The fertile farm country of eastern Washington’s Palouse prairie region hosts millions of acres of grains, fruits, vegetables, forage, and forests that support its economy. And one Cheney-based company is increasing the economic value of these crops by turning their organic waste into a valuable soil amendment called biochar.

Mike Werner, CEO of Qualterra, a Washington-based agricultural technology solutions firm focused on sustainability, says his company’s mission is to deliver innovative solutions to farmers. One of Qualterra’s flagship technologies is a biomass processing technology that produces biochar, a charcoal-like material made from organic materials that are processed through Qualterra’s Biomass Processing Units (BPU) at high temperatures in a low combustion environment that locks in and sequesters carbon to form biochar. When added to soils, biochar can improve key factors like pH, aeration, drainage, nutrient availability, microbial makeup, and water absorption.

Werner says Qualterra is trying to strike a balance between the viability of food systems and the economics of what farmers need. “By adding in biochar, we’ve seen some very positive outcomes for our growers,” he said. “At the end of the day, it helps their crops grow better while improving their soil for the next generation. This is an important aspect of food security.”

The Qualterra brand is only a couple of years old, but the history of their technologies spans the last decade. They spawned out of two different companies that did biomass processing, plant propagation, and molecular diagnostic testing. The two companies had a distinct overlap with soil improvement goals, which fostered a circular economy around “better plants, better soils, better world.”

Thriving in drought

Qualterra’s 75-acre farm in Cheney, Washington, just outside Spokane, is the main campus for biomass processing and commercial biochar production. It is also home to a laboratory, greenhouse, and Agricultural Regeneration Center (ARC) on over 50 acres of farmland used to conduct research.

“We’ve successfully processed wheat straw, nut shells, hops, thistle, and rice husks to make high quality and consistent biochars through pyrolysis within our BPUs,” said Werner. “But we know one size doesn’t fit all, so we are constantly pushing our boundaries, asking questions, and researching: What’s the right biomass? How much to use? What are the right soils? Where’s the benefit?”

One real-world success came when Qualterra partnered with a local farm and applied biochar in the soil with new start apple trees. “Within a month, the grower called us back and said, ‘I think there’s a difference–you gotta come out and see it,’” Werner said. “After 3 months, we kept seeing bigger, denser, and greener trees. Trees planted in biochar-amended soils within five months had a canopy 20-25% greater than the rest of the orchard, even in the hottest part of the year.”

Qualterra’s biochar product has succeeded with plants during climate stress and drought. The biochar improves soil water absorption and holding capacity, allowing growers to reduce watering in controlled environments by about 25%.

“We can work very closely with growers based on our team’s scientific experiences to support the evidence-based application of biochar in different cropping systems,” Werner said. “Summers are getting hotter, and water restrictions are a reality. Biochar can help soils function more effectively during those stressful times.”

Qualterra’s ARC facility, located in Cheney, Washington, was intentionally chosen as a demonstration facility for agricultural sustainability and housing its technologies in one location. The biomass processing units produce biochar that customers can purchase. Qualterra is also continuing its research and can scientifically test the agricultural benefits of its biochar at its on-site R&D greenhouse.

Added energy benefit

Qualterra has just begun harnessing the green renewable energy from the units to offset its energy footprint. Its life cycle analysis of its biomass processing units showed that after running for just 1.36 months, the technology was carbon-negative. The units have been running on site for 10-15,000 hours and can process 450 tons of biomass a year without even running at full capacity. They run on 3-5 kWh but produce 80-90 kWh of renewable energy, producing a net surplus.

In Werner’s estimation, “the value proposition of responsible elimination of waste, biomass processing, biochar production, and renewable energy capture is compelling and important. That’s the last big piece for our organization and our team.”

What’s next

Qualterra conducts biochar studies with 27 research partners, testing various applications in 13 different cropping systems across three states. It is also exploring applications for decarbonizing industries and helping them reduce their carbon footprint.

There is also a need to expand federally funded research to close critical knowledge gaps on biochar. The Senate version of the 2025 USDA appropriations bill includes $2.5 million in new funding for biochar research. The research would inform farmers, ranchers, foresters and businesses on which type of biochar will have positive results in their area. It would help companies like Qualterra do even more to maximize the many benefits of biochar.

