Published by Todd Bush on February 24, 2025
Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet.
Qualterra’s carbon-trapping biochar being applied to an apple orchard. (Qualterra Photo)
There’s a pleasing circularity to Qualterra’s ag-tech operations. The Eastern Washington company takes crop and forestry wastes, applies a patented technology to convert the organic debris into biochar, and uses that material to more efficiently grow the next generation of apples, hops, grapes, potatoes, and other produce.
The Pullman, Wash.-based business recently raised $4.5 million and plans to launch the sale of biochar carbon credits. The company last month also announced its move into seven acres of high-tech greenhouses, allowing it to increase its plant production 10-fold.
“We’re going through an exciting transformation as an organization right now,” said Mike Werner, CEO of Qualterra.
Biochar is a substance akin to charcoal that traces its roots to ancient civilizations in the Amazon and beyond and has been gaining traction as a carbon removal solution to address climate change. It’s typically made through a process called pyrolysis, where organic material is heated to a high temperature in a low-oxygen environment, creating a solid carbon material.
Qualterra can convert 20 types of feedstock into biochar, including wheat straw, timber waste, orchard residue, seeds, nuts, and husks. The company is methodically testing the benefits of the biochar with 13 crop types in three U.S. states.
Mike Werner, CEO of Qualterra. (Qualterra Photo)
>> In Other News: Pioneering the Future: Companies Leading the Charge in BECCS Technology
Biochar isn’t a fertilizer but creates a soil environment that supports helpful micro-organisms and significantly reduces the amount of water needed for irrigation. Applied correctly, it should provide soil benefits for hundreds of years.
“It really facilitates the right type of environment that plants need,” Werner said, adding that the biochar is “improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of soils, and doing it in a way that’s economically viable for our farmers and growers.”
Qualterra sells biochar and biochar production units.
Another Washington startup, Myno Carbon, is turning wood waste into biochar.
Qualterra formed in 2021 when NuPhY, a company providing genetic testing for crop diseases as well as plant and fruit tree production, acquired Ag Energy Solutions, which focused on biochar and renewable energy systems. It employs 38 people, and its headcount could more than double this year, Werner said.
The company still provides farmers with rapid, molecular testing to screen for infections. One current concern for growers is “little cherry virus,” which produces small, less sweet cherries and can be detected in diseased leaves.
Qualterra also grows apple, cherry, grape, hops, and rose plants for farmers to transplant and for nursery sales. Its labs use agricultural biotechnology to confirm the genetic profile of the plants and verify that they’re disease-free. The plants are offered in soil that’s enriched with their biochar.
“It allows us to bring all of our technologies together,” Werner said.
The Cowles Real Estate Company, a Qualterra partner, recently purchased the state-of-the-art greenhouses and other facilities that the startup has moved into. Qualterra is leasing the space, which is in the heart of an agricultural community in Mabton, Wash.
Werner has held leadership roles in software, asset management, real estate, and sales and marketing. He became CEO of Ag Energy Solutions in 2020 and then Qualterra following the acquisition.
The company’s chief scientist is Amit Dhingra, a former professor at Washington State University and currently the head of the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University. He’s also CSO for Ryp Labs, a Bothell, Wash., startup working to prevent the spoiling of produce.
A Qualterra scientist at the company’s molecular plant testing lab in Pullman, Wash. (Qualterra Photo)
While Qualterra has raised new funding, venture capital investments in the global ag-tech sector totaled $6 billion last year, wilting from a peak of $13.9 billion in 2021. The slide reflected investment declines across the economy. A new analysis from PitchBook was a bit rosier, saying the field showed “resilience among economic headwinds” and reported that the strongest segments in the sector are precision ag and ag biotech.
Washington state ag-tech companies raked in some of the 2024 investments. Carbon Robotics, a Seattle precision-ag company, raised $70 million in October and recently announced a new line of AI-powered robots for destroying weeds. TerraClear raised $15 million last year to fund its AI-enhanced rock-mapping-and-removal technology for farmers.“The sector’s focus on addressing critical issues such as climate change and food security positions it for steady growth in the years to come,” according to PitchBook.
With multiple locations in Washington, Werner said the company is eager to work alongside its customers and plot its own growth.
“Making sure that the technologies align with the values and the needs for the farmers is critical,” he said. “So when you think about the technologies that we’re trying to deliver — whether it’s plants or molecular diagnostics or biochar biomass processing — that’s why we’re spending time with farmers.”
Follow the money flow of climate, technology, and energy investments to uncover new opportunities and jobs.
Inside This Issue 🌏 A Bold Transpacific Alliance: ExxonMobil and Marubeni Power a Cleaner Future with Low-Carbon Ammonia 💰 Aker Carbon Capture Has Decided to Sell Its 20 Percent Ownership Interest...
Inside This Issue 🌊 NYK Partners With Climeworks to Remove CO₂ Through Diverse Carbon Removal Solutions 🛠️ First Public Hydrogen (FPH2) Appoints Ernesto Medrano to Board of Directors 💡 Kinetics Ac...
Inside This Issue 📊 Trading Carbon Right: Why Credit Quality Matters More Than Ever ☀️ SunHydrogen Contracts The Process Group for Front-End Engineering Design of 25m2 Renewable Hydrogen Pilot Pla...
Project Hajar Earns Top XPRIZE Carbon Award for Direct Air Capture and Storage in UAE
Project Hajar, a joint initiative by 44.01 and Aircapture, has been named the strongest performer in the Air category of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, earning a \$1 million award. The proj...
BKV Corporation (“BKV” or the “Company”) (NYSE: BKV) today announced the formation of a strategic joint venture (the “JV”) between BKV dCarbon Ventures, LLC (“dCarbon Ventures”), BKV’s wholly-owned...
Microsoft Expands World’s Largest Carbon Removal Deal with Stockholm Exergi to 5M Tonnes
World’s largest annual CDR delivery deal: Microsoft'’s expanded agreement now totals 5.08M tons, with 500,000 tons captured annually. $1.3B BECCS facility operational by 2028: Stockholm Exergi’s p...
FORNEBU, Norway, May 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ – Aker Carbon Capture ASA (Aker Carbon Capture or ACC) and Aker ASA (Aker) today announced an agreement whereby Aker will buy the 20 percent ownership inte...
Follow the money flow of climate, technology, and energy investments to uncover new opportunities and jobs.