Restore Carbon

(Re)store Carbon have come up with a method to make new peat called ‘Veenmakers’ in Dutch (translates to ‘Peatmakers’).  Additional advantages of this method of making peat are improvement of the load bearing capacity of the soil, prevention of subsidence and the storage of large amount of carbon resulting in net CO2 removal. The innovative method of making peat has been patented by (Re)store Carbon. Similar to the natural process of forest becoming peat, this method applies biomass in the subsurface of peat soils below the ground water table. This brings the natural organic matter (the Biomass) under anaerobic, slightly acidic conditions of peat, where the natural decomposition processes stop.  As a result,  large amounts of carbon stored in the biomass are removed from the atmosphere for a very long period (>100 years), while the load bearing capacity of the soil is improved and subsidence is prevented.

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The stored biomass is can be sourced from various residual biomass sources, which would normally be left to decompose including forest and pruning residues, roadside grass, greenhouse plant residues and other plant residues. Because of its capacity to store carbon long term, with very low risk of re-release into the atmosphere (i.e. highest category in the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting), this method is complementary to other long-lived storage methods like Direct Air Capture Carbon Storage (DACCS). However, it has several advantages: 1) as it uses the power of nature to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, it does not need large amounts of energy for its carbon capture process, and 2) because its captured carbon is stored in peat bogs, there is no need for drilling the deep wells usually required for DACCS.

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(Re)store Carbon and the Veenmakers methodology was developed by Paul Smits, Rene Leegte, Jurriaan Reijs and Renze Schram. This pilot project has been set up in Ter Aar and includes putting 11.000 m³ of wood underground.

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