CarbonScape today announced a significant step in its journey toward biographite commercialization by selecting a Sunila, Finland, site as the location for its next demonstration plant. The strategic decision marks an important step for the sustainable battery material pioneer in establishing a European battery supply chain independent of traditional graphite sources, and the data generated by the plant will also support the company’s global expansion.
The startup’s patented process uses timber and forestry industry by-products such as wood chips as a sustainable alternative to synthetic (petroleum-based) and natural (mined) graphite, the result being a cleaner, competitive, and more secure raw material.
The Sunila site, in Kotka in southern Finland, is owned by Stora Enso, a global renewable materials leader and co-owner of CarbonScape. In 2023, Stora Enso closed its pulp production and lignin extraction operations at Sunila and will now lease part of the site to CarbonScape.
CarbonScape is currently advancing its engineering study for the demonstration plant—and its first commercial plant. The aim is to start demonstration plant construction next year and begin sample production in 2026.
The New Zealand-based bioeconomy startup has developed a low-cost and carbon-negative biographite made from wood biomass. This material is engineered to replace mined or fossil-based synthetic graphite in lithium-ion batteries, addressing critical supply chain and sustainability challenges in the rapidly growing electric-vehicle and energy-storage sectors.
“Our partnership with Stora Enso and the decision to locate our demonstration plant in Sunila underscore the global potential of our technology,” said Ivan Williams, CEO of CarbonScape. “By producing biographite from sustainable wood sources, we’re not just creating a new supply chain, we’re redefining what’s possible in battery technology.”
The selection of Stora Enso’s Sunila site comes a year after the forest industry leader became a shareholder in CarbonScape, the collaboration combining CarbonScape’s technology with Stora Enso’s expertise in bio-based innovations from renewable materials.
“Hosting CarbonScape’s demonstration plant at our Sunila site aligns perfectly with our shared vision for advancing sustainable battery technologies and the shift to renewable materials,” said Juuso Konttinen, Senior Vice President of Biomaterials Growth Businesses at Stora Enso. “This partnership enables us to explore synergies between our plants, driving innovation and strengthening Stora Enso’s leadership in sustainable solutions.”
Since 2018, CarbonScape has been optimizing its biographite production process at a pilot plant in New Zealand.
The new demonstration plant in Sunila represents a significant scaling up of this technology, paving the way for full commercialization. Its three main purposes are to produce larger biographite samples for OEMs and battery cell makers and for product qualification purposes, train operators and engineers in a large industrial setting, and get closer to one of the company’s key end markets—Europe.
With graphite comprising up to 42% of the volume of a lithium-ion battery, the development of a sustainable, locally produced alternative is of critical importance. By 2030, over 90% of the world’s battery-grade graphite will come from China, creating potential supply-chain vulnerabilities for the growing electric vehicle and renewable energy storage industries.
CarbonScape says its biographite offers a price-competitive solution with performance and environmental benefits while enhancing energy security by enabling localized production of the essential material. This aligns with recent policy initiatives such as the European Critical Raw Materials Act and similar measures in North America aimed at securing strategic battery materials.
In February, key U.S. policymakers attending the Munich Security Conference centered their engagements on critical minerals, with CarbonScape’s Williams responding how the upcoming commercialization of its biographite will have major implications for countries’ critical mineral independence, mitigating geopolitical risks by onshoring and localizing production and establishing more secure and diverse supply chains.
“The clean-energy transition cannot happen without critical minerals,” he said. “They are an integral part of the technologies decarbonizing our economies, and with global temperatures breaching the critical 1.5C threshold this week, the need to do so has never been greater.”
He added that decisive action is needed and that policymakers must act now to strengthen and localize supply chains or risk letting a trade war with China slow electrification and net zero efforts.
“The western automotive industry is already being placed under undue stress due to reduced access, supply constraints, and unfair advantages for certain businesses,” said Thompson. “Localizing supply chains will create new green jobs and bolster the industry.”
The U.S. DOE’s latest Energy and Employment Report supports his assertion, with evidence of significant growth in clean energy jobs in the U.S. The annual report shows growth in every state as historic investments from the Biden-Harris administration for energy and vehicle and infrastructure electrification drive record levels of private sector investment.
“As the main component of lithium-ion batteries, graphite is critical for the electrification of transport, and a key enabler of renewable energy,” Williams said. “Yet the U.S. is 100% dependent upon China for its supply. Through ramping up production of alternative materials like biographite, which can be produced locally using widely available, sustainable feedstock, U.S. policymakers can play a vital role in rapidly reducing this dependence on China and securing a liveable future for us all.”
In October 2023, Futurride covered how CarbonScape is developing its carbon-negative alternative to the critical material used in lithium-ion batteries and providing a much-needed alternative for EV and grid-scale battery supply chains by creating a critical raw material that currently depends on costly and high-emission production processes.
