From Nordic Forests to Kazakh Steppes: Re-contextualizing Sustainable Biochar Business Model Typologies in an Emerging Economy

Empirical typologies of sustainable biochar business models (SBMs) derive largely from Nordic settings characterised by abundant forest biomass, dense district heating, and mature voluntary carbon markets. Whether these configurations transfer to emerging economies remains unexplored. This study examines how biochar producers in Kazakhstan — a wheat-producing steppe economy with coal-dominated heating, extensive saline soils, and a carbon price near one US dollar per tonne — configure their SBMs. Semi-structured interviews with ten producers across nine regions, conducted between December 2024 and February 2025, were analysed through a sustainable value analysis framework. Six model types were identified — biochar products, waste-to-resource, partnership, carbon removal, service-based, and technology commercialisation — mirroring the Nordic typology in structure but inverting in relative salience. Waste-to-resource and soil-restoration product models dominate, anchored by crop-residue valorisation and saline-soil remediation, while carbon-removal models remain latent owing to institutional underdevelopment rather than technical limitation. SBM typologies are therefore context-sensitive, shifting in emphasis as feedstock, soil, energy, and carbon-market conditions change.