Hannah: From Argus Media, this is the "Biomass Podcast," focusing on all discussions that affect the biomass industry. I am your host, Hannah Adler, senior reporter on the Biomass desk for Argus Media. And it's a pleasure today to talk with Chris Wiberg, the vice president of Biomass Energy Lab.
Chris: Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here.
Hannah: Of course. So, today we're going to be discussing the exciting new development of standards for biocarbon under the ISO Technical Committee 238, which now covers solid biofuels as well as pyrogenic biocarbon, which is a new term that's been created to cover biochar, biocoal, bioreductants, and similar materials.
So, Chris, could you briefly explain, first, just what the ISO Technical Committee 238 is?
Chris: Sure. So, ISO technical committees are essentially created to develop standards for different sectors. ISO TC 238, which essentially means it's the 238th technical committee, was established specifically for solid biofuels. That includes things like woody biomass, agricultural-derived biomass, nutshells, and similar materials, also including thermally treated materials.
So, for nearly 20 years now, ISO TC 238 has served as the global platform for developing solid biofuel standards. It's become very mature. It's got 47 standards already published. There's 50 countries participating.
But the big change is that in May of 2024, the scope and title of ISO TC 238 was changed to include pyrogenic biocarbon. So, it now also serves as the global platform for developing standards for the biocarbon industry as well.
Hannah: So, right, because I think the ISO technical committee started in 2007, and a suite of 47 standards for solid biofuels has evolved for nearly 20 years. And it's only recently started the process of adding standards for pyrogenic biocarbon.
So, why the switch now to add it?
Chris: You know, about three years ago at the ISO TC 238 committee, we were approached by the Canadian delegation, and it was related to the steel sector. Their issue was that they had this lack of standards. So, they were just struggling to try and gain relevance, and how were they going to decarbonize? We also, shortly after that, had similar comments come to us from the U.S. biochar initiative.
And their problem was just that they were using essentially a group of standards that came from different industries. They weren't written for that purpose. They didn't have methodological alignment. And so, as a result, different labs would come back with different answers when they were trying to test to the same standards.
It required then that we do a search. Is this the best place? ISO TC 238 is one possible place this could have been done. But also, the coal committee or the fertilizer committee, there had to be kind of an internal ISO vetting of which technical committee needs to be taking this on. And essentially, it came down to ISO TC 238. And the term was coined pyrogenic biocarbon to include these various materials.
Hannah: So, the process has begun now. So, how long do you think it will take to create biocarbon standards?
Chris: That's the unfortunate part. ISO is not a fast-moving organization. It took us three years to change the title and scope. So, I think that in and of itself tells you how fast the overall process goes. The good news about it is that some standards, we have 47 standards already created, a number of them are fine just as they are. Or there are a few standards which may need small, minor modifications but can still largely be used as is.
The problem becomes when a standard needs sweeping changes or even a whole new standard needs to be written. In that case, it can take two to three years to create a standard.
So, the way I see it, it'll probably take two or three years in order for this overall initiative to really start taking shape, and industry can start seeing published versions of the standard reflective of pyrolytic biocarbons. But it took nearly 20 years for the solid biofuel sector to become mature. We're probably a decade before we'll see the similar level of standards for biocarbon.
Hannah: Okay, so it is quite a way off then from being ready for them for people to use. So, in the meantime, is there something people can do while they're waiting for the standards to be updated?
Chris: Definitely. So, people are already using standards, and they just aren't as refined or as good as they could be. The overall intent is to kind of mature them into consistent methods which will be better. But the ISO standards are already available. They may not be published as biocarbon standards, but they are intended for that purpose.
Thermally treated solid biofuels has always been part of the intent of the ISO TC 238 suite, which included charring and different types of thermal treatment technologies. So, they are usable today. These are the laboratory methods that our lab uses. And so, it's not that there isn't anything that can be done.
