Carbon Removal
Pathways & Methodologies
Every scientifically-validated route to permanent carbon drawdown - from ancient forests and ocean chemistry to engineered rock weathering and direct air capture. Teravent supports them all.
Pathways
Types
Aligned
Reviewed
Monitoring
Tracked
Blue Carbon & Marine Ecosystems
Mangroves, seagrass, saltmarsh, tidal wetlands, ocean alkalinity
Coastal & Ocean Carbon Sequestration
Blue carbon ecosystems - mangroves, seagrasses, saltmarshes and tidal wetlands - sequester carbon at rates up to 10× faster per hectare than terrestrial forests. The carbon they store accumulates in soils over millennia, making these among the most durable natural removal pathways.
Teravent supports both conservation-based (REDD+ equivalent for marine) and restoration-based blue carbon projects, with methodologies aligned with the IPCC Wetlands Supplement frameworks.
Ecosystem & Method Coverage
- Mangrove conservation & restoration (tropical & subtropical)
- Seagrass meadow protection and re-planting
- Saltmarsh and tidal wetland restoration
- Coastal blue carbon avoidance (preventing land conversion)
- Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE)
- River and estuary carbon flux accounting
- Macro-algae cultivation and sinking
Measurement & Verification
ARR & Nature-Based Solutions
Afforestation, reforestation, revegetation, REDD+, avoided deforestation
Forest Carbon & Ecosystem Restoration
ARR (Afforestation, Reforestation, Revegetation) and REDD+ programmes represent the largest and most established segment of voluntary carbon markets. These projects protect and restore forests, grasslands, and degraded lands to absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Teravent applies strict additionality and baseline requirements, ensuring only genuinely additional forest carbon is credited. We require continuous satellite monitoring and periodic ground-truth audits for all registered projects.
Project Types Accepted
- Afforestation on previously unforested land
- Reforestation of degraded or cleared areas
- Community-led revegetation programmes
- REDD+ reduced deforestation & degradation
- Improved Forest Management (IFM)
- Agroforestry systems integration
- Peatland and wetland forest restoration
Measurement & Verification
Soil Carbon & Regenerative Agriculture
Agricultural soil carbon, grassland management, rangeland restoration
Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils
The world's agricultural and rangeland soils hold enormous potential for increased carbon sequestration through regenerative management practices. Practices such as no-till farming, cover cropping, composting, and rotational grazing can significantly increase soil organic carbon (SOC) levels.
Teravent requires rigorous soil sampling and measurement protocols for all registered soil carbon projects, including stratified baseline measurements and ongoing 3-year verification cycles.
Qualifying Land Management Activities
- No-till and reduced-tillage crop production
- Cover cropping and green manure integration
- Compost and organic matter application
- Rotational and holistic planned grazing
- Biochar application to agricultural soils
- Grassland and rangeland restoration
- Integrated crop-livestock systems
Measurement & Verification
Biochar Production & Application
Biomass pyrolysis, stable carbon charcoal, soil amendment and sequestration
Stable Carbon via Biomass Pyrolysis
Biochar is produced by thermally converting biomass under limited oxygen conditions (pyrolysis). The resulting charcoal is highly stable, with a mean residence time estimated at 100-1,000+ years in soil - making it one of the most durable biological carbon removal pathways.
Beyond carbon storage, biochar improves soil health, water retention and crop productivity. Teravent uses the European Biochar Certificate (EBC) and International Biochar Initiative (IBI) standards as the basis for its biochar methodology framework.
Feedstock & Application Types
- Agricultural residue pyrolysis (rice husks, sugarcane bagasse)
- Forestry waste and wood chip biochar
- Municipal organic waste biochar
- Slow pyrolysis (maximising carbon stability)
- Fast pyrolysis / gasification with char capture
- Biochar-soil application for permanence
- Biochar concrete integration (emerging)
Measurement & Verification
Biomass Carbon Removal & Storage
BioCRS, BECCS, long-lived wood products, harvested wood carbon
Durable Biomass-Based Carbon Storage
Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BioCRS) encompasses pathways that combine biological carbon uptake with durable physical or geological storage. This includes Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and long-lived wood product storage.
Unlike land-based sequestration, BioCRS can offer near-permanent storage when coupled with geological sequestration sites, making it one of the highest-durability pathways in the Teravent registry.
BioCRS Pathway Variants
- BECCS - bioenergy with geological CO₂ storage
- Biomass gasification with carbon capture
- Anaerobic digestion with CO₂ capture
- Long-lived timber and engineered wood products
- Bio-concrete and bio-composite carbon storage
- Biomass burial (terrestrial or deep sea)
- Wood vault and long-term biomass storage
Measurement & Verification
Enhanced Rock Weathering
Silicate mineral application, basalt spreading, soil alkalinity enhancement
Accelerating Earth's Natural Carbon Cycle
Enhanced weathering (EW) accelerates the natural geological process in which silicate rocks react with atmospheric CO₂ and water to form stable bicarbonate minerals - locking carbon in the ground or ocean permanently. Spreading crushed basalt on agricultural land is the most common application.
Unlike biological pathways, enhanced weathering offers true permanence - once carbon is mineralised, it is geologically stable on timescales of millions of years. EW also improves soil pH and fertility, creating compelling co-benefits for farmers.
