The Biocarbon boom – navigating a new field

Biocarbon has gained increased attention over the last years as an environmental alternative to regular carbon in metallurgical applications. And since it has several great benefits to its fossil cousin, we, as one of many, have begun to investigate its areas of use.

But introducing biocarbon hasn’t been quite as straightforward as we had thought. And we’ve been at this for five years now, so we know what we’re talking about. Because of its unstable nature and since there’s still so much the industry doesn’t know, biocarbon can be tricky to handle. If not treated correctly, it can actually pose a risk.

Experts to investigate

Like many others in the business, we too experienced an incident. Ours was minor, and no one got hurt, but we did feel an immediate urge to start doing more rigorous tests – to ensure nothing would happen.

For this reason, we’ve enlisted the help of an external expert in order to investigate the security risks using biocarbon. And parallel to these investigations, we’ve also broadened our offer. Instead of just one supplier, we now have five, which allows us a larger variety in both price and analysis. That way we can really tailor the finished product to our customers’ different needs.

But besides the security risks, biocarbon comes with other challenges. Mostly due to the fact that it has a much lower density than regular carbon and is consequently much lighter in tonnage and more expensive to ship. Some types of biocarbon can also be fine-grained, which means they give a poor yield and tend to get stuck in air filters. Our solution has been to crush the carbon to remove some of the porosity. As we speak, we’re experimenting with different agglomeration techniques to find the perfect mix. And the results so far speak for themselves – biocarbon can replace fossil carbons in a whole range of different applications!

State-funded projects to evaluate

In the beginning of this process, we were solely focused on foundries and steel mills, but as a result of our security work we’ve found ourselves catching the interest of other institutions. As for now, we’re currently participating in a range of state-funded projects where we collaborate with clients and research institutes to evaluate the possibilities of biocarbon.

Exciting times to be in the biocarbon business, in other words!

Other news

Change in Carbomax management
September 7, 2023
Carbomax has grown rapidly. In five years, we have doubled our revenue and established ourselves as a supplier of secondary source coal, biocarbon, metals and ferroalloys. The company has also built a distinctly environmental profile. These are developments that we, the board, laud. We are also excitedly looking forward towards continuing this journey.
Predicting the future market
June 8, 2023
There has been a lot of talk about a bear market lately. But if we zoom in specifically on our little slice of the market, on the metallurgical industry, you rather see a stabilization lately. And the producers of raw materials we've spoken to are actually cautiously optimistic.