Could wood chips fill the battery demand hole? Biographite start-up hopes to find out

Kiwi company Carbonscape has won $18 million to commercialise its graphite-made-from-wood technology in Europe and the US, in the hopes it will catch the eye of a sustainability-minded battery maker. 

Finnish company Stora Enso, which has a “hard carbon” product on its books already, and Hong Kong-based battery maker Amperex Technology led the round. 

Carbonscape is looking to commercialise the heavily patented technology, which puts wood chips from forestry industries through a low-temperature catalytic process to turn them into graphite.

By Rachel Williamson, Renew Economy, 20 September 2023