West Bengal, India, June 2025. atmosfair has introduced a new, digital monitoring system to document CO₂ storage through biochar. The system provides data in real time and thus automates the monitoring and documentation of climate protection performance. It significantly increases the transparency and efficiency of project work.

The monitoring system records the production and use of biochar in West Bengal, India, involving 60,000 households. “We need to precisely document the quantity of biochar delivered in order to prove that the stoves are actually being used. We also need an overview of all activities in order to further improve the management of the project. A detailed documentation for so many households is only possible with the new system,” says atmosfair project manager Lotte Grünwald.

atmosfair project manager Lotte Grünwald uses our new monitoring tool to observe the progress of biochar production.

Real-time documentation of a project with 60,000 households

The 60,000 participating households with a total of 270,000 people produce around 1,500 tons of biochar per month. Our field agents, who buy the charcoal, record each purchase using the new application, including data on the biomass used and the quality of the charcoal. The areas where the fertilizer is ultimately applied are then documented using GPS. The system transfers all project data directly to a central server. Project managers can then access the data via interactive dashboards.

People produce the biochar when cooking with pyrolysis stoves, which atmosfair subsidizes. atmosfair buys the charcoal and processes it into biofertilizer which farmers then apply to arable land. This way, the carbon that the plants have removed from the atmosphere is permanently bound in the soil. The households benefit from the project in several ways: they do not only save firewood but also get additional income by selling the charcoal. The project thus contributes both to climate protection and to improving the social situation in the region.

An atmosfair field agent checks the quality of the biochar he has collected from a household in West Bengal. He then records the quantity in our digital monitoring system.

Doubling the production of biochar

Digital monitoring simplifies the documentation required by the Carbon Standard International (CSI) carbon register and at the same time, it creates the conditions for expanding the project: in the upcoming months, we will equip a further 60,000 households with stoves. The production of biochar will double to 36,000 tons per year.

With this project, atmosfair currently binds more than 30,000 tons of CO₂ per year. This corresponds to the emissions of a small German town with 4,000 inhabitants.

Our digital monitoring system shows on a map where the households with TLUD stoves are located. The dashboard also shows how we doubled the amount of biochar collected in 2025.