A federal investment of CAD $4.9m has been made in CHAR Technologies Thorold Inc., which is developing a woody-biomass-to-renewable-energy facility in Thorold, Ontario, according to a press release.

This is in addition to CAD $1.5m provided by FederalDev Ontario, bringing the total federal investment for the project to $6.4 million.

“CHAR's Thorold facility will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind solution for converting underutilized woody biomass into valuable bioproducts including biocarbon and renewable natural gas (RNG) which may be used to produce hydrogen in the near future,” the release states. 

Support for this project is delivered through Natural Resources Canada's Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program, alongside FedDev Ontario's Jobs and Growth Fund and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. In addition to the investment from CHAR, the total investment in this project is CAD $27.5 million.

When commercially operational the facility will divert 75,000 tonnes of woody biomass to produce 500,000 gigajoules of RNG and 10,000 tonnes of biocarbon per year.

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