Companies are increasingly seeking renewable sources of carbon for energy use and sequestration, and one option consistently rises to the top for accessibility: biomass. With a wide range of feedstocks—including woody and agricultural residues, aquatic biomass and food waste—biomass serves as a versatile source of carbon, with potential use applications as diverse as the materials themselves. Fertilizer producers, cement manufacturers, farmers and steelmakers are among those benefiting from lower carbon-intensity scores tied to fossil-emission reductions and carbon sequestration.However, as biomass applications expand and specifications become increasingly important, so, too, do standards. The biomass industry’s product diversity is a strength, but it can cause confusion for future investors or offtakers as they seek to understand carbon-based products and applications. Industry experts Myles Gray, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Chris Wiberg, Timber Products Inspection/Biomass Energy Lab, work to provide clarity regarding the differences among three seemingly equivalent terms—biochar, biocoal and biocarbon—as well as the overarching term pyrogenic biocarbon.In his role at USBI, Gray promotes the manufacture and utilization of biochar. His background in environmental science led him to an interest in the biochar industry. Through his experiences working for a biochar startup, he found that the biochar industry needs clearer definitions and standards to help maximize growth and explain the product’s value proposition to investors. “It was always such an uphill battle to even get someone to understand what biochar was,” he says. “And if you got past that threshold, trying to get them convinced that you could make the same product over and over again at large scale to hit certain metrics.”USBI is funded by the U.S. Forest Service, which views biochar as a strategy to reduce fire risk by providing another market for low-value wood. One of Gray’s first projects with USBI was a survey of the global and U.S. biochar industries, he explains, and he was surprised to learn that the industry identified standards as one of the key obstacles to biochar’s development. “From then forward, we really started pushing on standards, and those who really understand product to market, I think, are very enthusiastic about the effort,” Gray says. Standards are critical because they enable communication between seller and buyer. Currently, that communication “has been a mess,” he adds, as both parties are looking for different data.The terms biochar, biocarbon and biocoal are used by various sectors but lack standardized terminology. Serving as chair of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 238, Wiberg works to bring clarity through standardization. He also utilizes his extensive experience from working with Timber Products Inspection/Biomass Energy Lab, which involves inspecting and testing for compliance for solid biofuel- and biocarbon-based products. In a 2024 update, ISO TC 238 changed its title and scope to include “pyrogenic biocarbon,” which includes biochar, biocarbon and biocoal. In essence, this means the standards for this sector are now managed through ISO TC 238. Actual definitions for these terms are still being developed, Wiberg explains, but he believes these efforts will help differentiate how the terms biochar, biocoal and biocarbon should be used to describe various pyrogenic biocarbon products.Technical Details&nbsp; Understanding what pyrogenic biocarbon is and the differences between these products starts with understanding the basics of combustion and the components of biomass. Clean woody biomass, for example, consists of roughly 84% volatile matter (material that is liberated as gas when heated) and roughly 15% fixed carbon (the solid carbon material that remains after all volatile matter is released), with the remainder being the ash fraction. Charcoal is an example of a material whereby biomass has been heated to remove the majority of the volatile matter, with the fixed carbon and ash remaining. The process by which the volatile matter is removed, the type of biomass material used and the amount of ash can vary significantly. Therefore, the final product may better serve a specific end use (e.g., agriculture, concrete additive, steelmaking, etc.), creating a variety of product categories that may be referred to as biochar, biocoal, biocarbon, etc. In the past, waste biomass materials were typically utilized via combustion, creating renewable heat and energy. However, interest in sequestering carbon and avoiding emissions has led to interest in processing biomass through pyrolysis or gasification to yield high fixed-carbon-content materials that can be used to replace carbonaceous fossil fuels or to directly sequester carbon.Wiberg illustrates the process of combustion and the presence of volatile matter and fixed carbon using the example of a common campfire. When wood combusts in a campfire, the initial tall flames come from the volatile matter. As the wood is heated, the volatile matter off-gases and burns as an open flame, similar to a candle. As the volatile matter is depleted, the tall flames go away, but what is left is a very hot bed of coals. This is the high-energy-density fixed-carbon fraction. Smoke is essentially volatile matter that does not ignite and burn. “Any smoke is like the lost energy,” he explains.Woody biomass is transformed into charcoal through pyrolysis, which heats wood to the point that nearly all volatile matter is liberated, leaving behind fixed carbon. Charcoal is differentiated from other products because its primary feedstock is low-end biomass with high ash content; this works well for generating heat and grilling but is not well-suited for industrial applications where the material must be as clean as possible.The production process may not differ greatly from product to product, but there are differences. For example, wood shavings or sawdust could be used to make any of these three products, while biomass like sewage sludge or food waste is better used in biochar (e.g., agricultural applications) but would not work as a feedstock for biocarbon (e.g., steel manufacturing). “Not all feedstocks result in the ability to sell into all three markets,” Wiberg says. “It’s more like you can make pyrogenic biocarbon products out of a lot of different feedstock materials, but the end use may be more selective as to which ones are better or more appropriate for a specific end use.”Gray also emphasizes that the processes used to make biochar, biocarbon and biocoal are almost identical, but the quality of the feedstock often determines the ultimate end use.Biochar&nbsp; Made via pyrolysis, biochar’s main purpose is to sequester carbon for preferably hundreds