Opportunities for Biochar Producers

My name is Terrence Barkin. I'm the

executive director of the Advanced Carbons [music] Council and together with the US Biochar Initiative. This is a joint presentation

Initiative. This is a joint presentation webinar on the topic of finding opportunities for biochar producers to identify value added [music] markets for their materials. You're going to hear

their materials. You're going to hear first from Miles Gray, the executive director of the US US Biochar Initiative. And with that, Miles, I'd

Initiative. And with that, Miles, I'd like to hand over to you. It's all

yours.

>> Great. Well, thank you Terrence and good morning all. Um, you know, before I jump

morning all. Um, you know, before I jump in, I just want to say really appreciative of Terrence [music] for pulling this together and uh, you know, this kind of came together a couple

months ago when Terrence [music] reached out to me to talk about advanced carbons and it and it really dovetales pretty well in our mission [music] because USBI we're really focused on the biochar side

of things. Uh, and I'll get into what I

of things. Uh, and I'll get into what I mean by that, but having this opportunity for biochar producers to get into the advanced carbon [music] space, it it really um works really well within our mission to support biochar

producers. So, with that, I will jump

producers. So, with that, I will jump in. Uh, so US biochar initiative, we are

in. Uh, so US biochar initiative, we are a 501c3. We're focused on supporting the

a 501c3. We're focused on supporting the biochar industry broadly in the United States. We focus primarily on growing

States. We focus primarily on growing markets for biochar and developing standards. Our organization was was

standards. Our organization was was founded in 2010. We host the annual North American biochar conference. Uh

our last conference was in Minneapolis this past September. Um and we have funding primarily from the US Forest Service and the US endowment for foresting communities and both of those

organizations really support the wood products industry United States and clearly biochar is an opportunity uh to add value to a lot of low value timber products. So um that's really our

products. So um that's really our mandate and as I said our approach to the biochar sector uh first we try to drive market adoption uh primarily for

the physical products. So we build and scale demand for physical biochar and agricultural markets um in the built environment space in environmental markets as well. Uh and we're really focused on those spaces where biochar is

actively bought and sold and we try to do everything in collaboration with the biochar sector. We're really trying to

biochar sector. We're really trying to support the biochar industry to grow.

Uh, and another thing we do is develop standards.

And one key feature of the standards that we're working on, we're trying to develop standards or biochar in sectors where people would think they're using

biochar. And and what do I mean by that?

biochar. And and what do I mean by that?

Well, I mean things like agriculture, um, storm water management, fertilizer products, uh, maybe concrete, right?

spaces where a user, an end user might say, "Oh, that's biochar."

Um, so that's where we're trying to lead the development of standards because those standards don't currently [clears throat] exist in the market. In

some of these other sectors, we're really just trying to support standards and and that, as I said, dovetales really well into the work at the Advanced Carbon Council because in this space, buyers aren't thinking they're

buying biochar, they're they're buying different advanced carbon products. So

in that context, we're trying to support the inclusion of um biogenic materials into other standards. So that's really

kind of how our our standards work is is moving forward.

So now what is biochar? Um, one thing to know about this presentation, um, you know, Terrence and I talked about this and in some ways what we're trying to do today is provide a background on biochar to the advanced carbon space and a

background on advanced carbons to the biochar sector. So, a lot of this will

biochar sector. So, a lot of this will be repeat for some of you. Um, hopefully

you'll learn something from at least one of our slide decks. Uh, but I always start with um the point that biochar right now the term is used both for a material and a technology and I'll dive

into both. So the physical material,

into both. So the physical material, it's a whole lot like um charcoal. It's

essentially just a granular back black carbon. Um the chemical structure of

carbon. Um the chemical structure of biochar is resistant to microbial decay.

So the majority of the carbon is stable for at least 500 years or so. So so long as you don't burn it.

Um it can be made from essentially any biomass. As long as you're heating the

biomass. As long as you're heating the material without oxygen, you can create char uh from essentially any type of biomass. the material properties of that

biomass. the material properties of that material will depend on on temperature and how you made it and also the feed stock is made from. But essentially any waste biomass will do. Um and it has

multiple beneficial end uses. And just a brief kind of overview of some of the end uses that that we tend to focus on as I said for like what people might consider be biochar a lot of them are in

agriculture and soil. So there's a lot of interest in using biochar as a soil amendment to improve yield, water holding, soil carbon and soil health. Um

that's particularly true in in some of the sier soils. Um there's a lot of use of biochar horicultural and potting media substrate. Similarly um you know

media substrate. Similarly um you know can help plants grow. It can be used as a replacement for different products.

There's increasing use of biochar and different materials in things like concrete and even in some composits and plastics and building materials and then in the environmental space there's

growing interest as well using biochar and things like stormwater management and and soil remediation.

So these are a lot of the markets where you might consider biochar to be biochar and that's where we spend a lot of our time.

So in terms of the production technology, uh essentially biochar is a a way to manage waste biomass that's pretty different from the typical management approach. So under the

management approach. So under the typical approach, you know, you've got a pile of waste biomass uh and it'll naturally decompose if left to its own devices. It'll naturally decompose over

devices. It'll naturally decompose over time, releasing CO2 and sometimes a little bit of methane back into the atmosphere. You can also combust that

atmosphere. You can also combust that material and you can produce heat and power. This is really common uh in the

power. This is really common uh in the wood products industry taking a lot of these residuals and combusting them to produce electricity or heat. U but

essentially the same thing is happening to those carbon molecules 90% of them emitted back to the atmosphere as CO2.

