CHAR announces strategic investment, progress on Ontario project
July 18, 2023
BY Erin Voegele
CHAR Technologies on July 4 announced progress with its renewable natural gas (RNG) and biocoal project under development in Thorold, Ontario. The company in recent weeks has also announced a strategic investment by ArcelorMittal and was awarded funding through Canada’s Clean Fuels Fund.
The Thorold project is a commercial high-temperature pyrolysis facility that will convert wood waste into RNG and biocarbon. CHAR said major equipment and components have now been ordered and a balance of plant engineering firm has been selected to have the initial phase of the project completed on schedule and budget. Initial biocarbon production is expected to begin in late 2023. The facility is scheduled to enter its final construction phase in 2024, which will involve the installation of equipment necessary to upgrade the facility’s syngas output to pipeline injectable RNG.
The following day, on July 5, CHAR announced that it has closed a C$6.6 million strategic investment by ArcelorMittal S.A. through ArcelorMittal XCarb S.à r.l. and ArcelorMittal’s XCarb Innovation Fund. CHAR also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which ArcelorMittal Dofasco will purchase biocarbon produced at the Thorold facility starting in 2023.
CHAR said the MOU marks a milestone achievement for the collaborative efforts of CHAR and ArcelorMittal Dofasco to develop a drop-in replacement biocarbon to reduce ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s consumption of fossil-based carbon sources. Under the agreement, CHAR’s biocarbon, the first in Canada for steelmaking, is targeted for trial in the electric arc furnace (EAF) with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 35,000 metric tons over four years. Biocarbon produced by CHAR Technologies has been tested in the Blast Furnace at ArcelorMittal Dofasco since 2021 and this agreement will enable larger scale trials in the EAF process.
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CHAR also recently secured a $1.43 million contribution from Natural Resources Canada to support a project in Terrace, British Columbia. CHAR on June 28 said the funding, awarded through the government of Canada’s Clean Fuels Fund, will allow the company to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study, which includes assessing the engineering and design work needed to build a future commercial-scale CHAR facility. The proposed facility would be designed to convert wood waste into green hydrogen or RNG and biocarbon.
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