Substrate Biochar: Transforming waste into value.
We use untapped agricultural and forestry residues and transform them into high-quality biochar carbon removals.
We build biochar carbon removal. From the ground up.
We partner with biomass operators to develop end-to-end biochar carbon removal projects, turning biomass into high-quality, permanent carbon storage. Our expertise unlocks new projects, making it easier to create reliable, trusted carbon credits at scale.
The Challenge
Wasted Biomass
Billions of tonnes of forestry and agricultural residues are left to rot or burn each year, releasing carbon and wasting valuable resources.
Rising carbon removal demand
Global demand for trusted, permanent carbon removal is soaring - but today’s supply meets only a fraction of what’s needed.
Moving beyond feasibility
Developing carbon removal projects is complex, resource intensive and time-consuming, leaving many processors and industries unable to unlock value
Substrate Biochar transforms underutilised biomass into long-lasting carbon removal, locking carbon away for centuries while creating added value for industrial and agricultural partners. We leverage our deep carbon , pyrolysis and engineering expertise to convert biomass into two end products:
High quality durable carbon removal, which helps meet global net zero ambitions
Premium biochar, which enables industrial decarbonisation and improves soils
Our vision is to achieve globally signficant scale. We do this in two ways
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Design, build and finance our own industrial scale projects
We have projects in South Africa and in development across Africa
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Leverage our deep carbon, project development and biochar expertise to deliver rapid feasibility studies
For viable sites, enter into partnership agreements to co-design, build and operate large projects
Transformational impact beyond carbon removal
Substrate Biochar’s projects and biochar application enables scaled impact that lasts
Substrate’s pyrolysis process removes carbon and locks it into a stable form - biochar.
Substrate’s projects create job opportunities in often marginalised rural areas. The first project alone will employ 30 people.
Our biochar is mixed into low carbon concrete and asphalt, enabling decarbonisation of the built environment.
Our biochar is also mixed into organic fertiliser, rejuvinating soils, reducing costs (v.s. chemical alternatives), and increasing drought resilience.
Team
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Oliver is a co-founder of Substrate Biochar.
He is a climate finance leader and carbon markets specialist with deep technical expertise in market design, project development, and carbon policy. Prior to co-founding Substrate, he designed and led the launch of the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative - a platform to scale African participation in carbon markets backed by the Rockefeller Foundation. In this role, Oliver led a team directly advising government carbon market policies and Article 6 frameworks across Africa, alongside setting up multiple carbon accelerator programmes and other initiatives to scale the carbon market infrastructure on the continent. As part of this work, Oliver was a member of the GFANZ Africa Carbon Markets Working Group and the World Bank's Carbon Action Forum.
Previously at McKinsey & Company, Oliver specialised in carbon markets development, advising Fortune 500 companies and governments on decarbonisation strategies and carbon market structures worldwide. He holds an MSc and BA from the University of Oxford and brings the same determination to his work that once drove him to row unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean.
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Charlie is co-founder of Substrate Biochar, bringing extensive engineering and commercial experience.
He gained an MEng from Oxford University in general engineering, covering civil, mechanical, electrical and environmental engineering, before specialising in civil engineering. Charlie brings experience working on mega engineering projects, including the design of Europe’s largest underground structure, HS2’s Old Oak Common station. However his proudest engineering achievement to date is the custom-geometry steel bike he designed and welded himself.
He brings excellent project management experience and financial planning and modelling, honed during his time as a strategy and operations consultant to major global businesses.
Charlie’s focus at Substrate is on building the most effective biochar production facilities, and then operating them in the most efficient manner to maximise carbon sequestration - from systems, tools, team management and process optimisation
Contact Us
From forward-thinking businesses to impact-driven investors, you can be part of expanding biochar solutions that lock away carbon and enrich agriculture.