Under the biochar approach it's it's fundamentally different. So

fundamentally different. So [clears throat] you're using pyrolysis or gasification which is essentially heating that material greater than about 400° C in a limited envir oxygen

environment. And when you do that you

environment. And when you do that you convert about 20 to 25% of the of the biomass into biochar but that ends up being more like 40 to 50% of the carbon

because the the final biochar product is enriched in carbon compared to the feed stock. The remainder of that ends up as

stock. The remainder of that ends up as these pyrolysis gases. So what do you get out of this process? you get some CO2 clearly some of that is being combusted those paralysis gases are

typically combusted for heat or power uh and then you get a whole bunch of biochar uh and as I said that's that's the goal of our organization is really trying to support um the development of

markets and products using the physical biochar so in terms of common feed stocks uh there's a lot of different feed stocks people use in the biochar space uh wood

and bark are very common agricultural wastes like rice hulls um construction debris especially like pallets there's a lot of pallets in the world um and the

organic fraction municipal solid waste you know as I said you can you can make biochar from essentially any biomass it tends to be more suited towards drier um

types of biomass but but not exclusively there are uh wet materials that are used in in biochar production as well of course in that case you have to figure out how to drive off the moisture either

through some sort sort of pre-drawing process or pressing, you know, to squeeze that moisture out or um heat to get rid of that moisture. So, that eats into some of the energy production from

the biochar process.

In terms of what biochar production actually looks like in like the like the equipment that's used right now, we're seeing everything from mobile to industrial scale and there's there's different reasons why you might go with

mobile as compared to industrial. So, on

the left, some different mobile devices.

is the applied carbon unit. Um the

Charbos and the Takachar and this is not exhausted by any stretch. There's

there's many more types of devices than these. Um the mobile units primarily the

these. Um the mobile units primarily the the premise there is that transporting feed stock is expensive and so if you can move the production unit to the feed stock you can you know save a lot of

money in transportation costs and certainly true in in certain context that makes the most sense. Um as

[clears throat] you move over to the right there's some modular units like the RDAR units and the pyite units and then bigger scale systems like ARXcraft ICM you know those are fully industrial

systems processing in the tens of thousands of tons of biochar per year.

Um those tend to pair really well with locations where you've already got a whole bunch of waste biomass. So that

might be at a sawmill or at a facility that recycles pallets or an agricultural processing facility that you know processes rice or oats or almond shells.

So we're seeing everything across the spectrum. Um the industry is really

spectrum. Um the industry is really growing right now and and the basic business model of a bioshar company uh essentially is to convert feed stock

into bioshar right. So you're starting with feed stock. It takes as I said about four to five tons of feed stock to produce a single ton of biochar. Uh

that's an important ratio to keep in your mind. Uh so you're buying feed

your mind. Uh so you're buying feed stock, you're using pyrolysis or gasification and you're producing essentially three things typically.

Pyrolysis gas and that can be used for heat or electricity most commonly. Some

companies are converting those piees into fuels, chemicals or hydrogen even.

Um, you can produce carbon credits and these are pretty lucrative right now and these are mostly being sold to different tech companies. Uh, they tend to be in

tech companies. Uh, they tend to be in the range of $100 to $400 per ton of biochar and then biochar and and that physical product can range anywhere from about

$50 to over $600 per ton of material depending on the end use and and the properties of the material.

So, one thing to go back to is that feed stock side. You know, right now most

stock side. You know, right now most companies are purchasing feed stock in the biochar sector, but there are opportunities to get it for free and even some opportunities to get paid to take feed stock. So, we're seeing a lot

of growth in that approach is can you make a tipping fee for um using that feed stock and and there's more and more cases where that's true, particularly in the bioolid space and construction

debris, municipal waste, things like that. [sighs]

that. [sighs] One thing to know about these carbon credits is they do not permit uses where incineration is a possible end of life.

I mean clearly the the whole point of the carbon removal credit is you're converting a lay bile form of carbon in in waste biomass into a sequestered form of carbon in bioshar but if you burn it

or if there's any risk of it being combusted at the end of the process uh that undermines the legitimacy of those carbon removal credits.

So that's obviously a super fast overview of of what companies are doing in the biochar space. Uh, but that's that tends to be how I think of of the business models of biochar.

So now I'm going to pivot a little bit to from that sort of highle overview of of the biochar sector to a little bit around how biochars might be used as precursors for advanced carbons. And

clearly I'm not an expert in advanced carbons but I'm you know decently knowledgeable about biochar as a as a physical product.

Um, and so I'll dive into sort of four key factors that that might play into the use of biochar in advanced carbons.

And those are going to be carbon form and degree of aromaticity, uh, paracity and surface area, ash, fixed carbon and volatile matter, and initial surface chemistry. And in many ways, uh, these

chemistry. And in many ways, uh, these four things are really controlled by feed stock and production temperature.

Um on the right I've got some some figures that I got back when I was a a wee young in grad school uh of Douglas fern hazelnut biochars. So you can see

that that impact of feed stock and production temperature right in those images right you can see that the production temperature changes particularly in the Douglas fur you can see that it's going from thicker cell

walls there to much much thinner cell walls and then obviously there's an enormous difference based on feed stock.

