Concept

Chain of Custody

Jump To

Problem

Forest-based biomass has been a perennial problem for the forest sector and a determining factor for sawmill viability. With large sums of money invested in strategic landscape-scale fuel treatments between 2018-2025, obtaining real-time information on the capacity of regional biomass markets has been critical for efficient management. 

However, it was routine to see public dollars regularly dedicated to repeating feedstock availability studies. Furthermore, a growing list of certifying bodies, pathways, and buyers of carbon credits required a more sophisticated approach to tracking where biomass was being procured from.  Because biomass is seen as a low-value product option, finding ways to increase the value of biomass for both our pre-existing facilities as well as next generation technologies was identified as key to supporting the land management objectives being subsidized by the federal and state government.  With both voluntary and regulatory carbon programs providing this value-add opportunity, a comprehensive strategy to assess supply availability and validate material within carbon markets was needed.   

Reports & Resources

  • Loamist BOOST Verification Schema platform
  • Loamist BOOST Verification Schema documentation (link coming soon)

Solution

Begin the process of providing real-time market intelligence for suppliers and prospective entrepreneurs to site new biomass facilities within a specific region. Additionally, the team endeavored to develop a system that can comply with voluntary and regulatory carbon crediting for biomass utilization. Upon successful development, the project team believes that this effort will reduce the constant need for feedstock availability studies, attract new businesses into California, and provide a pathway to increase the value of biomass in the carbon crediting market.  

In Depth Concept Description

The Digital Marketplace team selected Loamist* to develop a comprehensive service designed to increase utilization of biomass with a platform to measure, record, and verify embodied carbon to ensure additionality, streamlining and enhancing biomass supply chain management in the context of changing compliance requirements.  Key components of our proposal include:

  • Biomass Offtake Portal – Providing biomass offtake opportunity for Licensed timber operators (LTOs)
  • Validated Carbon Registry – Providing a streamlined means to efficiently verify carbon as compliant for various end uses including Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), and Green Hydrogen among others.
  • Biomass Data Validation Tool (fka. Carbon Chain of Custody) – Providing a means to verify individual shipments as matching with a verified carbon supplier and tracking and calculating carbon intensity automatically (also see Digital Marketplace)

Show licensed timber operators (LTOs) there is offtake for biomass within an economical distance and provide them the information they need to plan treatments to efficiently aggregate biomass. Key tasks include:

  • Display all biomass offtake facilities on a map and show accepted feedstock at the facility, inclusive of forest, agriculture, and demolition and deconstruction feedstock
  • Display offtake price information and contact information

Attract next generation biomass utilization projects to California–including biomass burial, biochar, and biofuels projects–with an easy and efficient process to validate carbon under voluntary carbon market certification standards and / or Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and Renewable Identification Number (RIN) standards. It is the Digital Marketplace team’s assertion that validating material within the carbon market will increase its value for conversion facilities.

Key tasks include:

  • Develop a supplier listing platform
  • Develop a process to streamline the acquisition and validation of attestation forms needed for carbon certification standards
  • Validate the carbon claims of the supplier across multiple certification standards
  • Market the success of efficient carbon validation for suppliers

The Biomass Data Validation Tool is the application of the Biomass Open Origin Standard for Tracking (BOOST) – a data standard funded by the California Department of Conservation and developed by Carbon Direct to improve interoperability between existing tracing platforms within the forest sector.  The tool is designed to be extended to cap-and-trade compliance, state incentive programs like Low Carbon Fuel Standard, BioRAM, BioMAT; as well as durable wood products, and other emerging programs without re-engineering the system.

*Loamist is a California-based software company on a mission to catalyze the bioeconomy by increasing access to biomass. With a combined forty years experience and background in circular economy research and traceable supply chains, Loamist co-founders Pete Christensen and Andy Miller have led the development of a proprietary software to support real-time tracking of biomass markets and auditing of supply chains across North America.

Status

The Biomass Offtake Portal and feedstock availability reports are available in a free tier of Loamist’s Explorer tool accessible at https://app.loamist.com/.  For additional and custom data layers–including chain of custody mapping–Loamist charges a subscription fee.

The Biomass Validation Tool is recognized as a notable advancement of complex chain of custody tracking by leveraging Carbon Direct’s supply chain standards.

Loamist has also entered trade finance at www.loamist.com

Points of Contact

Governor’s Land Use and Climate Innovation

Michael Maguire, Program manager

michael.maguire@lci.ca.gov

The Watershed Research and Training Center

Clarke Stevenson, Project manager

clarke@thewatershedcenter.com

Loamist

  • Andy Miller, CEO
    andy@loamist.com
  • Peter Christensen, COO
  • Chelsea Samuelson, Head of Operations