New Issue Brief Charts a Path to Scale Direct Storage of Biomass

Every year, wildfire crews clear millions of tons of dead trees, brush, and forest debris to reduce wildfire fuel loads. Most of it gets burned or left to decay, releasing the carbon dioxide it stored right back into the atmosphere. In California alone, that adds up to 70 million tons of waste biomass annually.

Direct storage of biomass (DSB) offers an alternate option: bury or vault the waste material and lock its stored carbon away for centuries rather than releasing it back into the atmosphere.

A new issue brief from the Carbon Business Council, Direct Storage of Biomass: Assessing the Carbon Removal Opportunity, explores the carbon removal pathway and offers recommendations for both public and private sector decision makers to drive investment and deployment.

A low-tech answer to a global challenge

DSB takes waste wood, agricultural residue like corn stalks and husks, and other plant matter that would otherwise decompose or burn, and places it in storage sites above or below ground, where oxygen and moisture are kept out, preventing decomposition.

The approach builds on forestry and waste management practices that already exist, so it can scale using equipment, supply chains, and land management practices already in place. The brief identifies DSB as one of the more promising near-term pathways for reaching the scale of carbon removal the world will need by mid-century, largely because it's both low cost and ready to deploy now. U.S. forestry residues alone represent an estimated 55 to 115 million tons of CO2-equivalent removal potential per year at a mature market scale.

Multitude of Co-Benefits 

DSB's appeal goes beyond tons of CO2 removed. Removing excess biomass from forests is a long-standing wildfire mitigation practice, and carbon finance tied to DSB projects can help fund that work at a scale many fire-prone communities currently can't afford on their own. The brief also points to new revenue streams for farmers, foresters, rural communities, and Native Nations, particularly as traditional markets for wood products decline.

Recommendations

The issue brief includes a comprehensive overview of the DSB pathway, including feedstocks, storage methods, and monitoring, reporting and verification considerations. It also demonstrates why DSB is a relatively low-cost, immediately scalable CDR pathway that is readily integrated into existing industries, including forestry, agriculture, and waste management. The brief also offers recommendations for the policymakers, financiers, and land managers who can help the pathway move from pilot projects to real scale. 

A Coalition Effort

The brief is the product of months of collaboration through the Direct Storage of Biomass Coalition, a Carbon Business Council working group launched in March 2026 to advance responsible deployment of the DSB pathway.

Coalition members include Blue Forest, Carba, Carbon Lockdown, CarbonRx, Carbonsate, Cowboy Clean Fuels, Down to Earth Carbon, EcoEngineers, Graphyte, Isometric, Leading Carbon / Clear Sky, Living Carbon, Mast Reforestation, Nature Focus, Puro.earth, Rewind, Tau Carbon, Timber Turn, Vaulted Deep, and Woodcache. The report was developed with support from the Carbon Business Council, including Ben Rubin, Executive Director, and Haley McKey, Associate Director of Partnerships. Charm Industrial and Carbon Business Council Advisor Savita Bowman contributed additional insights.

DSB is an essential component of the global CDR portfolio and a potential contributor to local economies around the world. This issue brief lays out why – and how we can fully realize this pathway’s potential. The Carbon Business Council supports a tech-inclusive approach to scaling carbon removal across multiple pathways. 

Read the full issue brief: https://www.carbonbusinesscouncil.org/s/CO2BC_DSB-Issue-Brief.pdf