So in terms of carbon form and aromaticity um essentially at lower temperatures biochar production between about 400 and 800 degrees C you're

getting these turboratic um graffitic sheets they're not graphite by any stretch uh but you're getting some of those properties. So you're

getting these small sheets that are sort of disorganized. And as you increase

of disorganized. And as you increase production temperatures, you get more organized graphine sheets until eventually you get to um graphite

materials. But it's important to know

materials. But it's important to know that biochar is far far from that sort of like fully graphitized production temperature. And that's really important

temperature. And that's really important here because like the way that bioter might feed into an advanced carbon process would probably be as a feed stock that would then be heated to much

higher temperatures to create um graphite or other advanced carbon products. So biochar is getting a little

products. So biochar is getting a little bit of the way there, but there's a lot more work to do to get it to those advanced carbon products.

[clears throat] Pocity is also really important. I tend

to think about biochar pores in three buckets. First off are just these

buckets. First off are just these external pores. You know, if you have a

external pores. You know, if you have a pile of biochar material, external pores are just the the pores between particles. It's no different than a pile

particles. It's no different than a pile of sands, right? The the size and the shape of those pores really just dependent on the size and the shape of the um particles themselves. Then

there's two types of macro of internal pores. So there's these internal macro

pores. So there's these internal macro pores and these are the larger internal pores that are dependent on the cellular structure of the feed stock. So in this Douglas fur

um biochar, this wood biochar, you can see that those are preserved from the cellular structure. In wood, they tend

cellular structure. In wood, they tend to be about 10 to 60 microns in diameter and those contain the majority of the internal paracity of a biochar material.

Now at higher production temperatures, you can get these internal micro pores and I don't have a picture because they're so small that you can't actually see them. So there's no image there. Um

see them. So there's no image there. Um

and they they tend to be in the nanometer range.

They contain only a small amount of the total pore volume uh but they contain the majority of the surface area. And so

you can see that pretty clearly when you look at surface area. And so this is some idealized data for um surface area of biochar versus production temperature for a couple different feed stocks. And

so as you can see that surface area increases with with temperature due to the production of these nanopores. These

internal micro pores are forming due to the reorganization of carbon and again really dependent on production temperature and feed stock with wood and nutshells tending to have higher surface

areas um and grass and bioell tend to be lower. You see a lot of that increase in

lower. You see a lot of that increase in surface area right around kind of the 400 to 600° C range. Above that it tends

to level out. Um obviously for things like activated carbons you can increase that uh surface area with different activation technologies and techniques uh but biochar tends to level out once

you get to about 6 or 700° C you don't get a whole lot more in terms of surface area. You do continue that

area. You do continue that graphitization process um but again to get to that those higherend products you're needing to get much higher temperatures than is typical

in biochar production.

So now fixed carbon, ash and volatile matter. Um you know the general story

matter. Um you know the general story here is that fixed carbon and ash tend to increase at the expense of volatile matter at increasing production temperature.

Um and these are uh methodologically design um designated valve like um properties. These aren't like real

properties. These aren't like real things per se. Ash is essentially the material left over when you fully combust a sample of biomass. fixed

carbon is the amount that um doesn't volatilize at 90° C and then volatile matter is that that portion that does.

Uh but you can see pretty clearly that ash content goes up for all of the biochem materials. It doesn't go up that

biochem materials. It doesn't go up that much for wood and nutshells. And that's

partially because they just don't contain a whole lot of mineral content to begin with because that's primarily what the ash [clears throat] is composed of are different minerals

in that um biomass which is primarily composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Uh fixed carbon also increases um and that's sort of the more stable portion of the carbon and then volatile matter which is that portion that volatilizes clearly goes down with increasing production temperature. And these are

production temperature. And these are all important factors. is uh these three um properties are frequently used sort of as a a rapid analysis of bioshar or a

really high level understanding of of what biochar is and then finally initial surface chemistry. So bioshark is essentially uh

chemistry. So bioshark is essentially uh composed of these graphine sheets particularly once you get above uh five or 600° C. Uh but then on the edges of these sheets you get a whole lot of

surface functionality. different types

surface functionality. different types of functional groups are present on the edges of these graphine sheets. Um, in

general, [clears throat] those tend to disappear at higher production temperatures. Uh, as I said before, a

temperatures. Uh, as I said before, a lot of these end up uh volatilizing as as volatile matter, right? So, um, when you get to those higher production temperatures, you don't have a whole lot

of these surface functional groups or surface functionality. Uh but you can

surface functionality. Uh but you can add a lot of this back in uh via activation and actually even via environmental aging. When biochar is

environmental aging. When biochar is exposed to microbes and the environment, it builds a lot of this back onto the product.

So super quick overview of some of the features that are probably going to be important in using biochar as a precursor for activated carbon or advanced carbons. Um, and you know, just

advanced carbons. Um, and you know, just real summary, I think there's certainly biochars out there that are that are likely candidates as advanced carbon uh precursors. Higher temperature biochars

precursors. Higher temperature biochars are likely going to be among the most suitable. And you know, one of the

suitable. And you know, one of the things that will have to be dealt with is ash. Um, particularly for some of

is ash. Um, particularly for some of these higher value products. And another

piece here is I think this specific upgrading processes will will likely be developed for any given advanced carbon product. So, I spoke a little bit about

product. So, I spoke a little bit about feed stock and purchasing feed stock versus getting paid to take it. And a

lot of times companies that are generating revenue by taking feed stock are probably taking a little bit of a diverse incoming stream of material. That

probably won't work all that well in the advanced carbon space unless you have some real consistent feed stocks. that's

probably going to be a a really key feature is consistency in feed stock and production conditions. And that will

production conditions. And that will work for certain feed stocks and for certain production uh methodologies, but it certainly won't work for all biochar producers. Um so with that, I'm going to

producers. Um so with that, I'm going to hand things over to Terrence.

