Achieving net zero in Australia requires urgent innovation and decarbonisation in some of our most carbon-intensive industries. Steelmaking, cement and chemical production all depend on coking coal – a fossil-based fuel used in blast furnaces that contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions.
At the same time, climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and devastating. The 2019–20 Kangaroo Island Black Summer Bushfires were one such example, destroying homes, ecosystems, and claiming two lives while leaving more than five million tonnes of plantation timber damaged beyond recovery. Unless repurposed, this biomass will need to be cleared and burned to reduce fire risk, releasing large volumes of carbon and wasting a valuable resource.
A new TRaCE-supported R&D project is finding a way to address these two challenges. In partnership with UNSW and Wundowie Carbon, this project aims to give new life to bushfire-damaged plantations by turning them into biocoke: a renewable, net-zero alternative to fossil-based coking coal.
Biocoke: From waste to resource
Biocoke, sometimes called biomass coke or green coke, is a type of solid reductant made from renewable plant material. Through a thermal treatment process called pyrolysis, biomass such as forestry residues, crop by-products, or plantation timber is heated without oxygen. This process breaks it down into a carbon-rich material that is then compressed into a strong, energy-dense form.
The promise of biocoke lies not only in its renewable origin but also in its unique performance characteristics.
- Cleaner combustion: Made from plant material, biocoke has naturally low sulfur content, producing fewer pollutants when burned.
- Carbon-neutral energy: It releases only the carbon absorbed during plant growth, unlike fossil coal which adds ancient carbon to the atmosphere.
- Waste reduction: Converting waste timber into biocoke avoids landfill decomposition, preventing methane emissions.
- Superior energy to coal: With caloric values in excess of metallurgical coal and a higher fixed carbon content, biocoke delivers strong sustained, high heat needed for metallurgical applications.
- Stable and transportable: Dense, dry, and durable, biocoke is easy to store, ship, and use at industrial scale.
Optimising the compositional ‘recipe’
While the concept of biocoke may be straightforward, producing a consistent, high-performance product at scale requires detailed research. That’s where the partnership between Wundowie Carbon, with its vision for a commercial scale biocoke production facility, and UNSW, with its deep expertise in materials science and chemical engineering, becomes crucial.
This research, supported by a $1.75M TRaCE Lab to Market grant, is led by UNSW’s Associate Professor Pramod Koshy, whose team is working to refine the compositional ‘recipe’ to ensure the final biocoke product meets the performance requirements of various industrial applications. Alongside his team of researchers, they are investigating how different binders, feedstock blends, and operating conditions influence the strength, durability, and efficiency of the final product.
“This is about finding the sweet spot between performance and cost,” explains Professor Koshy. “We’re looking at the strength of the product, how it behaves under pressure, and how efficiently we can produce it. The goal is to deliver a more sustainable alternative that industry can adopt with confidence and at scale.”
A novel pyrolysis pathway – scaling up the solution
Alongside product development, the project is also advancing an innovative pyrolysis technology known as the Continuous Biomass Converter (CBC). Developed by Dr Joe Herbertson and Dr Les Stresov over the past decade, CBC uses a patented counter current design that improves yields for high-grade metallurgical char while unlocking the ability to process problematic feedstocks.
One of the most significant opportunities lies in recycling treated timbers, such as copper chrome arsenate (CCA) wood. These materials are notoriously difficult to manage safely and are often left to accumulate in landfills or stockpiles. CBC technology could not only convert them into valuable biocoke but also recover the embedded metals for reuse. The project now aims to scale up from the CBC pilot to commercial deployment.
Commercial demonstration around the corner
Wundowie Carbon has commenced construction of a commercial-scale biocoke production facility on Kangaroo Island that will leverage the product development from this TRaCE Lab to Market project. The plant will use bushfire-damaged timber as its primary feedstock, providing both an emissions-reducing solution and a pathway for land rehabilitation.
“The bushfires were devastating for Kangaroo Island, but they also left behind a challenge we couldn’t ignore,” says Alister King, Chief Product Officer from Wundowie Carbon. “By transforming this plantation waste into a sustainable industrial input, we’re helping to rebuild local communities while addressing a national emissions challenge.”
Towards a net-zero future for heavy industry
Heavy industry contributes roughly a quarter of global emissions, yet progress on decarbonisation has been limited. Biocoke offers a practical pathway forward – delivering cleaner product performance within existing infrastructure while cutting emissions today.
For Australia, the benefits of biocoke go beyond climate action. Commercial biocoke production has the potential to create new regional jobs and industries, reduce waste, and position Australia as a global leader in sustainable industrial inputs.