There is another initiative, though. The U.S. Biochar Initiative has initiated a standardization project of their own, where they are creating an American National Standard for biochar. And that's important to note that it is specifically for biochar, not all the different forms of biocarbon. As the name tends to imply, American National Standard, it would seem that this is a U.S. initiative, but it is a North American initiative.
The U.S. has representation, Canada has representation, and Mexico has representation. Our goal is to have this published within a year. It did start back in June of 2024. So, we're thinking by the end of Q2 2025, we're hoping we'll be done by then, but that's not a guarantee. And it's intended to be a laboratory standard. So, when it comes down to what exactly will it deliver, it will educate people on how to test these biocarbon materials. So, it is not a specification. It's not grading any materials or suggesting use in any particular application.
Hannah: So, that's going to be available a lot sooner then than the ISO standards. Are there going to be major differences between the North American standard and the ISO TC 238 standards?
Chris: You know, I would love to think that they're going to be relatively closely aligned. The North American effort here is to try and align as much as possible with ISO. And this can hopefully be an easy process because there's very close communication with ISO TC 238. So, I am the project leader for the U.S. Biochar Initiative's standard. I am also the U.S. Technical Advisory Group chairman to ISO TC 238. And so, I have high-level commitments on both of these groups. What we're hoping is that the American National Standard work product will be usable by the ISO group to speed up their process.
Hannah: Yeah, so go for it.
Chris: Also note, though, that there are some things about the USBI standard that are intentionally going to be different. We have, in the ISO arena, it is kind of held to only solid biofuels. It does not include biosolids. And a lot of biochar materials, for example, will be created from digestates and sludges and other materials of similar nature. These are not covered by ISO TC 238. And I don't know that they ever will.
So, another reason that the USBI has taken on this standard is to make sure that there is a standard out there that will cover these additional materials even when the ISOs are published.
Hannah: It sounds like this is going to be very useful and very sort of needed in the industry. If there's people listening who want to find out more about it or even get involved, I don't know what your process is on that, but what can people do?
Chris: There's definitely a few things. So, anyone can check out ISO TC 238 online. Just go to the landing page, go to any web browser and pull up ISO TC 238, and it'll take you to the homepage. You can see there whether your country participates or not. If your country does participate, you can join your National Mirror Committee. So, reach out to whoever is in charge of your country's group. If you don't know who that is, call me. I can connect you with pretty much all the main leaders of this initiative.
There's also the opportunity to work directly on one of the active working groups. This is where the professionals that have those deepest level of knowledge about the projects can be at the table helping to write the standard. Ultimately, it goes out to vote at a country level, but it's the working groups that write the documents.
If you're not interested in that level of participation, you certainly can just communicate your interests, and you need to do that. You know, anyone that has got a specific burning desire or need for standards in their projects, let their industry representatives know so that we can take that into consideration as we develop standards.
And sometimes what will happen is there will be public comment periods. For example, the American National Standard will be going out for a public review. Take the opportunity to read it and provide feedback.
And I'll put this in there as well. How do you know updates are coming? It's not often easy to know, but we are going to be providing updates on our LinkedIn websites or our LinkedIn site. So, if you want to follow us at Biomass Energy Lab on LinkedIn, that can give you an indication of what's going on.
Hannah: Great. You mentioned there was going to be a document review that was going to be available. When will that be available?
Chris: So, right now, we're actually in the process of developing the draft, American National Standard. But before it goes out for publication, we are going to send it out for public review. We don't have a date on that. And it will go out to, not necessarily globally for review, but to the key interests like over at ISO TC 238.
Hannah: Thanks, Chris. Thank you so much for coming on. It was an absolute pleasure to talk with you today.
Chris: Thank you as well. My pleasure to be here.
Hannah: Stay tuned for the next edition of the Argus "Biomass Podcast." In the meantime, if you want to learn more about this topic and other factors driving the biomass industry, follow all our coverage in the "Argus Biomass Markets Report" and visit us at argusmedia.com.