>> Well, thank you Miles. Appreciate that.

I will go ahead and do my presentation now and then we'll have a Q&A session.

We already have a number of questions coming in. Okay, so biochar

coming in. Okay, so biochar opportunities in the advanced carbon space. Um, if you're not familiar with

space. Um, if you're not familiar with who the advanced carbons council is, we are an international trade association that focuses on the full spectrum of

advanced carbon materials. We started in August 2013 as the graphine council.

That was our core and our initial um start, but we now cover a much broader range of carbon material. When we talk about advanced carbon materials, we're talking about things like graphine,

carbon nano tubes, carboncarbon composits, and even macro materials like carbon fiber or reclaimed carbon fiber.

Uh biomass and recycled or reclaimed uh carbon would cover the biochar materials. So we cover this full

materials. So we cover this full spectrum and we focus on the commercialization and application of these materials in uh in different applications.

So the question for our presentation today is you know what are the opportunities for higher value ad products for the uh for the biochar producers. Um we want to look at things

producers. Um we want to look at things like uh using uh more refined biochar materials directly in construction or

those kind of applications.

um they can be converted or graphitized into graphine carbons, carbon nano tubes or things like hard carbons that can be used in battery. Um we do have a number

of graphine producing companies within the advanced carbons council that are using biochar as a precursor and then they're further processing that to make

either uh graphine or carbon nanot tube materials and synthetic graphite is another opportunity. Um the big

another opportunity. Um the big challenge that we see frankly in this is for uh biochar producers often don't have access to the type of equipment that would be needed to graphitize this

material which is more at 2 and a half thousand to 3,000 degrees centigrade versus the temperatures that you're typically processing biochar at and then beyond that once you've made these

advanced carbon materials is to find the applications in the downstream product.

So if we look at the value chain for advanced carbons, we can start with raw materials. So this is kind of any kind

materials. So this is kind of any kind of carbon bearing source which in the case of biochar you have biomass materials but in the case of graphine or

advanced carbons this includes carbon bearing gases um and and even recycled plastics or any kind of high carbon content material to

be considered a raw material. And I

think for our conversation and for this community, we're talking about the production side. So

production side. So you might be uh taking a biomass and converting it into a uh a value added carbon form and that could be your

biochar or with further processing as we've seen with graphine or some of the other advanced carbons using the biochar as the raw material per se and then

graphitizing it and then um micronizing or getting it down to the atomic level or the the nanocale to turn it into some of these advanced carbons.

There is going to be another phase of work that needs to be done in post production and that could be separation technology. So as Miles referred to with

technology. So as Miles referred to with biochar, you may have a certain proportion of ash or unwanted components into the materials that need to be

separated out. Um you may also have to

separated out. Um you may also have to do post-p production processing to um eliminate the larger scale larger size primary particles from the smaller scale

particles. Functionalization is the

particles. Functionalization is the intentional addition of additional chemicals or elements to the material to improve its performance. So you might have a phase where you actually add

oxygen groups or you add some other um chemical groups uh for a certain uh performance factor. And then there's

performance factor. And then there's also formulation in the carbon nanot tube in the graphine space. For example, um rather than have

space. For example, um rather than have customers use the nano materials directly, these might be put into a master batch formulation combined with

let's say a thermoplastic as a master batch uh additive like polyropylene or nylon, a PA material. And that's what is

sold on to the customer.

And then as you move u further then you have the end uses and that's really I think where the advanced carbons council um plays a role in this particular

discussion for biochar producers is what markets is your material ultimately going to end up in and this is where we need to stimulate demand in order to create a commercial market for any of

these materials. So does it end up in uh

these materials. So does it end up in uh transportation, automotive composits, uh concrete, uh asphalt, uh paints and coatings, you know, where is the

material ultimately going to end up? And

it's important for people earlier in the supply chain to understand what the end use uh markets are for several reasons.

One is to understand what kind of an advanced carbon material makes the most sense for you to focus on trying to produce. And secondly, u making sure

produce. And secondly, u making sure that you're producing it according to the specifications and at commercial terms that are going to be acceptable to the end use markets. And so what we try

to do as an association is to help educate all of our stakeholders, that means producers and the endusers about what these materials can do and

how to apply them. From a

commercialization strategy, you'll have companies that are more vertically integrated. So they might um own a a

integrated. So they might um own a a supply. This could be let's say natural

supply. This could be let's say natural graphite mine for example and then produce carbon nanot tubes or graphine from that and then they functionalize it put it into a formulation and sell it on

and they would control all of those components in a more vertical integration or we have companies that just focus on the post-p production uh manipulation of the materials for

example. So it's also trying to

example. So it's also trying to understand where you might fit in that value chain. If we look at graphine and

value chain. If we look at graphine and what it is, graphine was only unveiled or discovered in 2004. The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for that

discovery in 2010. So this material has only been around for about 20 years from discovery. So it's quite young by

discovery. So it's quite young by material standards. And typically over

material standards. And typically over the history of if you're looking at glass or aluminum or you're looking at fiber optic cable or whatever when a new

material is discovered it usually takes about 30 years for it to be fully commercialized.

