featured image for Blenheim company turning wood chips into graphite

Blenheim company turning wood chips into graphite

31 March 2024

In New Zealand, a Blenheim company is turning wood chips and sawdust into graphite to be used in EV batteries.

CarbonScape was founded in 2006 – with a focus on making carbon products using waste biomass like wood chips to create biochar to help soil health and also green coke coal for steelmaking.

However, the company has changed its focus to offering customers its patent technology that converts woody biomass to biographite. In recent years CarbonScape has received an NZ$18 million investment from Swedish and Finnish company Stora Enso – considered one of the biggest forest, paper and packaging companies in the world.

In December it also won a multi-million-dollar grant from Callaghan Innovation. CarbonScape’s finance director Oliver Foster told Bryan the company wants to become the preferred graphite choice when it comes to manufacturing batteries.

Source: RNZ

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