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Google has agreed to buy 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide removal credits from Indian startup Varaha, its first such deal with a coal project in India and the largest involving biochar produced from biomass (also called horticultural charcoal or “black gold” for lands).
Credits from the offtake agreement will be delivered to Google by 2030 from the industrial Varaha biochar project in the western Indian state of Gujarat, 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 to be listed on the carbon removal standard and registry. Pure. Earth.
Biochar is produced in two ways: artisanal and industrial. The artisan method is driven by the community, where farmers burn crop residues in conical flasks without using machines. In contrast, industrial biochar is made with large reactors that process 50-60 tons of biomass daily.
The Varaha project will generate industrial biochar from an invasive plant species, Prosopis Juliflorausing its pyrolysis facility in Gujarat. The invasive species impacts plant biodiversity and has overtaken grasslands used for livestock. Varaha will harvest the plant and make efforts to restore native grasslands in the region, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Madhur Jain, said in an interview. Once the biochar is produced, a third-party auditor submits its report to Puro.Earth to generate credits.
Although biochar is seen as a long-term carbon removal solution, its lifetime can vary between 1,000 and 2,500 years depending on production and environmental factors.
For context: Carbon credits are related to how long carbon can be permanently removed from the atmosphere by offsetting emissions with sustainable activities. Greenhouse gases have an extremely long-term impact on the atmosphere, up to hundreds or thousands of years, so any effective carbon credit program must promise a similarly long period of carbon removal. “Persistence,” here, indicates how long carbon remains stored in the soil before returning to the atmosphere.
Jain told TechCrunch that Varaha tried to use different raw materials and different parameters in his reactors to find the best combination to achieve permanence close to 1,600 years.
The startup also built a digital monitoring, reporting and verification system, integrating remote sensing to monitor biomass availability. It also has a mobile app that captures geo-tagged, time-stamped images to geographically document activities, including biomass excavation and biochar field application.
With its first project, Varaha said it processed at least 40,000 tons of biomass and produced 10,000 tons of biochar last year.
“Even if we do not increase our skills, we have already reached a level with which we are able to transform 40,000 tons of biomass per year, which means that we can easily reach the goal of 100,000 tons of biochar by 2030” . Jain said.
He added that each ton of biochar generates 2.5 carbon credits, and the startup aims to reach 1 million credits per year by 2030.
Carbon credits have gained importance as companies generate 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 set a new record with this deal, as the last significant biochar carbon removal transaction was from Senken and Exomad Green, which involves 81,600 tons of biochar carbon credits between 2025-2028. However, Google’s deal with Varaha is minuscule compared to the tech giant’s carbon footprint.
In 2023, the research giant had total greenhouse gas emissions of approx 14.3 million tons of CO₂ equivalent (gas)13% more than a year before. The ongoing growth of AI development is expected to worsen these emission numbers over time, although Google said that the goal of reaching net zero emissions in all its operations and value chains by 2030.
“Biochar is a promising approach to carbon removal because it has the ability to scale globally, using existing technology, with positive side effects for soil health,” said Randy Spock, head of carbon removal at Google, in a statement.
Varaha currently manages 14 technology-driven coal projects in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Kenya. The startup says it has also transformed more than 100,000 small farmers to sustainable practices, helping to remove more than 2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. It has raised $12.7 million in total, incl $8.7 million in a series A round last year, and is backed by funds including RTP Global, Omnivore, Orios Venture Partners, IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group’s Octave Wellbeing Economy Fund, and Japan’s Norinchukin Bank.