And where we're at with graphine is we are in the commercialization phase. So

we we have adoption of graphine now in many many different applications. So

graphine is not one material, but it's actually more like a family of materials. And what you see here, the

materials. And what you see here, the four images on the left are different types and forms of a graphine material and the one on the far right is more of

an amorphous carbon. Um, you could think of things like carbon black. And with

biochar materials, what we have seen what what this is a relatively new material for us, but what we have seen is often there's a combination of sp2 bonded carbon and amorphous carbon um in

the mix. And so the question then

the mix. And so the question then becomes um do you need to work on separation technology or further processing or do you tweak your production processes to gear more

towards more sp2 hybridization of the carbon to get the end product?

So those are just some considerations there. If we look at carbon nano tubes,

there. If we look at carbon nano tubes, carbon nano tubes are uh 10 years older than graphine and we see it's a more mature market. There's about 125

mature market. There's about 125 companies that we've identified that are active in the carbon nano tube market and carbon nanot tubes have established

themselves as a very wellused material in the battery sector and of course batteries is a rapidly growing uh market segment at the moment and so they've

kind of found their niche. Um, one of the enduse markets for biochar potentially is as a hard carbon. And I

don't have a slide up for hard carbons, but hard carbons are an ideal material for sodium ion batteries for example. So

that might be a nice niche application or a synthetic graphite.

So if we look at the size of the markets, carbon nanot tubes at 30 years old is a much more mature market than graphine and it's a very large

addressable market primarily in energy storage electronics and this is one of the areas with uh with the advanced carbons is either being used for their

high electrical conductivity or for their high thermal conductivity or both um lends them to certain applications.

So there's a lot of markets to look at.

So pathways for value ad for the biochar market could be in improving existing materials. And we've seen uh for example

materials. And we've seen uh for example biochar being used as an additive in asphalt. And we've done testing with

asphalt. And we've done testing with graphine carbon nanot tubes and other allletropes of carbon in asphalt. It's a

very large market, very price sensitive, but there is opportunity there to make asphalt that is more temperature resilient, longer wearing so that the roads don't need to be replaced as

often. Uh, for example, the same with

often. Uh, for example, the same with concrete or some other um applications.

And then the other thing to think about is engineering some of your biochar and making it more reproducible, higher carbon content, less variability,

certain particular uh particle morphology and identifying key markets where um that are especially price sensitive because biochar could be produced at a

pretty efficient price point and look at markets just for the biochar material itself.

So Miles mentioned briefly uh standards.

There are obviously wellestablished standards for biochar primarily for the agricultural use. So it focuses on its

agricultural use. So it focuses on its attributes in that application. Where

there are not good standards at the moment is on the non-aggricultural application type use. There is a specific standard being produced at the

moment for biochar in cement and concrete uh but not for other non-ag uses. And

that's an area where I could see USBI and the advanced carbon council collaborating on is the establishment and definition of those standards. If

the biochar community wants to sell its materials into a supply chain that is going to further process these materials, let's say for synthetic

graphite, in battery materials as coatings or in some other application, there is going to be a need for well-defined quality standards for those

materials, how to test it, which characteristics, and to make sure that it's consistent if it's ever going to be accepted as a into the uh supply chain

for advanced carbons and this is an open invitation for any and all stakeholders in the sector that if you would like to be involved in the development of those standards and I would encourage you to

do so even if you don't think you can contribute to the writing of them to at the very least uh share your concerns and to stay aware of how these standards

are being developed. We do have a volunteer task force for biochar standards for non-aggricultural applications and we're more than happy

to have your involvement in that.

So cost is always an issue. I think

there's an advantage for biochar the biochar community with advanced carbons because as Miles did point out and and I thought the presentation was excellent.

There are elements uh and and we're well aware of these where a biochar producer can actually be paid for taking some of this material off uh off of a supplier's

hands like municipal waste for example is a really good example for that and converting that material.

Um if you are going to get into the field where you're producing a nano material at least in the United States and Europe there are regulations uh

TUSCa for example um managed by EPA um that regulate nanom materials and treated as a chemical and so there do need to be approvals for nanocale

materials if they're sold as such. Um

life cycle analysis needs to be done.

We've just completed a product category rule exercise for graphine so that we can calculate the life cycle assessment for the production of graphine and issue

an EPD or an environmental uh product declaration.

And we do have quite a large community within the advanced carbons council like I said 40,000 u materials professionals that we reach. Um, and it'll be

important for us to educate these potential end users about biochar. Uh,

for many of them, they don't really know what biochar is. They won't appreciate the differences between material that's produced from different feed stock, how it's processed, and what it could be

turned into.

And then I think the biggest challenge uh quite honestly for the biochar sector is going to be consistency in producing a product that has the same kind of

carbon output in the same quality and the same chemical composition on a repeatable basis. And so I think that's

repeatable basis. And so I think that's where biochar producers that work with a consistent species or biomass input and

they have good quality control on their production processes are going to have an advantage. So that's something to

an advantage. So that's something to think about.

We are actively looking at how we can explore what markets biochar can address and with that we encourage engagement

with the USBI as an organization and with individual biochar companies that want to focus on this value ad journey.

Um we quite honestly believe that there will be a very small segment of the biochar production community that will have the

capital processing capability, equipment, vision and everything else to address these markets. And that's not to make a qualitative judgment on it. It's

simply that the bar is going to be a little bit higher to reach an advanced carbons market um than it is say for biochar for some of the wellestablished

markets like agricultural and soil amendment. Um and again that's not a

amendment. Um and again that's not a judgment that's just an observation that if the if companies do want to address this market um there are some technical

obstacles and processing obstacles to be addressed in order to to reach it. The

flip side is um as a higher value add carbon there is a price premium and a higher cost for a higher um higher sellable price that can be obtained and

that is is the attractive part of it and that's really the objective is how do we turn this into a business where you can get a higher margin for your materials because they're engineered to a higher specificity

uh for a higher value ad end use. So

that's the role that we play is to kind of help companies um along that journey.

