BioCarbon secures $4.8 million ARENA support for first commercial biochar steelmaking project displacing fossil coke

BioCarbon is pleased to announce it has been awarded $4.8 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to support the development of its first commercial-scale project in Bulahdelah, NSW. The funding represents a major milestone in BioCarbon’s transition from pilot operations to industrial-scale production and supports the replacement of traditional, high-emission metallurgical coke with high-performance, net-zero GreenChar® in steelmaking.

The Bulahdelah facility will produce renewable carbon products for use as charge carbon in Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking, providing a practical pathway to reduce emissions in existing steel operations. The project is supported under ARENA’s National Industrial Transformation Program and aligns with national efforts to accelerate the transition to low emissions metals.

Proving a Pathway to Green Steel

While the majority of the plant’s output will be allocated to primary operations, BioCarbon has confirmed that a dedicated portion of production will be made available to selected industry partners for exclusive trials. This will enable steelmakers and metallurgical operators to validate the performance of GreenChar within their own facilities, supporting future supply partnerships and broader adoption.

The project builds on several years of technology development and validation, scaling BioCarbon’s proprietary pyrolysis and consolidation processes into a commercial facility capable of continuous operation.

Breaking the green premium in biochar steelmaking

A key objective of the project is to demonstrate that renewable carbon can be supplied at cost parity with traditional metallurgical coke. Historically, the so-called green premium has been a major barrier to industrial decarbonisation.

BioCarbon’s engineering advances in pyrolysis and consolidation allow GreenChar to deliver a net-zero carbon profile at the same cost in use as fossil-based coke. This removes economic risk for steelmakers, enabling emissions reduction without increasing operational expenditure.

Proven performance at industrial scale

The commercial development follows years of rigorous research, development and industrial validation. BioCarbon’s technology has already been proven at scale, with GreenChar successfully replacing 100 percent of charge coke in Electric Arc Furnaces during trials that produced approximately 3,000 tonnes of steel.

These trials demonstrated that GreenChar is a high-performance, drop-in replacement that maintains metallurgical integrity without requiring significant plant modifications.

These achievements have earned BioCarbon significant global and domestic recognition, including selection in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Top 100 and being named among the Tech23 cohort, Australia’s leading awards program for deep-tech innovators.

Foundational expertise behind the project

BioCarbon is led by a multidisciplinary team with deep experience across metallurgy, engineering and biomass supply:

• Chad Sheppeard, CEO and Co-Founder, leads BioCarbon’s technical and commercial strategy and has played a central role in the development of its proprietary pyrolysis and GreenChar® consolidation technologies.

  
  

• Dr Kannappar Mukunthan, Chief Scientist, brings more than 25 years of experience in metallurgical innovation, including senior engineering roles at BHP, and leads research into pyrolysis process development and consolidation of porous biochar into GreenChar®.

  
  

• John Mellowes, Chief Engineer, is responsible for the design and delivery of BioCarbon’s proprietary plant infrastructure.

  
  

• Mark Willcocks, Director and founder of Active Tree Services, provides expertise in biomass waste management and supply chain logistics.

“The support from ARENA enables us to move beyond our pilot operations and into commercial reality,” said Chad Sheppeard, CEO of BioCarbon. “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.”

About BioCarbon

BioCarbon is an Australian climate technology company focused on decarbonising the heavy metals industry. Through proprietary pyrolysis and consolidation technologies, BioCarbon converts sustainable biomass residues into GreenChar, a net-zero, high-performance replacement for metallurgical coke.

This project received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA’s National Industrial Transformation Program. Learn more about the Biochar Production for Steelmaking project here.

The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained herein.