes, for example, as greenhouse additive, in soil regeneration and in wastewater treatment.

The biochar production is verified for carbon negativity by DNV GL, and issued CORCs per each tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Life-Cycle Assessment made by Ecobio followed the methodology described in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards where applicable.

1. Avoided decomposing of biomass: To make biochar we use pre-commercially harvested wood, which would in normal case be left to decompose in the forest or burnt. Those emissions are avoided by stabilizing the carbon in the wood into our biochar for hundreds of years.
2. Harvesting and managing forests sustainably decreases risk of forest fires, insects and diseases. Pre-commercial harvesting is the first step in sustainable forest management.
3. Replacement of materials and their emissions: Use of Biochar can displace use of fertilizer, water filters or building materials that would have caused emissions.
4. Yield increase impacts: When biochar is used in substrates or soil improvements for horticulture in greenhouses or agriculture, 10% yield increases have been reported. More crops and products means also that less land is required for producing the same amount of food or that more food can be grown on the existing farm land and greenhouses.
5. Green jobs: manufacturing biochar creates green jobs thorough out the value chain from harvesting to distribution and use.