Forest waste could become an economic opportunity, but questions remain over the scale of the problem, jobs, and future expansion
By Roger Rael
The Raton Range
RATON, N.M. — A Scotland-based clean technology company is setting its sights on Raton, proposing to turn forest and other organic waste into products ranging from biochar to biogas while describing northern New Mexico’s accumulation of woody material as a “biomass crisis.”
Professor Ed Craig, CEO and founder of Carbogenics, addressed the Raton City Commission during its Aug. 11 meeting, telling commissioners his company has operated in the United Kingdom for about a decade and established a U.S. operation in New Mexico.
Carbogenics is not simply an unknown company testing an idea in rural New Mexico. It spun out of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences in 2016 and in January announced a $3 million investment and grant funding round to expand its technology in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. The University of Leeds lists Craig as a visiting professor and CEO of Carbogenics.
The company’s central product is biochar, a porous, carbon-rich material created from organic material. Carbogenics markets its version, called CreChar, for uses that include improving anaerobic digestion, treating wastewater and storing carbon.
Craig told commissioners the company wants to establish an initial operation on Kiowa Street in Raton.
“Phase one is quite literally as simple as we are transforming large bits of biochar into small bits of biochar,” Craig said.
He said the initial operation would require essentially no process water and described it as having no impact on air quality. Craig said a larger second phase would return to the city for additional discussion.
That second phase may prove more important to residents than the relatively modest first operation.
Carbogenics says its broader vision for Raton could eventually integrate biomass processing, anaerobic digestion and other services capable of transforming woody material and organic waste into biochar, biogas and green building materials. The company specifically identifies Raton on its website as the center of that proposed circular economic system.
Craig told commissioners the reason for coming to northeastern New Mexico is straightforward: biomass.
“There’s a biomass crisis not only in the United States but especially in New Mexico,” Craig said, adding that Carbogenics hopes to work closely with nearby Vermejo.
There is strong evidence supporting the broader problem Craig describes, although calling the situation in Raton itself a “biomass crisis” goes further than currently available public records establish.
Colfax County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan documents substantial wildfire and forest-fuel concerns throughout the county. The updated plan identifies ongoing thinning, prescribed burning, mastication and other fuel-reduction work and notes that Vermejo Park Ranch had treated more than 20,000 acres through logging and other methods. The plan also documents Raton’s exposure to wildfire and the continuing need for fuel-reduction projects across the county.
That creates the economic question at the heart of Carbogenics’ proposal.
Forest thinning and wildfire-mitigation projects can leave behind small trees, branches, slash and other low-value woody material that must be chipped, burned, hauled or otherwise managed. If a company can purchase or accept that material and convert it into a marketable product, forest waste that has historically represented a disposal expense could potentially become an economic resource.
Carbogenics has already attracted substantial public support in New Mexico.
The New Mexico Economic Development Department awarded Carbogenics USA $440,000 through the state’s Advanced Energy Award program. State records describe the company as converting fire-damaged forest biomass into its biochar product for use in biogas production and carbon reduction.
The company also received Job Training Incentive Program funding this year. State records show Carbogenics was approved for approximately $80,000 to train three employees at an average wage of about $34 per hour.
There is, however, an important detail Raton residents should know: those state JTIP records list the Carbogenics location as Questa, not Raton.
Craig told Raton commissioners the company now has five U.S. employees, but he did not provide a specific number of permanent jobs that would ultimately be created in Raton.
That is one of several questions that remain.
Before Carbogenics’ proposal can be measured as a major economic-development project, the company will need to establish how much usable woody biomass actually exists within an economically practical distance of Raton, how much material the facility would process annually, where that material would originate and how many permanent local jobs each phase would create.
The environmental details of Phase Two will also matter.
Craig characterized the first phase as a simple size-reduction operation involving existing biochar. A future operation that actually converts large quantities of woody biomass into biochar would involve a significantly different industrial process and would require separate scrutiny of applicable zoning, fire safety, dust control, air-quality requirements, truck traffic, and other potential impacts.
For Raton, however, the proposal presents an unusual possibility: using one of northeastern New Mexico’s longstanding environmental liabilities as the raw material for a new industry.
Carbogenics appears to see the same opportunity.
Its own materials describe Raton’s location near forested lands, Interstate 25, Colorado and regional wildfire-mitigation work as reasons for developing its American operations here.
Craig ended his presentation by thanking several local officials and supporters and told commissioners the company was pleased with its reception.
“We’re really delighted to be part of the Raton community,” Craig said.
Whether Carbogenics becomes a small processing operation or grows into the larger biomass and biogas project the company envisions will depend on what comes next.
The underlying wildfire-fuels problem is real.
What remains to be demonstrated is how large Raton’s usable biomass supply actually is, how much of it Carbogenics can economically process and how much employment and investment the operation will ultimately leave behind in the community
