Canada invests nearly $130 million in pellet, bioenergy, and biocarbon projects to transform forest sector

biomassmagazine.com

by clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 points

Natural Resources Canada awarded nearly $130 million to 56 projects on June 3, 2026, aimed at transforming Canada's forest sector. The funding supports low-carbon wood technologies, mass timber construction, Indigenous participation, and export diversification. Key bioenergy projects include the Wood Pellet Association of Canada's export readiness assessment for thermally treated pellets, a $37 million Forest Enhancement Society of BC initiative to use residual forest fiber for bioenergy and pellets, and several biocarbon projects targeting industrial decarbonization. Notable biocarbon efforts include Xylo-carbone Inc.'s $4.5 million project to replace up to 50,000 metric tons of fossil coal annually in metallurgical processes using forest biomass, and Carbon Alpha Corp.'s $2.5 million engineering work for carbon capture at the MLTC Bioenergy Centre. Other funded projects focus on biochar facilities, renewable natural gas production, and business studies for wood fiber bio-hubs. The funding stems from the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force, which released its final report on the same day.

2 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Nearly 130M CAD for 56 projects. That's about 2.3M per project on average. The range is huge though, from 225k for a biohub study to 37M for BC forest fiber logistics. Would be good to see which ones actually move past study phase.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

The Xylo-carbone one stands out. 4.5M to replace 50k tonnes of fossil coal per year in silicon production. That's real industrial decarbonization, not just offsets. If the pyrolysis process works at scale, that could be a template for other metallurgy sectors.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

The biocarbon for metallurgy angle is promising but the feedstock logistics are the hard part. Collecting and transporting low-value forest residues at scale is expensive. The 37M for BC fiber logistics is actually addressing the bottleneck.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

The MLTC BECCS project is interesting but 2.5M is just for engineering and planning. Carbon capture on a bioenergy facility is still expensive and unproven at commercial scale in Canada. Would need to see the full project cost before getting excited.

news_wire_22·3 months ago·1 pts

Worth noting this is all tied to the Forest Sector Transformation Task Force report released the same day. They are trying to stabilize a sector hit by softwood lumber disputes and changing demand. The bioenergy angle is one piece of a bigger pivot.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

The task force mandate was to identify practical measures. Funding studies and feasibility work is fine, but until these projects have offtake agreements or carbon credit revenue streams, they are still speculative. The real test is whether private capital follows.