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Google has agreed to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits from Indian startup Varaha, its first deal with a carbon project in India involving biomass-produced biochar (also known as horticultural charcoal or “black gold” for soil).
Offtake deal credits from the Varaha industrial biochar project in the western Indian state of Gujarat will be distributed to Google by 2030, the two companies said on Thursday.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. So far, the New Delhi-based startup is the only Indian company listed on the Carbon Removal Standards and Registry. The whole world.
Biochar is produced in two ways: artisanal and industrial. The artisanal method is community-driven, where farmers burn crop residues in conical flasks without using machines. In contrast, industrial biochar is produced using large reactors that process 50-60 tons of biomass per day.
The Varaha project will produce industrial biochar from an invasive plant species, Prosopis juliflorausing its pyrolysis facility in Gujarat. Invasive species affect plant biodiversity and have overtaken grasslands used for livestock. Varaha will collect the tree and try to restore native grasslands in the region, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Madhur Jain, said in an interview. Once biochar is generated, third-party auditors will submit their report to Puro.Earth to generate credits.
Although biochar is seen as a long-term carbon removal solution, its durability can vary between 1,000 and 2,500 years depending on production and environmental factors.
Context: Carbon credits are tied to how long carbon can be permanently removed from the atmosphere by compensating for emissions with sustainable activities. Greenhouse gases have extremely long-term effects in the atmosphere, hundreds or thousands of years, so any viable carbon credit program must commit to similarly long-term carbon removals. “Persistence”, here, refers to how long carbon is stored in the soil before returning to the atmosphere.
Jain told TechCrunch that Varaha used different feedstocks and different parameters in his reactor to try to find the best combination to achieve a lifetime of around 1,600 years.
The startup has also developed a digital monitoring, reporting and verification system, integrating remote sensing to monitor biomass availability. It even has a mobile app that works with field applications of biomass mining and biochar to geo-document geo-tagged, time-stamped images.
With its first project, Varaha said it processed at least 40,000 tonnes of biomass and produced 10,000 tonnes of biochar last year.
“Even if we do not increase our efficiency, we have already reached a level with which we are able to successfully process 40,000 tons of biomass annually, which means that we can reach the goal of 100,000 tons of biochar by 2030.” Dr. Jain.
He added that each ton of biochar generates 2.5 carbon credits and the startup aims to reach 1 million credits annually by 2030.
Carbon credits have gained importance because companies produce greenhouse gas emissions and each credit is equivalent to a reduction of one ton of carbon dioxide. By purchasing carbon credits, companies can support sustainable projects in an effort to offset their emissions.
Google sets a new record with this deal, as the last significant biochar carbon removal deals were by Senken and ExoMad Green, 81,600 tons involved Biochar carbon credits between 2025-2028. Still, Google’s deal with Varaha pales in comparison to the tech giant’s carbon footprint.
In 2023, the search giant had nearly total greenhouse gas emissions 14.3 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (gas)13% higher than a year ago. The ongoing growth of AI development is predicted to worsen these emissions numbers over time, although Google says it aims to reach Net-zero emissions across all its operations and value chain by 2030.
“Biocher is a promising method for carbon sequestration because it has the potential to scale globally using existing technologies, with positive side effects for soil health,” Randy Spock, Google’s carbon sequestration lead, said in a statement.
Varaha currently operates 14 technology-driven carbon projects in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Kenya. The startup says it has converted more than 100,000 smallholder farmers to sustainable practices, helping to eliminate 2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. It raised a total of $12.7 million $8.7 million in a Series A round last year, and is backed by funds including RTP Global, Omnivore, Oreos Venture Partners, IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group’s Octave Wellbeing Economy Fund and Japan’s Norinchukin Bank.