Werner says young people are interested in the environmental impacts of biochar. Local schools bring kids out to tour Qualterra’s facilities because they want to understand biochar and sustainability in agriculture systems. “We are trying to build a company,” he said, “but also build a knowledge base for future generations.”

How one Southern startup recycles farm waste to purify water, build green, and generate power.

As an entrepreneur running a business incubator in the Memphis area, Bryan Eagle knew nothing about the organic charcoal product known as biochar. He wasn’t alone, as the material made from plant waste occupies an obscure niche in agricultural communities and isn’t widely used in the U.S. However, the modernization of an ancient technique has opened up a world of possibilities, and biochar is poised to take off as the green solution to a slew of 21st-century problems.

Biochar is a stable carbon material made from plant-based biomass. Far from a new concept, biochar is as old as agriculture itself. Indigenous people have effectively added burned organic waste to fields for millennia, but the idea that biochar could be perfected for industrial uses and to mitigate climate change has been around for less than 20 years.

Bryan says he first ran across biochar through a nonprofit venture focused on leveraging technologies from the local university network in Memphis. “The professor who created this approached me, and I knew nothing about clean tech, ag waste, or biochar. But the more I read about it, the more excited I became about the potential,” he said. “We saw early on that this could be a powerful tool in addressing climate change, not just in our business but on a global basis, that’s very quick, very low-cost.”

Bryan’s company, Glanris, now produces a designer Biocarbon that functions as everything from a soil amendment to a filler in asphalt, concrete, drywall, and a filter for air and water. Unlike traditional biochar products made from waste wood, Glanris has a sustainable and locally grown raw material supply of rice husks.

“We started this journey in 2019 to look at what we can do with all the ag waste generated across the river in Arkansas,” Bryan said. He approached Riceland Foods, the largest rice producer in the state, to find a way to repurpose their waste material. “There are 60-acre landfills that are being filled up with rice hulls,” he said, “so we set up to try to find a greener alternative.”

Glanris superheats the husks using a process called pyrolysis, which removes combustible gasses in the absence of oxygen and seals carbon into blackened biochar granules. Instead of plant material burning or rotting and being released into the atmosphere as CO2, biochar stabilizes the carbon content so it doesn’t break down. The pyrolysis units pump out a patented Biocarbon product resembling coal-black shards of confetti, which is packaged in 300-pound “Supersacks” or smaller boxes and shipped all over the globe.

“The rice mills are paying $12-20 per ton to haul this stuff away,” Bryan said. If you can instead turn it into products that give you heat, electricity, and water filtration, we make more selling our biocarbon into the environmental remediation market than they do from the rice.”

Follow the green

As founder and CEO, Bryan started small while thinking big. One shrewd move was to make his new company a family affair. When his daughter Anastasia Eagle returned to the South, her business and PR skills were quickly put to use at Glanris.

“When we first started the company, we were a two-person operation. That’s startup life. We’ve worn many hats on our heads, we’ve been able to do it all,” she said. “Now that we’re able to expand and grow, I am getting more back into the marketing side.”

Anastasia is thankful to be part of something that will help the region and community she cares about so much.

Bryan’s billion-dollar question is, “What does it take to get the funding you need to get this industry to scale?”

Bryan says the keystone of biochar’s economics is securing a long-term revenue stream that includes research, development, and application funding in the Farm Bill.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is asking Congress to invest in biochar research to provide more insight into its larger-scale applications through the next Farm Bill under the bipartisan Biochar Research Network Act. If passed, the bill will authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a national-scale research program to test different biochar types in different soils and circumstances. With better research will come innovation and practical tools for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and businesses to lean into biochar as a climate solution.

“Hopefully, it will reach a critical mass where we can survive without subsidies, but it’s still needed,” he said. “Without support in the farm bill, the biochar industry would all but dry up. Biochar has so much potential to impact other areas, but we need to buy time to get into these markets.”

Making the move

After several years in the biochar business, he concluded that the only way to make money is to maximize carbon credits and take advantage of all possible revenue streams, which means using biochar in water systems, construction, and power generation in addition to ag uses.

That’s part of why Bryan and his employees decided to relocate the business to California. The state offers many green energy incentives, and there is a tremendous volume and diversity of forest and ag waste. Farmers can’t burn crop waste like nut shells or take them to landfills, so pyrolyzing is a great solution.

