Microsoft Contracts One Million Tonnes of Biochar Carbon Removal from Liferaft

Liferaft, a U.S. biochar company, signed a long-term agreement with Microsoft to supply one million carbon removal units over ten years from biochar facilities in Iowa and Illinois. The deal is among the largest biochar-based carbon removal agreements to date and the largest of its kind in the United States.

Liferaft's facilities in Iowa and Illinois will source agricultural and municipal biomass from surrounding regions and process it using pyrolysis to produce biochar, which will be blended with compost for agricultural and other approved applications. Biochar enables centuries-long carbon sequestration when buried in soil and also improves soil fertility, providing co-benefits alongside carbon removal. Monitoring, reporting, and verification systems will confirm that biochar is applied only in approved end uses ensuring long-term carbon storage. The agreement was facilitated by carbon removal marketplace Supercritical.

Microsoft has emerged as the largest corporate purchaser of carbon removal credits globally, contracting 45 million metric tonnes of CO2 removal in 2025 alone. The company's carbon removal program supports its climate commitment to become carbon negative by 2030 and to remove the equivalent of all historical emissions by 2050. Biochar is gaining traction as a cost-effective, scalable carbon dioxide removal technology, benefiting from abundant biomass feedstocks, a growing verification infrastructure, and demonstrated agricultural co-benefits that broaden its commercial appeal.

Liferaft CEO William Cowell de Gruchy highlighted the deal's potential to create high-quality jobs in rural American communities, including in West Liberty and Muscatine County, Iowa, where the company has operated for more than a year of planning. Microsoft Director of Carbon Removal Phillip Goodman noted the project's focus on locally available biomass waste, farm and land manager support, and durable climate impact. For the emerging biochar carbon removal sector, a large-scale offtake agreement with a major technology buyer provides a significant commercial signal for scaling project development.

Key figure — 1 million carbon removal units contracted over ten years