Above: The old Fortress pulp mill in Thurso, Quebec, is the site of the Évolys bio carbon manufacturing plant.

With operations in 35 countries, mining giant Rio Tinto has been accelerating its decarbonization strategy to meet its target of halving its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. In the summer of 2024, that strategy translated into concrete action in Quebec. The company announced it had formed a new venture called Évolys Québec Inc. with Minnesota, U.S.-based biocarbon producer Aymium to tackle one of the most challenging aspects of industrial decarbonization: replacing fossil carbon sources in metallurgical processing.

The new company represents far more than a possible pathway to help Rio Tinto meet its targets in both Quebec and internationally. It is also an example of how Rio Tinto’s vision for industrial decarbonization can foster sustainable local economies and create new opportunities for communities.

Multi-pathway approach to meeting emission targets

Rio Tinto’s decarbonization strategy encompasses dozens of initiatives in renewable energy and investments in breakthrough technologies to decarbonize its value chains with short-, medium- and long-term solutions across its global operations. Rather than address its decarbonization in a fragmented approach, however, the company has created a unified structure for its energy and climate strategy designed to maximize resources and collaboration across its operations.

 “The goal is to leverage innovations across the value chain rather than silo by silo or product group by product group,” said Didier Arseguel, vice-president of technology at Rio Tinto. It was also to identify solutions or innovations that could have the greatest decarbonization impact on Rio Tinto’s global operations.

Approximately 70 per cent of Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium’s (RTIT) Scope 1 and 2 emissions in Canada are linked to the use of anthracite as a reductant in the smelting process. As a result, Rio Tinto identified addressing Scope 1 emissions at its Quebec operations as key to meeting its carbon emission reduction targets. In terms of the 2030 target, only five years away, Rio Tinto is working against the clock. Even more challenging, to decarbonize its metallurgical processes, such as smelting, that have been used for decades could require disruptive technologies or a complete rethink—and that takes time. All in all, Rio Tinto has addressed these challenges by building a portfolio of innovative projects. “We mitigate risk by developing multiple pathways towards carbon reduction,” said Arseguel. “Our portfolio of options de-risks our decarbonization strategy. We don’t know exactly which one will cross the line so we ensure we have backups.”

In keeping with this strategy, RTIT launched two key projects in its decarbonization portfolio in Quebec. One is Blue-Smelting, a breakthrough technology that could reduce carbon emissions in titanium dioxide production at RTIT’s metallurgical complex in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, by a significant proportion compared to the ore reduction process it is currently using—the equivalent of removing 145,000 cars from the road.

The BlueSmelting technology adds a pre-reduction step to the traditional smelting process that recycles the smelter gas, whether it is produced by coal, green hydrogen or potentially biomass. In 2023, to validate the revolutionary decarbonization technology, the company successfully built a full-scale, operational demonstration plant capable of producing up to 40,000 tonnes of ilmenite ore a year with dramatically lower emissions.

The other major project involves replacing fossil fuels in metallurgical processing with biocarbon at its Quebec operations in partnership with Aymium—and the formation of the new Évolys biocarbon manufacturing company.

The biocarbon solution

Rio Tinto’s partnership with Aymium can be traced to 2021, when the mining giant created a dedicated venture capital fund to invest in partnerships with innovative companies. The following year, Rio Tinto partnered with Aymium, an innovative leader in the biocarbon sector. The American company has been supplying customers with its advanced biohydrogen and biocarbon products globally since 2012. With its proven technology, backed by more than 500 issued or pending patents for high-value biocarbon products, Aymium has been growing exponentially from its original one plant in Michigan to several projects in the U.S. today.

Aymium’s metallurgical biocarbon is made from biomass—or organic matter that can be used to generate energy, such as wood, forest residues and plant materials. Biomass captures carbon during tree growth. This sustainable carbon source is then used in metallurgical applications. In contrast to fossil fuels, which contain energy locked underground for millions of years, sustainably sourced biomass does not add new CO2 to the atmosphere. The small amount of CO2 it does produce is absorbed by new growth as part of nature’s natural cycle.

Using a patented combustion-free thermochemical process, Aymium converts biomass to biocarbon by first heating it to more than 500 degrees Celsius. Because the biomass is deprived of oxygen as it is heated, it does not combust. As a result, it doesn’t produce emissions. The process chemically separates the biomass into high-purity biocarbon and biohydrogen as well as water. It is a carbon-neutral process because it is fueled by the biohydrogen energy it generates. All excess water and energy produced by the process are recycled into the system.

The final metallurgical biocarbon product is specifically designed to replace high-emission fossil fuels such as coal and coke without the need for equipment changes. As a result, Rio Tinto will be able to integrate the biocarbon into its process and immediately benefit from the carbon reduction without incurring any additional costs.

The birth of Évolys

In 2023, Rio Tinto successfully tested Aymium’s metallurgical biocarbon at RTIT as a low-carbon emitting alternative to the anthracite currently used in its ilmenite smelting processes. A year later, Rio Tinto decided to join forces with Aymium by forming Évolys and constructing a manufacturing plant in Quebec, rather than importing Aymium’s product to its Quebec operations. With Évolys serving as a local biocarbon supplier, RTIT could continue working towards reducing its emissions.

The new joint venture selected the Fortress pulp mill in Thurso, Quebec—which had run into financial difficulties and shut down in 2019—as the site of the new plant that will produce renewable metallurgical biocarbon to reduce carbon emissions in large-scale industrial processes.

The first phase of the project consists of a $50 million refurbishing of the old pulp mill to transform it into a biocarbon manufacturing plant with the capacity to produce some 50,000 tonnes of product annually. The Évolys plant is expected to begin production in the second half of 2025.

The technology is easily scalable to meet growing demand, and phase two of the project could come as early as 2028 with an expansion in capacity of up to some 200,000 tonnes of biocarbon product produced annually.

Generating jobs and growing the local economy

The establishment of Évolys in Quebec represents more than just a potential decarbonization milestone for Rio Tinto; it is a revitalization of the local economy. When the Fortress pulp mill closed down in 2019, it left many in the small community of Thurso, with a population of 3,000 people, unemployed. The closure also negatively impacted the surrounding forestry sector in the area. One of the reasons the government of Quebec supported Rio Tinto and Aymium’s new venture was its potential to help revitalize the town and the forestry sector.

The new biocarbon plant will generate construction jobs, as well as 30 permanent staff to start with. It will sustainably source biomass from local forestry suppliers within a 200-kilometre radius, purchasing their waste logging residues, wood chips and other existing sources of wood fibre, including bark and sawdust.

“Our plant will provide a new revenue source for the surrounding forestry sector because our biocarbon valorizes their biomass waste,” said Guillaume Bacconnier, Évolys’s general manager. “And it can create a new ecosystem of innovative industries as well as sustainable biocarbon to support them.”

The sustainable domino effect

In the beginning, most of Évolys’s product will be destined for RTIT’s Quebec Operations in Sorel-Tracy. Replacing the anthracite with 50,000 tonnes of biocarbon at its operations is expected to be the equivalent of removing 30,000 cars from the road. But Évolys has the potential to drive transformative change far beyond Rio Tinto’s operations. The new plant’s biocarbon product can also be used to replace fossil fuels in such sectors as energy, agriculture, and air and water purification. And that means that in the coming years, Évolys could play an important role in helping other industries in Quebec reduce their carbon footprints and contribute to the province’s 2050 net-zero decarbonization targets.

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