“There’s a huge demand for biochar in Sacramento Valley, and there are grants paying people to apply biochar as part of a remediation and soil improvement strategy,” he said. “Vineyards, orchards, row crops–farmers are trialing this stuff and finding out it has huge advantages.”

Glanris is making a last push to get funding for their $22M project in California, with $20M raised so far. The first phase in California is projected to produce 13,000 tons of biochar per year and generate 2.5 megawatts of electricity. “We’ve already got a 20-year power purchase agreement with a municipality that will sell [generated power] back to the grid,” Bryan said.

He believes green jobs are the jobs of the future, and the California project is expected to create around 20 jobs in its first phase that will pay at least double the prevailing wage for farm workers. As he grows this first instillation and expands to other cities in California, he hopes to create hundreds of green jobs.

Fifth-generation Arkansas farmer Jody Hardin was introduced to a potentially game-changing soil additive through a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant in 2011. That’s when Hardin began studying biochar—a charcoal-like material that can be mixed in soil to improve overall soil health.

“I had this huge, eye-opening experience,” Hardin said. “That’s when I started actually using biochar on my crops, doing workshops, and teaching farmers how to make it.”

Biochar is created by heating biomass, such as forest waste or animal manure, in a low-oxygen environment—a process known as pyrolysis. Carbon stored in this form can be added to soil to improve moisture retention, nutrient availability, and aeration and create habitat for beneficial soil microbes, all of which can potentially boost soil productivity. Biochar can also last for thousands of years in soil, so it’s increasingly being viewed as an effective means of sequestering carbon.

Now, Hardin wants to use the knowledge he’s gained to tackle some big challenges across the state by using biochar to clean up the Illinois River watershed, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help farmers improve the quality of their soil through his innovative initiative called the Carbon Chicken Project.

Many birds with one stone

The Carbon Chicken Project, which aims to develop a market-based, carbon-negative farming ecosystem, has taken shape in Northwest Arkansas, an area with a strong poultry production industry. In fact, the state of Arkansas ranks third in the country for the number of broilers produced (1 billion in 2022). Hardin’s plan is specifically designed to address three things: The first is runoff from poultry litter from the region’s many chicken houses that deposits excess phosphorus into the Illinois River watershed. The second is an abundance of forest and sawmill waste, which releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere if left to decompose. Third, Hardin and other farmers are seeking new ways to increase their yields by improving soil health.

To contend with these issues, the project composts the poultry litter and combines it with biochar made from forest and sawmill waste and poultry litter. The result is a soil conditioner to help farmers build healthy soil and reduce the application of expensive fertilizers that can harm the Arkansas River watershed.

For many, this win-win-win solution would be enough. But for Hardin—an agricultural entrepreneur with an economics background—it’s a foundation for a larger vision.

“We’re trying to build this whole ecosystem around biochar that’s very extensive, but when you think about an ecosystem, it’s really a circular economy,” Hardin said. “We can sell the carbon credits, we can sell the biochar, and we can make electricity, and we can clean up a watershed, and we can sequester carbon and prevent climate change. It’s just cascading the benefits of what this product does.”

Accelerating biochar

Producers across the country are looking to Congress to realize biochar’s immense potential. With the most recent Farm Bill recently expired, the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is asking Congress to invest in biochar research through the next Farm Bill, under the bipartisan Biochar Research Network Act. If passed, the bill will authorize the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a national-scale research program to test different biochar types in different soils and circumstances. With better research will come innovation and practical tools for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and businesses to lean into biochar as a climate solution that improves their bottom line.

On the research front, a recent USDA study showed that biochar made from poultry litter adds value and could be an attractive solution for waste disposal for the industry.

Hardin knows the impact that investment in biochar research can make, referring to his own introduction to biochar—and subsequent learning, experimentation, and research—stemmed from a grant from Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG).

“The Carbon Chicken Project would have never ever happened if it wasn’t for this CIG grant,” Hardin said. “That innovation grant really worked because we’ve created this massive environmental solution for Northwest Arkansas’s watershed using a scaled-up idea that started with that little grant.”

Next steps

Right now, Hardin is working on securing project funding while creating an 11-acre carbon innovation and demonstration farm that can serve as a research facility for the Carbon Chicken Project—and to get other agricultural partners on board.

