Biochar boom? SA bets on super charcoal for green jobs

News24

08-07-2025

The country's coal jobs on the line.
Biochar is seen as a green job creator.
Scarce data on biochar poses a challenge.
Sithandekile Nyathi confidently hoists herself into the compact loader, lowers the metal caging around the vehicle and drives towards large mounds of wood timber chips.
The chips eventually go up a conveyer belt into a converter, where they are heated and turned into a type of 'biochar' called activated carbon, a charcoal that stores carbon and could help to cut planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions.
'I used to be a maid, I never thought I would work in an industry that also helps lives and helps the environment,' said Nyathi, a controller at the plant in Brakpan on the East Rand. It is owned by Adsorb, an SA manufacturer of activated carbon.
Said Nyathi:
SA is a coal-rich country but has been the poster child for international efforts to shift towards cleaner energy and industries.
But funding challenges, high unemployment rate and a political divide have stalled these efforts, raising questions about how this transition should happen.
Darryl Phipps, a chemical engineer and the manager of the Adsorb plant where Nyathi works, believed the plant was the first of its kind globally.
This is because it uses self-sustaining energy – the heat in the converter – to turn wood chips directly into activated charcoal or steam-activated biochar, which allows for greater binding of organic molecules to its surface and has clean flue gas as its only byproduct.
Statista / Kim Harrisberg
Some proponents see the biochar sector as one answer to both job creation and carbon capture, but the young industry is struggling with a lack of SA data and funding support, experts say.
Globally, the industry was valued $600 million (R10.6 billion) in 2023, up 97% from 2021, according to the International Biochar Initiative (IBI).
Biochar and activated carbon have been praised by some researchers, farmers and industry experts for improving soil quality and water retention, absorbing toxins and capturing carbon.
When used as a fertiliser, biochar improves water-holding capacity, which helps plants survive drought conditions, according to research published in the Frontiers journal.
Initial studies into SA's agricultural sector have shown that biochar improved both maize yield and soil health, but researchers have called for further, long-term research, according to the University of Venda.
The department of forestry, fisheries and the environment did not respond to requests for comment on the size and prospects for the country's biochar sector.
But workers such as Nyathi are hopeful.
'If the company grows, I grow with the company,' she said.
Carbon capture and job creation
SA's high unemployment rates, funding cuts and size of the coal industry have slowed down the move towards clean energy and green jobs.
Phipps said Adsorb's converter could be replicable in other parts of the country and the world.
Adsorb uses wood chips from pallet repair centres that originally come from responsibly managed forests.
When the wood is heated at 1 000°C, the gas generated first makes biochar and then activated charcoal.
Activated charcoal has more adsorption capacity than biochar and can also be used as industrial pollutant removal, according to the academic journal Science of the Total Environment.
The gas generated is then incinerated to create clean thermal energy and Adsorb is looking to recover this into electricity, said Phipps.
Adsorb captured about 750 tons of CO₂ last year and supplies activated charcoal to fertiliser, animal feed and cosmetic industries and has eyes on water treatment, mine rehabilitation and cleaning mercury out of coal gas.
'Processing centres could be established in areas where there were previously mines or coal plants. This could involve communities generating biomass and supplying it to these processing centres. If enough plants are rolled out it could eventually create jobs in the tens of thousands.
Darryl Phipps
Data and funding needs
Despite the enthusiasm, experts said data on biochar is scarce and estimates on the size of the market in SA vary widely, potentially due to different classifications of what constitutes biochar.
Romain Pirard, an environmental economist from the School for Climate Studies at Stellenbosch University, said to his knowledge there is 'no centralisation of information or any sort of policy specific to biochar'.
Finding willing customers is also a challenge for the promotion of biochar, said Phipps.
Farmers are extremely cost-sensitive and if there's anything that increases the cost, it damages the sales potential.
Darryl Phipps
Pirard said subsidies to incentivise farmers 'to use biochar in place of chemical fertilisers' – and using invasive, alien trees as a form of biomass – could help biochar 'take off'.
The department of environmental affairs said in a 2015 report that 'consideration could be given by government to subsidising' small biochar businesses. The department did not immediately respond to the Thomson Reuters Foundation's request for a comment.
Despite showing potential as a green job creator, attempts to create a biochar association to centralise data and information on initiatives have not led anywhere and the feasibility of the sector 'remains to be demonstrated', Pirard said.
But Phipps is adamant they are on to something big – if more funding is made available.
'From my children's perspective, I want to leave behind a legacy, something positive that gave back rather than just extracted wealth from the world,' he said. – Thomson Reuters Foundation