Climeworks is the most recognized name in direct air capture. The Swiss company operates Orca in Iceland (4,000 tCO₂/year), is building Mammoth (36,000 tCO₂/year), and has become synonymous with permanent, technology-based carbon removal. Its brand is DAC.
So why is Climeworks now integrating biochar into its product offering?
Because portfolio construction logic is replacing single-pathway thinking across the CDR market. And Climeworks is smart enough to follow the signal.
The Cost Curve Argument
DAC is expensive. Current costs are $600-1,000+ per tonne CO₂. Even at projected scale (millions of tonnes per year), costs are expected to remain above $200-300/tonne for at least a decade. The permanence is excellent: CO₂ is captured from air and injected into geological storage, where it mineralizes over thousands of years. But the price tag limits the buyer pool.
Biochar occupies a different position on the cost-permanence curve. High-quality biochar, produced by pyrolyzing biomass at temperatures above 500°C, costs $100-300 per tonne CO₂. The carbon is locked into stable aromatic structures with H/C organic ratios below 0.4, giving mean residence times in the hundreds to thousands of years. Not geological permanence, but far longer than the 100-year accounting horizon most carbon markets use.
By offering both pathways, Climeworks can serve buyers at multiple price points. A corporate buyer with a $500/tonne budget gets DAC. A buyer at $150/tonne gets certified biochar. A buyer building a diversified portfolio gets a blended cost that balances permanence, price, and delivery certainty.
What “High-Quality” Means in Biochar
Not all biochar qualifies. Climeworks’ reputation depends on scientific rigor, and integrating low-quality biochar would undermine it. The biochar entering Climeworks’ portfolio is certified against established standards:
Pyrolysis temperature above 450-500°C. Higher temperatures produce more aromatic carbon with greater long-term stability. Below this range, the resulting char contains more labile carbon that decomposes faster in soil.
H/C organic ratio below 0.4. This is the primary proxy for carbon stability, used by both the European Biochar Certificate (EBC) and the International Biochar Initiative (IBI). Lower ratios indicate more stable carbon.
Third-party certification. Independent auditing of feedstock sourcing, production parameters, and product analysis. Not self-reported data.
Contaminant screening. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metal levels below regulatory thresholds for soil application.
This quality bar matters because, as we covered this week, the biochar market has historically struggled with quality variance. Climeworks entering the biochar market with its verification standards could raise the floor for the entire pathway.
Supplier Strategy vs. Buyer Strategy
The Climeworks move mirrors what is happening on the buyer side. Companies like Tapestry (DAC + biochar), Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 (6 technologies across 7 projects), and LEGO are all building diversified CDR portfolios rather than betting on a single pathway.
Suppliers face the same logic. A CDR company offering only one pathway faces concentration risk: if that pathway hits a cost wall, a regulatory hurdle, or a scaling bottleneck, the company has no fallback. Multi-pathway suppliers can rebalance their offering as costs, technologies, and buyer preferences shift.
Climeworks is not pivoting away from DAC. Orca and Mammoth are the core business. Biochar is portfolio extension: a way to serve more buyers, offer blended pricing, and hedge against the risk that DAC costs decline slower than projected.
The Broader Trend
Three years ago, CDR companies were defined by their pathway. You were a DAC company, a biochar company, an enhanced weathering company. That framing is breaking down. The market is moving toward portfolio construction on both the supply and demand side.
Climeworks adding biochar is the same trend as CUR8 and Isometric launching a multi-pathway 2030 Portfolio. The question is no longer “which pathway wins?” but “how do you construct a portfolio that balances cost, permanence, scalability, and delivery risk?”
That is a sign of market maturation.
Source: BiocharToday, April 2026.