of years. This could mean use as a soil amendment for marginal, low-quality soils or as a component in concrete. When added to soil, biochar improves water and nutrient retention, helping improve fertility. “If you mix it with a fertilizer, some of the fertilizer will be absorbed into the biochar, and it will allow for a more gradual dissipation of that fertilizer into the farm application,” Wiberg says.Biochar must remain in the environment for as long as possible; therefore, the biomass’ permanence constitutes the important metric rather than fixed-carbon content. Wiberg explains that data points such as random reflectance and hydrogen-to-organic-carbon ratio help predict how long the carbon will remain sequestered in the environment.Though it has been said there are 80 uses for biochar, according to Gray, only about 10 are economically viable, and his team actively promotes five of those. Alongside use as a soil amendment and fertilizer ingredient, biochar finds use in the horticultural substrate market, replacing expensive imported products such as peat, perlite or vermiculite.The concrete sector sees biochar as a potential additive to help reduce the product’s carbon intensity and increase its strength. “Small amounts of biochar can be added in, and that’s not much. It might be like 3 to 5 percent, but 3 to 5 percent of all the concrete we use would be an astronomical amount of biochar deployed. There’s just so much concrete in the world,” Gray adds.The two other applications his team explores are soil remediation and wastewater treatment, since biochar’s properties help remove pollutants and improve plant health in stormwater systems. A particle of biochar is 90% porous, with wood biochar in particular looking like a “crazy honeycomb,” Gray explains. When the cell wall structure of the wood is retained, it offers a lot of porosity and surface area inside biochar particles, allowing pollutants to be absorbed by the biochar. “I think of it as sort of like the poor man’s activated carbon as a product that can be deployed more broadly, in more systems where you might not want to put a bunch of very expensive activated carbon. You can use biochar instead,” he says.Currently, the largest market for biochar comes from farmers growing high-value crops on small acreage, such as vineyards and orchards. The agricultural sector will most likely continue to be biochar’s largest market, according to Gray.Biocarbon&nbsp; This substance offers itself as a lower-carbon-intensity option for industrial processes such as steel manufacturing. Coke or metallurgical coal helps reduce iron oxide into steel. Producers engineer biocarbon to be as similar to metallurgical coal or coke as possible, which means the product must be highly refined. Biocarbon needs a concentrated degree of carbon, so the feedstock is typically made of clean, high-quality wood, minimizing the amount of ash created. “They want to be very calculated as to how much volatiles they cook off so that it’s a very highly concentrated fixed carbon in the final product,” Wiberg says. “It’s kind of like charcoal, only it’s been engineered more precisely.”The carbon is still used up in this application, but it enables manufacturers to avoid coal usage. Gray explains that the carbon in biocarbon becomes consumed by the reduction process, while biochar stays in the ground for up to 1,000 years.Biocoal&nbsp; The term “biocoal” is used to describe a renewable alternative to coal. While it is made from a thermally treated material, biocoal does not require the same type of charring as other products. “[A] lot of the volatile matter is dissipated when you’re making the higher-quality biocarbon reductant material for steel or even biochar—since you’re trying to get it to be as permanent in the environment as possible—but biocoal is not as heavily thermally treated. You might try to retain a larger percentage of those volatiles,” Wiberg says.Typically, biocoal is produced using steam explosion or torrefaction processes that increase the energy density of the material. Biocoal finds use in power plants, cement production facilities, heating plants and anywhere coal serves as a source of heat or power.These product uses might vary widely, but ultimately, each of them brings value by utilizing waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil carbon, Wiberg explains. “There are different benefits, but all of them have some very nice carbon mitigation … properties and purposes, and hence the reason everybody’s trying to use them in any way they can to switch over from fossil carbon to renewable carbon,” he says. Championing Standardization&nbsp; Right now, the primary consequence of the lack of standards is confusion for buyers and sellers, but the challenges will grow with the industry. Although these products may be similar, defining each term is crucial, as the products serve different uses and may have different manufacturing methods.Wiberg lists some of the key elements the ISO seeks to standardize to help the industry speak the same language: “It’s sampling, sample prep, vocabulary, but then all of the individual test methods that go into testing these materials. You’ve got moisture, ash, volatile matter, physical properties, calorific value, metals, chlorine, etc. All the different techniques that are used to run the analysis of these materials are defined under ISO TC 238.”According to Wiberg, standards are already “late to the game.” As the industry grows and large-scale projects multiply, the necessity for clear standards becomes more urgent. Even as projects are underway, uncertainty remains regarding how these materials can be shipped, which measurements are required in testing and more. For example, the International Maritime Organization prohibits shipment of these materials unless special provisions are incorporated into the shipping process because they are believed to have the potential to be self-heating, posing a fire risk onboard ships. Research must be conducted to answer these questions and prevent any hindrances to the growth of these products.The interest in biocarbon expressed by the steel industry and the scale of research being executed into biochar applications cannot be ignored. “Even though most projects are still in the early stages of development, you can sense that they’re coming,” Wiberg says. “And as a result, we know that we’re on the cusp of a big boom.”Author: Katie Schroeder&nbsp; Associate Editor, Biomass Magazine

2026-01-06 - Developing Pyrogenic Biocarbon Standards (Biomass Magazine)

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Experts discuss the crucial role standards play in scaling the adoption of biochar, biocoal and biocarbon.

Developing Pyrogenic Biocarbon Standards

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