BioCarbon says it has secured $4.8 million in Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funding to support the manufacturing-scale development of its first commercial facility in Bulahdelah, New South Wales.
In a media release, BioCarbon said the project will manufacture GreenChar®, a renewable carbon product intended to replace traditional metallurgical coke used as charge carbon in Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking.
The Bulahdelah facility is expected to supply renewable carbon products to existing steel operations, with the project supported under ARENA’s National Industrial Transformation Program and aligned with national efforts to reduce emissions from metals manufacturing.
BioCarbon said most of the plant’s output will be allocated to its primary operations, while a portion of manufacturing capacity will be reserved for selected industry partners to conduct exclusive trials.
According to the company, these trials are intended to allow steelmakers and metallurgical operators to assess GreenChar’s performance within their own manufacturing facilities and inform potential future supply arrangements.
The company said the project builds on several years of technology development, scaling its proprietary pyrolysis and consolidation processes into a commercial facility designed for continuous operation.
BioCarbon stated a key objective is to demonstrate that renewable carbon can be manufactured at cost parity with fossil-based metallurgical coke, addressing what it describes as a longstanding “green premium” in low-emissions steelmaking.
BioCarbon said its technology has already been validated through industrial trials in which GreenChar replaced 100 per cent of charge coke in Electric Arc Furnaces, producing around 3,000 tonnes of steel.
The company said these trials showed the material could be used as a drop-in replacement without significant plant modifications.
“The support from ARENA enables us to move beyond our pilot operations and into commercial reality,” BioCarbon chief executive Chad Sheppeard said.
“Between our successful 3,000-tonne steel trials and thousands of hours of incident-free pilot plant operation, we are demonstrating that GreenChar is a viable, high-performance alternative to fossil coke that the steel industry is ready to adopt.”
ARENA funding for the project forms part of its National Industrial Transformation Program, which is focused on supporting low-emissions technologies in Australian manufacturing.
