Current Landscape

Biomass Carbon Removal and Sequestration (BiCRS) commercial deployment is in its early‑stage. Only a handful of biochar and bio‑oil projects are operating, and approaches like biomass burial are still in pilot phases. Activity is concentrated in North America and Europe, though developers in Asia‑Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East are beginning to emerge as policy support and buyer interest spread globally. Patents play a crucial role in the sector, with over 80 filed globally and 25 already granted.

Investments

An influx of capital since 2020 is attracting interest in BiCRS to move from niche trials toward commercial scale. Government grants have grown from virtually nothing in 2020 to about USD 70 million with around USD 43 million in 2025 alone. Private funding now totals more than USD 350 million, dominated by venture equity rounds.

Investment deal flow has accelerated from two deals in 2020 to eleven in 2024, with nine more already in 2025. The first large‑scale debt financing, a €250 million sustainability linked loan for Aperam BioEnergia, arrived in 2024.

Offtake agreements are playing a critical role in driving market confidence with  ~2.3 million tonnes of CO₂ already contracted with leading corporates like Microsoft, Google backing the sector.

Market Demand

Total BiCRS credits issued and retired as of June 2025 were around 0.43 million tCO2e and 0.33 million tCO2e respectively. Credit issuance increased in 2024 as more biochar projects were certified, and initial bio‑oil deliveries verified; issuance is expected to grow substantially as planned capacity comes online to meet mounting corporate demand for durable removals. Forward offtake agreements are playing a critical role in anchoring market confidence and enabling project development.

cCarbon Viewpoint

BiCRS projects tend to be distributed in nature and more often than not, are tapping into sources of waste as an input. The cobenefits and the revenue stream from that tends to be the primary source of income.

The co-benefits also make them attractive to CDR buyers; and because they can demonstrate cash flow, the sector is attracting project finance (currently from impact investors/ DFIs).

Operational capacity remains modest, but project pipelines suggest rapid expansion. cCarbon analysts believe, this is likely to remain a niche sector since economies of scale are limited. Key challenges around biomass sustainability, governance, and lifecycle emissions persist, but new standards, MRV tools, and supportive policies are helping address these. As BiCRS enters its next phase, its success will depend on business model innovation and tapping project finance for distributed assets (a programmatic approach by financiers will be needed).