“I’ve been doing biochar research here on my farm for a good year, and I’ve got feedstock sources, I’m building pyrolysis units, I’ve got different application rate studies already going,” he said. “I’m trying to use this as a base to organize farmers so that they can see the amazing benefits and the yield increases, and all the things that we’re doing.”

Remember scraping off your tray in the lunchroom as a kid? Did you ever think about where that waste was going or if it could be more than just garbage? One nonprofit in Silver City, New Mexico is getting its hands dirty and helping kids and school districts reduce lunchroom waste into a valuable learning experience.

The New Earth Project is developing compost processes to create a symbiotic relationship and benefit the community. Carol Ann Fugagli, Education and Outreach Director for the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance and the New Earth Project, explained how they use everyday materials to teach students about climate change and sustainability.

“The looming climate and biodiversity crisis is a real existential threat, and we want to create community resilience,” Fugagli said. “We are focused on educating, inspiring, and empowering youth in our community through educational activities and employment opportunities.”

Carbon capture through composting

New Earth collects food surplus from three school cafeterias and combines it with woody biomass, agricultural byproducts, and biochar in Johnson-Su compost bioreactors. Every week, they fill these bioreactors with this waste and divert approximately 1200 pounds of food waste from the local landfill. The Johnson-Su composting method is a static, aerobic process that produces a diverse, fungal-dominant mix that interacts with plants to sequester carbon in soils, increase water infiltration and retention, fix nitrogen, and increase plant growth.

To increase the value and effectiveness of the compost, they add 10% biochar into the mix. Biochar is a charcoal-like substance made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (wood chips, logging slash, manure, or other plant byproducts) in a low-oxygen environment. This process, called pyrolysis, turns into pure carbon, converting it into a solid form rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere.

While biochar isn’t a fertilizer, research indicates it can help retain nutrients in the soil due to its high porosity, allowing it to absorb nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Think of a housing complex for billions of needed microbes. It can last in the environment anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years, making it an effective tool to sequester carbon.

After three months of experimenting with the amount and type of biomass and biochar, New Earth found just the right mix to yield the best result. Now that the project has perfected its compost “recipe,” they plan to experiment using other waste streams such as salt cedar, cardboard, and compostable plastics.

Accelerating Biochar

The New Mexico Legislature recently gave a vote of confidence to New Earth’s activities, approving a $100,000 general appropriation to the project in the 2023 spring legislative session.

“Young people are freaked out about the climate crisis. Our project is all about instilling the ethic of restoration and hope in young people. We hope to get a composting system into every school so students can have a project to plug into, giving them real power.”

To realize biochar’s potential, America needs a coordinated research program. Congress is crafting the 2023 Farm Bill, which presents a big opportunity to ensure the promise of biochar is realized.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is asking Congress to invest in biochar research through the Farm Bill, specifically under the Biochar Research Network Act. It will authorize the USDA to establish a national-scale research program to test different biochar types in different soils and circumstances. With better research will come innovation and practical tools for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and businesses to lean into biochar as a climate solution.

Real-world applications

Biochar-enhanced compost can improve soil health by reducing acidity, upping water and nutrient storage, and providing better drainage and aeration. By increasing pH, biochar can invigorate soils by increasing microbial activity, nutrient availability, and reducing heavy metal toxicity.

Fugagli explained how costly fertilizer may be doing more harm than good. “We’ve killed all the microbiology in the way we grow food. Biochar in the ground makes it a little apartment complex for these microorganisms to give them their housing so they can live in this soil.”

“Many biochar producers are not finding a market to sell to because, for many, biochar is new,” Fugagli said. “We work with Trollworks here in the state and have bought them out more than once. Combining biochar with compost makes sense because we can keep carbon at the roots of our plants where it’s needed rather than in the atmosphere where it causes so much damage.”

The New Earth Compost sits for one year before it can be used. December 2023 is when the first batch will be ready. Marketing their product is their next step. Fugagli said she is contacting larger buyers like a local mine and the New Mexico Department of Transportation to gauge interest in soil remediation projects. They also know that revitalizing agricultural land is a big part of the equation.

“There is no solving our climate crisis without solving the agricultural emissions problem,” she said. “We are working to educate users because you don’t apply it as regular compost – which is what people are used to. You can, but a little goes a long way. Biochar-enhanced compost can help transform ag soils into living soils.”