EPD awards contract for Pilot Biochar Production Plant in EcoPark

     The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (December 23) announced that, following an open tendering exercise, a contract to set up and operate the Pilot Biochar Production Plant (PBPP) in the EcoPark has been awarded to the Jardine Engineering Corporation Limited.

     A spokesman for the EPD said, "The PBPP project aims to confirm the technical feasibility of converting local woody waste into biochar, and to investigate the quality of biochar and the effectiveness of its applications in the local market. The PBPP will facilitate the identification of further alternatives and opportunities for reuse and recycling of local woody waste resources, and pave the way for exploring a more comprehensive and long-term development direction for handling woody waste in Hong Kong."

     The PBPP will initially utilise the woody material from the EPD's yard waste recycling centre, Y·PARK, which commenced operation in mid-2021, as feedstock for conversion into biochar after processing. The processes will include removing the contaminants in the shredded yard waste collected, followed by drying the material with the heat recovered from the carbonisation process, and then carbonising the woody material to convert it into different grades of biochar, thus achieving the purpose of turning waste into resources.

     With its carbon molecules-retaining feature, biochar on the one hand can reduce carbon emissions to help achieve the carbon neutrality vision under Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050, and on the other hand has many applications including serving as a soil conditioner, an adsorption material for filtering pollutants, a composting enhancer and a building material additive. This is in alignment with the strategies and measures stipulated in the Waste Blueprint for Hong Kong 2035. The EPD will make arrangements with various government departments for different trial applications of biochar produced by the PBPP in due course.

     The PBPP will be located in the EcoPark at 133 Lung Mun Road in Tuen Mun. Its design and construction are planned to take 12 months, to be followed by 48 months of operation after completion of the commissioning tests. The PBPP is expected to process around 6 000 tonnes of local woody waste and produce about 1 200 tonnes of biochar per year.