Overview
FML Engineering has recently evaluated the potential for a biochar market in New Zealand, and more importantly whether biomass sources like forestry slash could potentially make a difference in terms of meeting the potential demand for biochar as the market develops and adopts biochar as part of their environmental commitments. Bear with us on this because there is a plethora of numbers that drive the inevitable conclusions.
How much slash do we have?
According to MPI the year ended March 2021 New Zealand harvested 34.38 million cubic meters of Pine logs. The numbers around slash tonnage, and more importantly the slash tonnage that is ultimately recoverable are sketchy at best, however this is a blog and for the purposes of this conversation we’ll consider that 20% of the harvested volume is slash and that only 50% of this volume is economically recoverable. This gives us 3.4 million tons of biomass that could be converted into biochar, annually.
How Much Biochar can we make?
We assess that this could be turned into 340,000 tons of biochar annually. Current recommendations are for agricultural application rates of 10t per hectare. So essentially the annual production of biochar from slash provides the potential to treat 34,000 hectares of farmland annually.
How much farmland does NZ have?
New Zealand currently has 13.5 million hectares of agricultural land. Dusting off our basic maths skills says that if there was full uptake of biochar in the agricultural Industry, the demand for biochar would create a waiting list of….397 years!!
Biochar Revenue from Forestry slash
Based on current market rates and the potential annual production, biochar could theoretically add NZ$440 million to the forestry sector in New Zealand.
High Value Products other than biochar
There are other high value products generated during the production of biochar, and depending on how these products are produced and marketed, these could add an additional NZ$250 million to the forestry industry annually.
Electricity
Biochar production from forestry slash has the potential to add 4GW of electrical generation to the New Zealand Grid. Enough to fully charge around 100,000 EV’s a day!
Carbon Credits
At the time of writing, it is unclear what contribution carbon credits could make to biochar production in NZ. Based on European trends, however, we believe this has the potential to add around NZ$34 million annually in revenue.
Conclusions for the Biochar market in New Zealand
- The New Zealand Forestry industry could add NZ$725 million annually to their revenues using forestry slash.
- A significant education campaign is required to gather momentum behind the use of biochar as a soil amendment in the agricultural industry. If this is achieved the demand potential would outstrip supply thus maintaining high commodity values for the product.
New Zealand would only require 22 plants strategically distributed through the country to process all 3.4 million tons of forestry slash. If conscientiously implemented the capital costs of these plants would be $275 million.
If you would like to find out more, please feel free to contact us.
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