How to identify those markets, how do we address the technical issues and how do we connect you with potential customers for those products. We encourage

companies to think about joining us as a trade association. Um I really want to

trade association. Um I really want to salute Miles because uh not many associations have the vision of a surplus mentality. Many people look at

surplus mentality. Many people look at this as a zero sum game. If you're a member of one organization, you can't be a member of mine. Um there is no law that says you can't belong to more than

one association at a time. Uh we see these as complimentary and so if you think we can address some of your issues, we encourage you to engage with us and we certainly encourage every

biochar company out there um to be engaged with the US biochar initiative because we think they're doing absolutely great work and have great leadership in this field. And so it's a

case of 1 plus 1 hopefully equals three.

So with that, those are my contact details. I'm going to uh stop sharing my

details. I'm going to uh stop sharing my screen and we're going to go to Q&A. Uh

if I can figure out how to do that.

There we go.

So thank you for your uh time and attention for that. And now with that, Miles, let's uh let's see what kind of uh questions we have. And let me just do

it this way. There we go. So, we're on equal footing.

>> Yeah. One one that maybe I'll take, Terrence, and actually they were two.

They came in early in the presentation um from Liberty Gura and Randy Latun.

They were both related to whether or not uh essentially chars made from plastics or from natural gas pyrolysis, and I'll just kind of lump them together, uh

would be accepted for agricultural purposes. And I would say that right now

purposes. And I would say that right now they wouldn't probably be considered biochar, right? Because the bio part

biochar, right? Because the bio part generally requires that they're derived from nonfossil sources. That's the

starting point. But then whether they'd be approved for agricultural purposes, I would say I think certainly possible that um particularly in the fertilizer space, there could be applications where

those types of chars would provide a lot of value to fertilizer products, particularly if you can increase um primarily nitrogen use efficiency,

which is a big um goal of the fertilizer industry around the world really is to increase use efficiency from what is typical, which is about 50% of nitrogen ends up in a plant, if you can increase

that value, um there's some real there's some real benefit. So, um that's one that I I can answer.

>> Excellent. Well, I think I I think this is a really good example, Miles, of where the content uh continuum of materials is important. We do have companies that are looking at uh

recycling plastic materials and turning them into value added uh carbons and that be that the carbon nanot tubes or graphine for example. So I I I think the

approach we want to take and maybe the message we want to this audience is engage with us uh directly ask us about you know what your process is and what you're able to produce and then we can talk to you about okay where does that

fit in the in the panorama of these these additional materials and then which markets are the most applicable for that. I think that's that's probably

for that. I think that's that's probably the best way to look at it. Um Milesy

did you see another question you want to take? I saw one for you that I was

take? I saw one for you that I was really interested in uh from Tony Morero, which is what are the materials that biochar based advanced carbon replacing and what is the annual total market potential by tonnage? Um that's

that's a question I've kind of been ringing around in my head is like what is the size of this market look like in in tonnage, not necessarily dollars.

>> Yeah. So that's that's a really interesting one. So we looked at so

interesting one. So we looked at so obviously our our biggest experience is kind of with uh with graphine but to give you an example of looking at

graphine in uh just the concrete market.

So onetenth of 1% of the global concrete market for graphine and graphine is added at hundreds or tenth of a percent by weight into concrete. So a very very

small amount onetenth of 1% of that global market is 110,000 metric tons.

Okay. So that's just one small market.

So we're estimating between 3 to 500,000 metric tons of graphine uh which is used at ten of a percent extremely low load factor. If you're looking at biochar

factor. If you're looking at biochar directly into asphalt and maybe now you're talking about 3% by weight, you know, [clears throat] then you're in the hundreds of thousands to potentially millions of tons of material that are

required uh to be added in. And it's

kind of a a scale. We have graphine materials that can be sold and used into thermoplastics and and and the price

point could be as high as as high as let's say $1,000 a kilo. Uh typically

it's a kilo, right? So that's

100,000 a ton. Um which obviously is quite interesting, but it takes a lot to get to that point. And then when you're using it though, you're using uh tenth or thousands of a percent by weight. So

it's a very very small amount of material. So that's kind of the

material. So that's kind of the juxiposition. Very high price, small

juxiposition. Very high price, small volume. And and somewhere along that

volume. And and somewhere along that spectrum is where you want to find the sweet spot for your material. I don't

know I don't know if I've answered your question, but elastimemers, coatings, uh plastics, all of those are uh you know somewhere at 100,000 metric tons per market.

So what was the other part of that question?

>> Oh, I I think you got it. It was it was talking about the total annual total market potential by tonnage. Um

>> Okay. Okay.

>> And I think it was a good question because a lot of times in the biochar space, certain higher value markets are much smaller in tonnage, higher in value, smaller in tonnage. And I and I

um this could be a similar situation, right? Clearly.

right? Clearly.

>> Yeah. Um,

>> so there's a there's a question or maybe this one's for you. If uh if if you can separate cellulose from the biomass in agricultural ways. Can you use the

agricultural ways. Can you use the lignon and carbonize it? Um and and is is this the same for for biochar? This

comes from the coconut group. So I

assume this has to do with coconut fibers.

