Vega Biofuels to build biochar manufacturing plant in Alaska

Vega Biofuels has announced that it will build a new biochar manufacturing plant in Anchorage, Alaska. The new facility will produce biochar for use in a high grade agricultural growing medium for legal cannabis growers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as Alaska.

It was recently announced that Vega had entered into a reseller agreement with an Anchorage cannabis start-up to market Vega’s biochar throughout the state of Alaska. Vega now plans to build a manufacturing plant in Anchorage that will produce the torrefied biochar.

Cutting-edge torrefaction technology will be used at the new facility, the specialised machine constructed in Virginia before being shipped directly to Alaska.

A highly absorbent, specially designed charcoal-type product, biochar is primarily used as a soil enhancement for the agricultural industry to significantly increase crop yields. It is made from timber waste using torrefaction technology and Vega’s patent pending torrefaction machine. The introduction of Biochar into soil is different to applying fertiliser. Most of the benefit is achieved through microbes and fungi colonising a massive surface area and integrating into the biochar and the surrounding soil, dramatically increasing the soil’s ability to nurture plant growth and provide increased crop yield.

Cannabis growers currently using biochar as a soil enhancement are reporting dramatic increases in plant production.

“The cost of shipping the product from the east coast to Alaska is a major issue that we’ve been working on the past few weeks,” stated Michael K. Molen, Chairman/CEO of Vega Biofuels. “After the response we received during the Santa Rosa meetings, we finally made the decision to move the manufacturing process closer to our customers and cut out the high shipping costs.  The machine will utilise our patent pending torrefaction technology and will have a capacity of approximately three tons per hour. The legal cannabis industry has exploded in places like Oregon and Washington and we see the same trend happening in Alaska. Our product is proven and is currently used in various other agricultural applications, not just the cannabis industry.  Eliminating the shipping costs will have a direct impact on our bottom line.”