In a couple of years, a biographite demonstration plant will begin operating in Finland. New Zealand-based CarbonScape will begin demonstration production of biographite in Sunila, in the city of Kotka in southern Finland. Biographite is a more environmentally friendly material used in electric vehicle batteries.

Biographite is made from wood chips, a by-product of the forest industry. It can be used in lithium-ion batteries to replace synthetic graphite obtained from minerals or fossil resources, a market dominated by China. A lithium-ion battery in an electric car weighs several hundred kilograms, and graphite accounts for almost half of the battery's volume (42%). According to CarbonScape the performance of biographite is equivalent to that of the most efficient synthetic graphite and exceeds the performance of natural graphite.

A strategic partnership with Stora Enso

CarbonScape plans to start building the plant next year, while demonstration production will begin in 2026. Its partner in the project is the Finnish-Swedish forest industry company Stora Enso, known as a major producer of renewable materials.

“Producing carbon graphite in China is unethical and environmentally burdensome,” Forest Finland was told in a 2022 interview about the project by Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre Research Manager Katariina Torvinen.

“In the current international situation, battery-related questions matter. It is very important whether graphite produced in China by unethical means can be replaced with a material obtained from by-products of the Finnish forest industry,” Katariina Torvinen said in an article published in 2022 by the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat on its advertising page.

The European Union has designated graphite as a critical raw material and, according to CarbonScape the planned production is in line with the EU's sustainability goals.

According to CarbonScape data the product generates negative carbon dioxide emissions compared with synthetic and mined graphite. It saves up to 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per tonne of material. The temperature required for the process is roughly half that needed for synthetic graphite, and production takes hours rather than weeks.

The investment is estimated at approximately 40-50 million euros. CarbonScape expects its market share in Europe and the United States to reach around 20% by 2035.

https://forest.fi/article/finnish-wood-processed-for-use-in-electric-vehicle-batteries/