RCS - EQTEC PLC - North Fork project partnership

EQTECAnnouncement

14/12/2021 11:20

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RNS Number : 6074V  EQTEC PLC  14 December 2021

14 December 2021

EQTEC plc

("EQTEC", the "Company" or the "Group")

 

North Fork project partnership with Carbonfuture and Phoenix Energy

 

EQTEC plc (AIM: EQT), a world-leading technology innovation company enabling
the Net Zero Future through advanced solutions for hydrogen, biofuels, SNG and
other energy production is pleased to announce a unique triple-bottom-line
partnership of Phoenix Energy, EQTEC plc, the North Fork Community Development
Council and Carbonfuture to help Sierra Nevada forests and communities remove
carbon from the atmosphere and reduce wildfire risk, generate renewable
energy, create jobs and support the local community.

North Fork Community Power (NFCP) will soon commission and utilise Advanced
Gasification Technology from EQTEC to convert forest stewardship residues into
renewable electricity, heat and biochar - a solid carbon byproduct with
applications in agriculture and water filtration that sequesters carbon for
centuries.

The climate action-oriented waste-to-energy project is aligned with state and
international Net Zero targets and in support of circular economy principles.
This positive climate action is newly rewarded with carbon removal credits by
Carbonfuture through its platform and marketplace. The project is the first
forest biomass plant in California to join the scheme.

Catastrophic wildfires in California have made clear the urgency of forest
management efforts that reduce risk and improve forest health. NFCP, located
in North Fork, California, is a forest-based biomass gasification plant that
will utilize sustainable local forest biomass as well as fire threat reduction
activities from the Sierra and Yosemite National Forest areas which will
benefit local communities.

 

The project is located on the site of an abandoned sawmill from the 1990s,
bringing back sustainable jobs to this rural community in the Sierra Nevada.
The project originated by the North Fork Community Development Council as a
way to both steward the environment and promote economic redevelopment in the
wake of the sawmill closing.

 

Thanks to the proprietary Advanced Gasification Technology developed and
supplied by EQTEC, which is also a material capital investor in the North Fork
project, the process does not involve burning or combusting the wood and so
the CO(2) does not go up a stack. The waste wood is transformed through
EQTEC's patented process, reduced and left in solid form as pure carbon as it
is converted into a hydrogen-rich synthesis gas 'syngas'. The process will
generate 2 MWe of renewable electricity and biochar.  Once produced, biochar
is sold mostly to farms in California's Central Valley to improve water
efficiency, nutrient conservation, beneficial microbial composition, and
overall quantity of stable organic matter. As the carbon remains in the soil
permanently, these positive characteristics are important for its carbon
sequestration ability as well as ecosystem benefits. The produced biochar will
help sequester 20,000t CO(2) equivalent over the next 5 years.

Carbonfuture's fully-digital platform is used to guarantee the secure and
stringent documentation of all climate-preserving activities generated in this
project. The company issues removal credits for carbon sequestration services
through biochar, such as the one provided in this triple-bottom-line approach.
Focusing on solid climate performance, Carbonfuture uses a defensively
quantified carbon sink value, resulting in high-quality, long-term and
scientifically verified credits. To support the integrity of the credits even
further, tamper-proof, digital tracking based on an innovative and low-energy
blockchain is implemented. The use of this technology not only enables unique
"credit-to-cradle cradle look-through" but also eliminates the possibility of
double-counting.

 

EQTEC CEO David Palumbo said:

 

"I'm very pleased that our partnership in North Fork is now even more
compelling by working with Carbonfuture. Once operational, the plant at North
Fork will service the local community by demonstrating a better way to use
forestry waste that would otherwise pose a fire risk and to both produce
biochar for watershed protection, carbon sequestration and soil enrichment, as
well as use the syngas produced from the wood as a fuel to produce
electricity."

 

Phoenix Energy CEO, Gregory Stangl, said:

"This project is so impactful because it provides California with carbon
negative, 24/7 renewable power, created from a unique sustainable
waste-to-energy process and at the same time it reduces catastrophic wildfire
risk and returns lost jobs to a struggling Sierra Nevada community."

Carbonfuture co-founder, Andreas Hoelzl, said:

 

"The North Fork project is a unique collaboration that showcases that triple
bottom line projects can be accomplished by the collaboration of the right
parties, spanning development, investment and technology innovation.
Carbonfuture is really happy to help to support and remunerate the climate
service of the project and to provide our carbon removal credit customers with
high-quality, impactful credits."

 

 

ENQUIRIES

 EQTEC plc                                                     +44 203 883 7009
 David Palumbo / Nauman Babar

 Strand Hanson - Nomad & Financial Adviser                     +44 20 7409 3494
 James Harris / James Dance

 Arden Partners - Joint Broker                                 +44 20 7614 5900
 Paul Shackleton (Corporate) / Simon Johnson (Sales)

 Canaccord Genuity - Joint Broker                              +44 20 7523 8000
 Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / James Asensio / Patrick Dolaghan

 Alma PR - Financial Media & Investor Relations                +44 20 3405 0205
 Josh Royston / Sam Modlin / Matthew Young                     EQTEC@almapr.co.uk (mailto:EQTEC@almapr.co.uk)

 BECG - General Media Enquiries                                +44 7554 014 188 / +44 7867 452 269
 Carrie Lowe / Tom Gosschalk                                   EQTEC@BECG.com (mailto:EQTEC@BECG.com)

 

 

 

About the companies

 

Phoenix Energy is an independent power producer that develops and operates
distributed biomass plants in partnership with businesses and communities. By
focusing on small plants in the 1-3 MW range, the company strives to keep
electricity, heat and fuel local to the plant where the value of energy is
highest and transportation costs are avoided. The gasification technology
also produces biochar, which serves to permanently sequester carbon in solid
form and is valued for its benefits to soil health and water filtration. More
information at https://www.phoenixenergy.net/

EQTEC is a world-leading technology innovation company enabling the Net Zero
future through advanced solutions for hydrogen, biofuels, SNG and other energy
production through waste-to-energy transformation projects. EQTEC designs,
supplies and builds advanced gasification facilities in the UK, EU and US,
with highly efficient equipment that is modular and scalable from 1MW to 30MW.
EQTEC's versatile solutions process over 50 varieties of feedstock, including
forestry wood waste, vegetation and other agricultural waste, industrial waste
and sludge from factories and municipal waste. EQTEC's solutions produce a
pure, high-quality synthesis gas ("syngas") that can be used for the widest
range of applications, including the generation of electricity and heat,
production of synthetic natural gas or biofuels and reforming of hydrogen.
More information can be found at www.eqtec.com.

North Fork Community Development Council is a joint venture between Phoenix
Energy and the North Fork Community Development Council that will own and
operate the biomass gasification facility in North Fork, California.

Carbonfuture is a provider and platform for trusted, high-quality carbon
removal credits. Carbonfuture's credits empower individuals and organizations
to effectively remove CO(2) from the atmosphere. The innovative carbon removal
credits offer highest trust level and climate impact through scientific
quantification, independent verification, and full biochar life cycle
tracking. The Carbonfuture platform is the most advanced carbon removal
platform for biochar based credits. Carbonfuture also provides financial
revenue to biochar producers and applicants through multi-year purchase
agreements. For more details, get in contact: https://carbonfuture.earth

 

 

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