Microsoft has signed a carbon removal deal with Danish Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) firm BioCirc for 650,000 tons of removal credits over the next seven years.

The deal will see Microsoft receive carbon removal credits from carbon capture units at five of BioCirc’s 8 biogas plants, all located in Denmark. The five plants are located in Favrskov, Vesthimmerland, Haderslev, Grønhøj, and Vinkel. The captured carbon will be subsequently transported to and stored in Ineos’ CO2 storage facility in the North Sea.

Under the terms of the agreement, BioCirc will deliver 100,000 CRUs per year to Microsoft from the second half of 2026 to 2032, with a partial delivery in 2026 due to the project’s start date.

“BioCirc’s project offers a permanent and scalable approach to CO2 removal while contributing to a broader transition of the energy system. Scalable, high-quality CO2 removal solutions with high traceability, like BioCirc’s, are crucial for the development of a robust global market for carbon removal,” says Phillip Goodman, director of Carbon Removal Portfolio at Microsoft.

According to BioCirc, the deal will support the scaling of its integrated platform that combines biogas production, renewable energy, and carbon capture and storage. The company claims that its model can expand cost-effective CO2 displacement and support decarbonization across hard-to-abate sectors.

“The agreement is a major milestone for BioCirc and an important validation of our approach to delivering permanent CO2 displacement,” says Bertel Maigaard, group CEO of BioCirc, continuing: “We are thrilled to collaborate with a market-leading international company like Microsoft, which, while managing residual emissions and supporting global climate goals, is helping to develop the market for permanent CO2 displacement.”

According to the release, all the biomass used in the program complies with strict Danish suitability requirements. In addition, the company claims that all its plants meet or exceed Denmark’s stringent requirements for methane detection and leak prevention through operational procedures and facility integrity.

BioCirc is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a large-scale biomethane and biomass processing firm, with an annual biomethane capacity of between 1.9 to 2TWh.

The deal is the first to be announced since Microsoft reported that it was ‘pausing’ its carbon removal purchases. It is unclear whether the agreement was signed prior to the announcement. DCD has reached out for more information. However, since the report, Microsoft said that it was not pausing purchases completely, but rather adjusting the pace and volume of carbon removal procurement.

This is not the first BECCS firm that Microsoft has signed a carbon removal deal with. Most recently, last month, the company signed a 626,000 ton deal with Svante Technologies and Meadow Lake Tribal Council, generated from a BECCS project in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Other deals include a carbon removal deal with Gaia, a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Vestforbrænding, for 2.95 million tons of carbon removal credits. The company has also backed Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor’s Northern Lights carbon capture project, the world’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage facility.