>> Yeah, I'm certain that you can. You

know, I'll be the first to admit I am not an expert in biochar production.

Clearly I know a decent amount about it um having been around this space for a while. Um I know groups have done work

while. Um I know groups have done work in that space and I also know that groups have been able to make some nano like sort of naturally nano biochar by

using the ligan component only. Um but

honestly to me it appears that a lot of that information is protected by different IP. You know it's it's um some

different IP. You know it's it's um some of it gets published some of it doesn't.

Um, so that's probably the best answer I can really provide at this point is that yes, it can be done, but I'm not sure how and and what it ends up with.

>> Well, the the the question from Brian Barry is like what raw materials currently feeding the advanced carbon production and what advantage does biochar have for the advanced uh for advanced carbons over other carbon

resources? I think that's a really

resources? I think that's a really appropriate question for what we're talking about today. So the first part of that is what carbons are being used?

So traditionally graphite is used as a precursor material for a lot of graphine production but any any carbon bearing source so methane gas acetylene ethylene

these have all been used to produce graphine uh graphine's being produced and other nanocarbons are being produced from recycled plastic materials uh and

from biomass materials. So you know any any highly uh carbonrich material can be converted and graphitized and made into these sp2 bonded carbons.

Then what's the advantage of biochar?

Biochar you know if I look at the raw graphite flake you're somewhere around $1,200,500 a ton for raw material cost. biochar is,

you know, um, if I remember the slide correctly, you're, you know, around $100 to $400 a ton, somewhere in that range.

And you also have the carbon credit aspect of fixing the carbon. So that

adds into the value chain of this. So th

those are some advantages. I would say the biggest biggest challenge is can you produce the same kind of carbon material consistently in terms of chemical

composition and physical morphology of the particles on Monday, on Friday, a month from now and six months from now.

Can you do that consistently? And so

that comes down to process controls and post-production processing. I think

post-production processing. I think that's the biggest challenge. So the

upside is biochar potentially is a lowcost source of the raw carbon material and the challenge is going to be whenever you're dealing with a

biological or a biomass input you get variability and uh and that's going to be I I think the challenge I don't know Miles if you have a comment on that one.

I I think that's true too and I think I think one of the challenges is both can you get the exact same feed stock but also you know moisture content of feed stock can vary you know dayto day you see that in in the wood sector and any

other biomass source um you know even varies based on the relative humidity outside so whether or not you can make that um get those drying conditions right and and the same very consistent

feed style which is why I think in some ways it points to facilities that are colllocated with like a sawmill potentially right where you're getting the exact same nice sawdust on a daily

basis or a oat hole mill or something like that, right? Where you're getting a very consistent. It's also possible you

very consistent. It's also possible you could see it in the bioolid space too because that that material tends to be pretty consistent as well. Um going to be a little bit higher ash though. So,

>> yep. Well, and that's not always a bad thing, right? Ash isn't necessarily

thing, right? Ash isn't necessarily always a negative. It's just it depend where the end use is. Um the other thing to consider is some enduse applications like asphalt for example are much more

tolerant for variability.

>> Um if you're going into the battery space, you have very close tolerances and and no no u no margin for um

impurities, right? Or trace metallics or

impurities, right? Or trace metallics or something like that. So the battery market might be much more difficult to access whereas something like concrete and asphalt will allow for more

variability in the material and tolerances. So it's again matching

tolerances. So it's again matching uh we've kind of said this from the beginning. There's no such thing as a

beginning. There's no such thing as a good material and a bad material. It's

more about what is the best use application for the material you're producing um and finding that fit.

Um, >> Terrence, I have one that's related to ash in here that was that was uh put in here relatively early is whether or not the ash poses a challenge when using bio different applications and and the

followup is can it harm soil health and how can this be addressed. I would say in general ash is not an obstacle to using biochar in agricultural applications. Uh it depends on how

applications. Uh it depends on how you're using it but as as a soil amendment ash is actually pretty beneficial in many cases. It contains a lot of micronutrients.

It also typically provides lying, which most soils are acidic and need to be limed. Um, and even those soils that

limed. Um, and even those soils that aren't naturally acidic tend to become acidic as a result of synthetic fertilizer use, right, which is

ubiquitous and critical. Um, so no, ash is not an obstacle um to using biochar in agricultural situations. It might be a little bit more of a challenge in

using biochar as a fertilizer input, but certainly not as a soil amendment.

Excellent. Um, the last question I see here from Shintu, which we appreciate.

In what ways can research institutions partner with the advanced carbon council to accelerate innovation, testing, commercialization of advanced large-scale carbon materials from algae?

So that's quite specific and I would say that applies to basically any process that you want in looking at these advanced carbons. So we run the full

advanced carbons. So we run the full spectrum from working on standards for classification and definition. We also

provide material testing and characterization services. So we can

characterization services. So we can actually to a very um very specific degree analyze the material and then categorize it and see how it compares to

the spectrum of other advanced carbons.

So where does it fit in that comparison?

And then one of the other things we do as an organization is actually application testing. So for example, we

application testing. So for example, we test these advanced carbons in thermal plastics or coatings or um composits and

do the physical testing to see if they actually are um effective and that data then in turn is disseminated. So it

helps stimulate demand and help educate customers on how these materials perform. So we can work with you on any

perform. So we can work with you on any any point along that spectrum from production processes, scaling, testing and characterization of the material and

even on the regulatory approval side if that is applicable. Um so the easiest thing is uh have a conversation with us, engage with us. Uh we do a lot of work.

uh I would say 90% of what we do is under NDA because people are developing innovative product and and applications and so we can uh you know we're quite sensitive to uh intellectual property

protection and that sort of thing. Um so

yeah I we hope I hope I answered that question.

