Staze Offset Project - Charm Industrial
We use our profits to offset the carbon footprint of every hotel booking made on Staze. Our portfolio of projects is aligned to the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting to balance long-term, short-term, carbon removal and prevented emissions.
About this project
Bio-oil is produced through a process called “fast pyrolysis” where biomass like wood, corn stover, rice straw, or almond shells is heated up to about 500°C in a few seconds without any oxygen present. This process produces a liquid mixture called bio-oil and a solid mixture of ash (like in a fireplace). This bio-oil has high carbon content and is injectable into the same deep underground rock formations that stored crude oil for hundreds of millions of years.
Charm Industrial converts waste biomass into fast pyrolysis bio-oil. They then inject bio-oil deep underground as negative emissions, or reform it to produce green hydrogen as a fuel and industrial chemical.
Charm's process for underground bio-oil injection is patent-pending.
Key benefits
- Very strong credentials (see criteria for assessment)
- Currently an expensive option but viable that price will decrease with scale
- Bio-oil sequestration is a key technology for the future and early support is likely to help with R&D and technology adoption
Criteria
Proven Causality
Very Strong. Charm Industrial takes waste biomass (that would otherwise decompose and release CO₂, and other greenhouse gasses, back into the atmosphere), converts them into a low energy bio-oil, and sequesters it. This is a direct causal relationship and can be considered carbon removal because the process of new crops growing each year takes CO₂ out of the atmosphere. All emissions that occur from the pyrolysis, transportation and injection process are also accounted for.
Additionality
Very Strong. The vast majority of waste biomass in the world decomposes and releases its stored carbon back into the atmosphere as CO₂. There is no reason to believe that the biomass used by Charm would be destined for any fossil-fuel-replacing activity and would be highly likely to ultimately release its carbon back into the atmosphere. Therefore these offsets can be considered strongly additional.
Permanence
Very Strong. Bio-oil is a very permanent storage method. It is a stable compound when injected underground and, since it's more dense than water, it sinks to the bottom of the wells it is injected into. Here it has a tendency to polymerise and partially solidify in place.
Secondary Impacts
Charm Industrial operates a process which is reasonably isolated from wildlife areas and vulnerable communities, so although it is not associated with any specific co-benefits, this ensures that there are no unintended negative impacts on the locations or communities in which it operates.