EW Methods & Variants
- Crushed basalt application on croplands
- Dunite and olivine mineral spreading
- Mine tailings weathering acceleration
- Ocean alkalinity enhancement via mineral dissolution
- Coastal enhanced weathering
- In-situ bedrock weathering stimulation
Measurement & Verification
Direct Air Capture
DACCS, solid sorbents, liquid solvents, geological & mineral storage
Machine-Based Atmospheric CO₂ Removal
Direct Air Capture (DAC) uses engineered systems - typically solid sorbent or liquid solvent processes - to chemically bind CO₂ directly from ambient air. The captured CO₂ is then permanently stored via geological injection or mineral carbonation.
DAC offers the highest quality credits in the market: permanent, measurable, additional, and scalable without land constraints. Teravent requires all DAC projects to demonstrate geological or mineralised storage with site-level monitoring and third-party verification.
DAC Technologies Accepted
- Solid sorbent DAC with geological injection
- Liquid solvent DAC (KOH/Ca(OH)₂ cycle)
- Moisture-swing sorbent systems
- Electrochemical CO₂ capture and mineralisation
- DAC with basalt mineralisation storage
- Modular and containerised DAC units
- Industrial-scale DAC facilities
Measurement & Verification
Agroforestry & Peatland Restoration
Integrated land-use systems, peat swamp conservation, rewetting programmes
Integrated Landscapes & Peat Carbon
Peatlands store approximately twice as much carbon as all the world's forests combined, despite covering only 3% of land area. Protecting and restoring degraded peatlands - especially in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America - represents one of the highest-impact climate interventions available.
Agroforestry systems integrate trees with crops or livestock, sequestering carbon in biomass and soils while improving food security and farmer livelihoods across the Global South.
Qualifying Project Types
- Tropical peatland conservation (Indonesia, Congo)
- Peatland rewetting and hydrological restoration
- Paludiculture (wet agriculture on peat soils)
- Silvopastoral agroforestry systems
- Alley cropping with perennial tree species
- Multistrata agroforestry in smallholder farms
- Temperate peatland and bogland restoration
Measurement & Verification
Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement
Marine chemistry, alkaline mineral dissolution, ocean carbon pump enhancement
Enhancing the Ocean's Natural Carbon Sink
The ocean is the world's largest active carbon sink, absorbing ~30% of annual anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) accelerates this natural process by increasing the ocean's alkalinity - its capacity to absorb CO₂ - through the addition of alkaline minerals or electrochemically produced bases.
OAE is a frontier pathway with enormous scale potential. Teravent applies conservative crediting with mandatory marine ecosystem monitoring and extensive MRV protocols aligned with the latest OAE research frameworks.
OAE Approaches Registered
- Coastal mineral dissolution (olivine, limestone)
- Electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement
- Direct liming with calcium hydroxide
- Accelerated weathering in marine environments
- River-to-ocean alkalinity flux enhancement
- Offshore barge-based OAE deployment
Measurement & Verification
Pathway comparison at a glance
Key attributes across all registered pathways to guide project developers and credit buyers in their decision-making.
| Pathway | Category | Scale Potential | Durability | MRV Confidence | Co-Benefits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🌊 Blue Carbon & Marine | 🌊 | Active | ||||
| 🌿 ARR & Nature-Based | 🌿 | Active | ||||
| 🌾 Soil Carbon | 🌱 | Active | ||||
| 🔥 Biochar | ⚗️ | Scaling | ||||
| 🌲 Biomass CRS | 🏭 | Emerging | ||||
| 🪨 Enhanced Weathering | 🪨 | Scaling | ||||
| ⚡ Direct Air Capture | ⚡ | Emerging | ||||
| 🌱 Agroforestry & Peatlands | 🌿 | Active | ||||
| 🌫️ Ocean Alkalinity | 🌊 | Emerging |
How we evaluate
a methodology
Every methodology applied to Teravent undergoes a formal review by our Science Advisory Board before being accepted. We apply consistent criteria regardless of pathway type.
Emerging pathways with strong scientific foundations may be accepted under a provisional status while standards continue to develop - ensuring Teravent can support frontier science without compromising credit integrity.
Peer-Reviewed Scientific Basis
The underlying removal mechanism must be supported by published, peer-reviewed literature and accepted within the climate science community.
Quantifiable & Measurable
Carbon removal must be measurable using defined protocols with acceptable uncertainty bounds, validated by independent parties.
Permanent or Durability-Managed
Removal must be permanent, or durability risk must be explicitly quantified and managed through approved buffer pool mechanisms.
Additional & Non-Leaking
Projects must demonstrate additionality - carbon removed above baseline - and not cause displacement of emissions elsewhere.
Ecosystem & Community Safe
No methodology may pose unacceptable risks to ecosystem integrity or local community wellbeing. All co-benefit and risk assessments are mandatory.
"We accept methodologies based on the quality of evidence, not the popularity of the pathway. No commercial pressure should override scientific integrity."Dr. Sunley Lissy George, Science Advisory Board Chair
Methodology review process
Ready to register your
removal project?
Join the growing community of developers bringing high-integrity carbon removal to the Teravent Registry - from the Global South and beyond.