Learnings from the Field: How to Build Quality Assurance Cost-Effectively in Verified Credits

At Charm, we’ve never been shy about sharing what creating an industry actually looks like. Along those lines, we wanted to more formally kick off a new series called “Learnings from the Field” where we offer additional glimpses into our journey in scaling up the bio-oil sequestration pathway. We couldn’t think of a better way to kick off this nitty gritty series than zooming in on the trajectory of our costs for MRV—Measurement, Reporting, and Verification, the framework that proves CO₂ is truly removed and permanently stored. 

We think about cost curves - a lot. The techno-economics of bio-oil sequestration have been coming down significantly — on track to reach <$200/ton in the years to come. Achieving this ambitious target requires being ruthless about every step in our cost stack while ensuring we’re delivering the highest-quality carbon removal on earth.

A major part of that equation is MRV, or how we demonstrate where each tonne goes and ensure it meets the rigor our customers expect. It’s one of the real cost drivers in durable carbon removal and something rarely appreciated until starting to report sequestered tons on a more consistent basis.

On the surface, it may seem that scaling a high-integrity, fully instrumented supply chain is at odds with reducing cost. In this post, we’re going to explore how we reduced our MRV costs by 88% while improving the quality and pace of our verifications.

For Charm, MRV costs represented a significant fraction of total injection costs as we ramped operations.   To continue our progress on the long-term cost curve, we’ve needed to tackle MRV expenses head-on as we drive towards bringing our technology to gigaton-scale.

Understanding the “High Cost” of MRV 

In September 2024, our MRV testing costs were north of $200 per ton of bio-oil injected. If we’re going to achieve sub-$200 per tonne TOTAL, we need to dramatically reduce that! 

That’s a hefty slice of cost-of-goods (COGs), and while it reflected robust, protocol-compliant testing, it wasn't sustainable at scale.

What was driving that cost?

Two things:

1. High sampling frequency — Three samples per injection batch

2. High lab test costs — ~$3000 per month to cover core tests like carbon content, TAN (Total Acid Number), density, and H₂O

The key issue? Testing frequency scales with the number of batches, not the volume of oil. That meant even as we produced more oil per batch, our testing load—and cost—remained constant.

The Fix: Smarter Sampling + Bigger Batches

We worked closely with our verification partner, Isometric, to reduce the testing burden without compromising accuracy.

By January 2025, we had:

• Cut the sampling rate down to 1 sample per batch. We had started off pulling and testing 3 samples out of an abundance of caution – After all, carbon content is one of our most sensitive measurements, so we wanted to be certain it was representative for each batch. After a few months of data collection, we found that our within-batch standard deviation was well below 1%, giving us the confidence we needed to reduce our sampling rate and, as a result, cut our testing costs significantly

• Doubled the average batch volume, thanks to lower scrap rates and better operational stability. Here too, we were cautious early on as we ramped up our first-of-a-kind bio-oil processing setup. We ran small batches at first, progressively ramping volume until our tanks were consistently running close to 100% of capacity

The result? A massive reduction in MRV cost—from $215 to just $21.60 per ton of bio-oil.

Add in Charm Products' internal MRV testing (~$3.25/ton), and we landed at an all-in MRV cost of $25 per ton. That’s an 88% reduction in just four months.

What’s Next: Two Levers to Push Costs Even Lower

While $25 per ton is already a big win, we’re not stopping there. We have two clear levers to drive costs down even further:

1. Method B: A New Testing Model

Right now, we test every injection batch. But the Isometric protocol allows a switch to a monthly testing cadence—once we’ve demonstrated 30 consecutive, consistent batches using the same feedstock and pyrolysis process. We're currently in data-gathering mode to hit that threshold.

Once we cut over to Method B, our lab sampling cost drops dramatically—down to $7.85 per ton of bio-oil. That’s a 70% reduction from today, and 97% lower than where we started last year.

2. Larger Injection Batches

Even before Method B, there's room to reduce MRV cost per ton by injecting larger batches. More oil per batch means fewer total batches per month, which means fewer total lab tests. Here too, we are working carefully to pressure test this change, ensuring our transition to large batches drives down cost while either maintaining or improving our accuracy in reporting our climate impact.

It’s a classic scaling benefit—and one we’re actively optimizing in parallel with our Method B transition.

Why This Matters: Trust and Scale

We're proud of how far we've come. But it’s not just about hitting a cost target—it’s about delivering the highest-quality, scientifically-rigorous carbon removal on the planet, and doing it at a cost that enables true gigaton-scale impact.

Every test we run, every report we file, and every protocol we follow is designed to ensure that the CO₂ we remove is really, truly gone. We are always (and will always be) governed by our top value of Do No Harm - valuing accuracy above all else.