Weyerhaeuser and Aymium Partner to Produce and Sell Biocarbon

On Thursday, Weyerhaeuser and Aymium said they entered into a memorandum of understanding to partner on producing and selling up to 1.5 million tons of sustainable biocarbon annually for use in metals production.

Under the agreement, the companies will pursue long-term biocarbon sales contracts and identify sites for multiple new production facilities across Weyerhaeuser’s footprint over the next five years. The effort will combine Weyerhaeuser’s timberland and manufacturing assets with Aymium’s proprietary biocarbon technology.

At full scale, the platform could convert more than 7 million tons of wood fiber supplied exclusively by Weyerhaeuser into 1.5 million tons of metallurgical-grade biocarbon each year. The product is intended as a drop-in replacement for coal in iron, steel, silicon, ferro-alloys, and other metals production.

As an initial step, the companies have formed a joint venture, TerraForge Biocarbon Solutions, to build a jointly owned facility adjacent to Weyerhaeuser’s lumber mill in McComb, Mississippi. The plant will use a combustion-free, low-emissions process to convert wood fiber into biocarbon.