Supercritical signs for up to 19,000 tonnes of Jain biochar credits

By Rebecca Stone

Supercritical has signed an agreement with India-based Jain Irrigation Systems Limited for up to 19,000 tonnes of biochar carbon dioxide removal credits, drawing supply from Jain’s 2026 and 2027 production operations at its industrial facility in Jalgaon, Maharashtra.

The carbon-removals marketplace said the deal adds fresh supply of high-quality biochar credits for buyers interested in carbon removals. Supercritical also reported that buyers now claim available biochar CDR volumes earlier each year, tightening the window for new purchases.

How tight is the biochar credit market?

• Supercritical’s H2 2026 biochar market report put the committed share of this year’s high-quality supply at 81% by July.
• The commitment point came three months earlier than at the same point in 2025.
• The company linked the change to corporate buyers replacing one-off spot purchases with multi-year contracts.

What is Jain supplying from Jalgaon?

Jain produces biochar using residues from its own food processing lines or other agricultural crops. At its industrial facilities, the company replaces fossil fuel with syngas, while the produced biochar enters Jain’s downstream agriculture businesses and returns to farmers as a soil amendment.

The credits draw from an existing operating site at Jalgaon. The agreement sets a maximum delivery commitment of 19,000 tonnes across the 2026 and 2027 production years; it does not state the facility’s annual output capacity.

Supercritical Supply Senior Manager Steve Morrin said: “Most biochar projects we evaluate are building their supply chains from scratch. Jain has had theirs for 60 years.”

He added: “The facility is running, the feedstock comes from their own operations, and the farmer network already exists. That’s the delivery profile our buyers look for, and it’s hard to find when most of this year’s high-quality supply is already spoken for.”

What verification is pending?

Jain shared with Supercritical that the active Jalgaon project is undergoing verification through Puro.earth. According to Jain, BeZero Carbon is also conducting an independent rating.

The announcement included neither a verification outcome nor a rating result. Both assessments remained unfinished when the supply agreement was announced.

What agricultural base supports the supply?

Jain reports that its agricultural operations have run since 1963 and have served a network of more than 10 million farmers. The group is responsible for one of the world’s largest mango processing operations and for tissue culture nurseries producing 150 million plants a year.

Over the past 30 years, Jain says its team has successfully commercialized agricultural technologies ranging from micro-irrigation solutions to banana tissue culture. The company intends to use that research base and farmer network to develop commercial-scale biochar products for agriculture.

Does the agreement add plant capacity?

No new facility, expansion or annual capacity figure accompanies the agreement. The 19,000 tonnes represents a maximum credit-supply commitment for 2026 and 2027, not a disclosed annual output capacity for the existing Jalgaon plant.

The announcement appeared alongside separate reporting that Supercritical had partnered with Ground Up to expand its India biochar network. The separate initiative carries no tonnage, facility location, commissioning date or capacity figure in the related announcement.

What milestone comes next?

Completion of Puro.earth verification and the independent BeZero Carbon rating is the next validation checkpoint for the Jalgaon project. The announcement identifies both assessments as underway for the supply tied to 2026 and 2027 production.

The commercial test follows: whether buyers take the contracted volume in a market where 81% of the year’s high-quality supply had already been committed by July. Delivery against 2026 and 2027 production, following the two third-party assessments, is the milestone that determines whether the agreement adds validated, rated removals to a market already committed three months ahead of the prior year’s schedule.