Renewable Carbon Production as Viable Substitute to Fossil Products
CRIBE Funding: $1,020,525
Project Total Value: $3,376,050
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Project Lead: Haliburton Forest Biochar
Consortium members: Haliburton Forest Biochar, Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve Ltd.
Project Goal
To support a commercially-viable demonstration facility to produce high-carbon (70 to 95%) biochar.
Clean technology to be demonstrated at commercial volume using only virgin wood fibre from Ontario.
Haliburton Forest Biochar embarks on the transition to commercialization, supported by CRIBE, with aims to utilize raw sawmill residues from local natural forests, supplying the manufacturing sector with a viable intermediate commercial carbon to meet demand in Ontario.
The practical application of this clean technology is to pyrolize single-species wood fibre under set parameters to produce amorphous carbon with specific required properties fit for downstream industrial processes in multiple facilities and applications.
Commercialization will allow for competitive substitution of finite resources and the sequestration of organic carbon on a grand scale. HFB is the first biosector employer in its county of operation, currently with 5 full-time employees, expected to grow to 15+, stimulating economic growth in rural Ontario, the forestry sector, and providing compelling employment opportunities adapted to a more resource-use-efficient future.
Final Project Update
Haliburton’s goals over the project’s 7-year duration have included developing a novel biochar technology and creating a new market for biochar, using sustainably harvested feedstock from Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve Ltd. (HWFR). With Haliburton using a novel exfoliation equipment to develop a commercial high-performance processed biochar replacement for fossil fuel products in the automotive foam sector and demonstrating a production capacity of 17,500 kg/week of micronized biochar, great progress has been made towards achieving these goals. The possibility of a unique supply chain from the forest to the sawmill to biochar through to the end user has been highlighted, providing the groundwork to scale biochar production across Ontario and thus increase the overall use of Ontario biomass.
CRIBE support to the project derisked the implementation of novel designs, allowing Haliburton to successfully scale their biochar processing technology to achieve commercial volumes. CRIBE support also resulted in key technical and market learnings that have shaped HFB’s operations, such as identifying the critical limits to achieve various desired biomaterials.
Haliburton continues to be an innovation hub for the advancement of biochar and is in the final steps of full commercialization of the new pyrolysis technology, overcoming the technical hurdles undertaken by this project, namely the lack of available high-quality biochar in the market. Haliburton targets a 2000 t/a production rate by the end of 2024 to achieve a stable biochar supply and plans to experiment with other low value and under-utilized sawmill feedstocks such as maple bark, amongst other goals.