
Biochar Life aims to both mitigate climate change and reduce poverty by training smallholder farmers in Thailand on biochar production and usage. Participating farmers turn their crop residues, waste that would otherwise be burned, into biochar that they can use on their own fields or sell to others for profit. The biochar is monitored through GPS & physical data that is collected with a smartphone application used by participating farmers. The project uses Kon-Tiki kilns to produce high quality biochar which are low-tech but very scalable, depending on waste biomass availability.

Artisanal biochar is produced using small-scale, often traditional methods accessible to rural communities. Biochar is a charcoal-looking, carbon-rich substance that is produced when materials like agricultural residues are heated in a process called pyrolysis.