CharTerra, Previously known as AirTerra
CharTerra provides biocarbon product sales and consulting services to the bioenergy industry in western Canada. Previously known as AirTerra which was founded in 2009, CharTerra builds on the strengths of its seasoned professionals in the fields of bioenergy, biochar & blended soil amendments, oil & gas, pulp & paper, horticulture, and waste management. CharTerra is pleased to work with First Nations and Metis organizations to support environmentally and economically sustainable projects in their communities. The CharTerra Mission is to provide compelling agricultural regenerative solutions through the sale of biocarbon products, carbon credits, and consulting services with a Vision of enhancing biological living soils for healthy plants, pure water, and nutritious food.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Agriculture
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
- Year Founded:
- 2009
- Employees:
- 1-10
About AirTerra
Who We Are
AirTerra is a for-people-and-planet organization that is also a sustainable for-profit company. After AirTerra's founding in 2009, the primary focus was promoting the use of clean and efficient biochar-generating stoves in developing countries - beginning in Kenya and expanding to Malawi in 2015. During this time (2009 to 2015) AirTerra was also working on a for-profit North American biochar product line. The first significant milestone towards realizing this in Canada was the successful registration of a biochar product with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) -- the first in Canada! AirTerra is now ready to sell biochar products.
Our Values
- People: Working with people to improve their ability to live sustainably
- Planet: Restoring Earth's soils by removing carbon from the atmosphere and converting it into high-quality biochar fortified soil products
- Sustainability: Having fun in the process
About Biochar
Any biomass waste – from wood to peanut shells – releases carbon as it decomposes; but it can be stabilized in a kiln by pyrolysis (heated to greater than 400 degrees C in an low oxygen environment) to create biochar. The biochar is then worked into the earth in order to lock carbon into the soil. This was a practice followed by ancient South American civilizations – which exposes the idea as a “re-discovery” rather than a discovery.
What is groundbreaking, however, is the concept of using biochar to mitigate our current predicament of runaway greenhouse gas emissions. According to experts, billions of tonnes of carbon could potentially be sequestered in the world’s soils, specifically from agriculture and forest waste. Biochar appears to lock carbon in for much longer than other forms of sequestration: a plant or tree will only sequester carbon for 15 to 20 years, for example, whereas it has recently become apparent that amending biochar into soil will sequester it for at least 100 years; some experts have said over 5000 years.
When you look at the magnified picture of biochar to the right, you see a cellular like structure that has enormous surface area. We liken it to a condominium apartment complex, just ready to be filled up with nutrients, moisture and beneficial microbes in a way that is helpful to roots. Biochar anchors soil nutrients and organic content extremely well at a time when soils around the globe have lost half of their carbon due to industrialized agriculture.
Biochar is made through a process called pyrolysis where biomass is “baked” with little oxygen under controlled temperatures and pressures. This releases a highly useful volatile gas and leaves a charred material that is 60 to 90% carbon.
A small fraction of the gas (syngas) is used to perpetuate the production process and the remainder can be used to generate carbon neutral electricity, heat for adjacent buildings, hydrogen gas, and bio-crude oils and fuels.
At AirTerra we see three key reasons why Biochar is vitally important.
- Biochar is a very low cost soil amendment that greatly improves quality of soil, increases water retention, greatly reduces fertilizer leaching and ultimately increases the plant yield of vegetation grown in biochar amended soil.
- Biochar is carbon negative. CO2 is first removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis in plants; then, after biocharring these plants, it is amended into soil for thousands of years. Biochar helps the natural carbon cycle put black carbon back into the ground – where it came from in the first place.
- Biochar reduces climate change caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG). Biochar is a way for carbon to be drawn from the atmosphere and is a solution to reducing the global impact of farming and in reducing the impact from all agricultural waste.
Since biochar can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years, it has received considerable interest as a potential tool to slow global warming. The burning and natural decomposition of trees and agricultural matter contributes a large amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere.
Experience the Benefits of Biochar
Quickly increase soil organic carbon content to boost your soil and plant health.
- Stimulates and protects beneficial microbes.
- Helps retain moisture and nutrients.
- Improves plant nutrient uptake by increasing Cation Exchange Capacity
- Increases your soil's pliability.
For People & Planet
The use of biochar in soils contributes to a healthy planet by balancing carbon in the atmosphere and the soil. Furthermore, AirTerra also works with people in developing countries to promote the use of life-saving clean and efficient cooking stoves that have the added benefit of producing biochar as a byproduct of cooking. AirTerra promotes the use of biochar produced by these stoves to make biochar-fortified organic fertilizers. Read more and view videos about AirTerra's activities in Kenya and Malawi.