"Durable carbon removal" covers a small set of technologies that share one property — the carbon they remove is expected to stay out of the atmosphere for a very long time, rather than being merely avoided or temporarily stored in a forest that could burn or be logged. Three pathways dominate the conversation: biochar, direct air capture, and enhanced rock weathering. Buyers building a CDR strategy increasingly need to understand how they actually compare, not just that all three count as "durable."
What "durable" removal actually means
Avoidance credits (renewable energy, efficiency, avoided deforestation) prevent emissions that would otherwise occur. Durable removal credits do something different: they take carbon that is already in the atmosphere, or would otherwise re-enter it quickly, and lock it away for a stated period — often measured in centuries or longer. That distinction is why durable removals typically command a price premium, and why the durability claim itself is the thing worth scrutinising most closely.
Three pathways at a glance
| Pathway | Mechanism | Typical durability claim | Deployment stage (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biochar | Pyrolysis of biomass into stable carbon, applied to soil or used in materials | Centuries to 1,000+ years, evidenced by H:Corg | Commercially deployable now; leading pathway by contracted volume |
| Direct air capture (DAC) | Machines pull CO2 from ambient air, typically stored geologically | Very long-term (geological storage) | Early infrastructure build-out; higher cost per tonne |
| Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) | Crushed silicate rock spread on land reacts with CO2 over time | Long-term, mineral form | Earlier-stage; smaller contracted volume, MRV still maturing |
Why biochar leads on volume today
The simplest explanation for biochar's lead is deployability. Biochar production uses pyrolysis technology and biomass feedstock that already exist at meaningful scale — it does not require building novel capture infrastructure from scratch. That translates into materially lower cost per tonne than DAC today, and a supply base that can scale faster in the near term. DAC, by contrast, is still in an earlier infrastructure-buildout phase, with capture facilities that are capital-intensive and energy-hungry to construct and run — a March 2026 analysis of RFP submissions found DAC-with-storage (DACCS) represented around 15% of proposals, well behind biochar's share of actual contracted volume.
Where DAC and enhanced weathering have an edge
Biochar's advantages are not universal. DAC paired with geological storage offers a durability claim that is arguably the cleanest of the three — CO2 stored deep underground is not exposed to the same soil, land-use or environmental variability that biochar or ERW are. For buyers whose primary criterion is the longest possible durability signal, DAC remains attractive despite its cost.
Enhanced rock weathering brings a different kind of appeal: it uses agricultural land already in productive use, and in many projects draws on rock byproducts from mining or quarrying that would otherwise go unused — echoing biochar's own "waste-to-asset" logic, and offering soil co-benefits (mineral nutrients, potential yield effects) alongside carbon storage. It remains earlier-stage in contracted volume than biochar, and its MRV approaches are still maturing relative to biochar's well-established H:Corg-based measurement, but activity is growing — corporate buyers have begun sourcing from both biochar and ERW suppliers within the same procurement round, spanning multiple countries.
What this means for buyers building a CDR portfolio
For buyers new to durable CDR, biochar's combination of cost, current deployability and physically measurable permanence (the H:Corg ratio) makes it a practical entry point into the category — price and quality considerations are covered in more detail here. More sophisticated buyers layer DAC and ERW on top as the market and their own risk appetite develop.
The bottom line
Biochar's lead in the durable CDR market in 2026 is a function of readiness, not a claim that it is inherently superior to DAC or enhanced weathering. Each pathway has a genuinely different cost, durability and maturity profile, and the right mix depends on what a buyer is optimising for — near-term volume, maximum durability, co-benefits, or a diversified hedge across all three.
If you are evaluating where biochar fits in a broader carbon-removal strategy, our buyer-side advisory can walk through the trade-offs against your specific goals. Get in touch to talk it through.
Market share, volume and pricing figures in this article are drawn from durable-CDR market tracking as of mid-2026 and are estimates that change as the market develops. Verify current figures before relying on them for procurement decisions.