>> Yeah, there's there's another one that just came in that I'll take. Is there

any structural difference between the biochar from various sources?

Um and I would say within the biochar range there certainly is it's noticeable. Uh a wood biochar or a

noticeable. Uh a wood biochar or a nutshell biochar is certainly much harder physically than a um oat hole biochar. So the hardness of the initial

biochar. So the hardness of the initial feed stock certainly is carried through to biochar production temperatures. Um

I'm not totally sure what happens at those much higher temperatures but in the biochar range of kind of 400 to 800 C yes the physical properties of the

incoming biomass are um translated into biochar. Of course everything becomes

biochar. Of course everything becomes more fryable in biochar than the original feed stock but um and actually you see this in the activated carbon space. One of the common activated

space. One of the common activated carbon precursors is coconut shell biochar essentially. Um, but you

biochar essentially. Um, but you wouldn't typically use, at least for a granular activated carbon, you wouldn't typically use a um straw biochar, for instance, like a wheat straw biochar

because it tends to be too fryable as a granular activated carbon. So,

>> excellent. So, I have a question for you, Miles. Um,

you, Miles. Um, would you say that most biochar producers have a really good granular understanding of the material they produce? I mean at the chemical level

produce? I mean at the chemical level and that sort of thing. I mean how how much analysis is done because for the advanced carbon space you know the chemical composition for example is

extremely I mean that's basically the the majority of the of the focus is is you know what is the degree of carbon content and what what form of carbon is

it? Is it amorphous or is it a an SP2

it? Is it amorphous or is it a an SP2 hybridized version of carbon?

>> I would say right now most bio producers have more bulk analyses. So things like proximate analysis, ash, fixed carbon, volatile matter, um surface area,

ultimate analysis of of different um atomic ratios, things like that. and

it's actually something we've been working on quite a bit is an updated ANIE standard for the analysis of biochar that primarily contains analyses

as I just mentioned which are um more ultimate and proximate analyses rather than any of these more advanced analyses like there aren't a whole bunch of

aromaticity measurements right or or sort of there's there's no tests for SB2 bonding in in biochars right Now, you could include them, I'm sure, but we haven't included any of those because in

those biochar applications, they tend to be a little less important, right, in the b in the true sort of true biochar applications, >> right? No, that's what that's what I

>> right? No, that's what that's what I understand. I think that's maybe another

understand. I think that's maybe another distinction that the community should be aware of, right? because as you as you go up the value chain for this um the

chemical composition and and there is a question here um some from Sarati um is what is the ideal chemical composition of a biochar and in the

advanced carbon space you know the goal is almost always ultimately pure carbon right and um that doesn't mean defect free because the defect sometimes can be

actually quite advantageous u but from the chemical composition normally We're looking at high as high a carbon content as possible is the ideal.

>> Mhm.

>> Having said that, there might be some other uh elements in there that are also advantageous for a given application.

So, it's not a rule that only pure carbon is is what is needed. But if you don't have a high degree of carbon content, then it's probably um a less

desirable product.

>> Yeah. And in the biochar space, I would say that's not not typically true. For

certain applications, yes, you're going to want a high carbon product like filtration applications for water filtration. Um, but for soil amendment,

filtration. Um, but for soil amendment, as I said, ash can be beneficial. And

then for other uses, right now, we're seeing a lot of interest in using biochar in concrete. [music] And part of the benefit there in concrete is actually the ability to use biochar the mineral the minerals the ash [music]

content to provide essentially a replacement for uh they call it supplemental cement [music] cementitious materials SCMs. >> Uh so there's some benefit there to the ash content is is [music] really

providing that cementitious property in the concrete space. So it just depends on your end use. [music]

>> I I think that's a great example. So

we're quite agnostic from our side.

Obviously we're focused on advanced carbons. That's kind of [music] the uh

carbons. That's kind of [music] the uh the focal point. But at the end of the day, you know, you have biochar producers, you're producing a product, you need to find an offtake market [music] for that. It needs to go

somewhere that's commercially viable.

There are many options for that. And

that's kind of what we want to explore with this. Um [music] Miles, if you're

with this. Um [music] Miles, if you're okay, if you have any last comments, I think maybe we'll we'll conclude today's webinar. And um [music] yeah, what would

webinar. And um [music] yeah, what would you like to leave us with? Uh just

really appreciate you reaching out Terrence [music] and you know our goal as an organization at USBI we're trying to help biochar producers find markets and to the extent that that is in the advanced carbon [music] space um you

know we're we're happy to help and happy to participate how we can.

>> Thank you for that. Likewise I really appreciate your [music] approach. I also

want to commend you. I think you you've done a fantastic job with USBI and I was very impressed at the conference in Minneapolis. [music] I was very

Minneapolis. [music] I was very professional and there's a real buzz for your industry. I'm excited for you and

your industry. I'm excited for you and I'm excited for the biochar sector. If

we can play a very [music] small role in helping a few folks, you know, find other offtake markets for their material, that's what we'd love to do.

And uh so on behalf of the advanced [music] carbon council, thank you USBI and thank you for everybody who's joined us today. We appreciate your time and

us today. We appreciate your time and attention and [music] reach out if we can be of further help. Thank you very much.

>> Great. Thank you.

>> Take care.