Shareholder Letter from CEO
Dear Shareholders,
Today is a momentous day for CHAR Tech, and I want to take a moment to thank you for your support of, and belief in, our mission and our business.
This morning we announced the substantial completion of Phase 1 mechanical and electrical construction at our Thorold Renewable Energy Facility. Thorold is the first commercial-scale high temperature pyrolysis plant in the world built to convert wood waste into biocarbon and renewable natural gas. The facility now moves into end-to-end commissioning, with commercial operations ramping up through October and production and revenue growing through the end of the year. The months ahead will bring both the technical validation of the plant and the market validation of our proprietary process and our biocarbon products.
Getting here took years of persistence, through setbacks as well as progress, and it was shared by our team, our partners and you, our shareholders. I am grateful to every one of you for staying with us. Thorold marks a real inflection point in the journey of CHAR Tech, and it is one we all share in. There is no doubt a lot of hard work lays ahead as we move into Phase 2, which adds a second kiln, the methanation equipment to upgrade our syngas into RNG, and an onsite pipeline injection point. When Thorold begins producing RNG, CHAR Tech will be the first company in the world to produce RNG and biocarbon simultaneously from wood waste.
On a personal note, when I climb the stairs to the upper mezzanine at Thorold and look out over our demonstration plant and our commercial plant side by side, I'm reminded of the journey, of why we started CHAR Tech, and of what we are building. This has always been about more than a profitable business. It is about a profitable business that can drive change on a global scale, one that makes a meaningful reduction in the world's greenhouse gas emissions and leaves the world better for the generations that follow. As the father of a young son, I have felt that mission come into sharper focus over the last 20 months as I've watched him grow.
As many of you know, CHAR Tech began as my Master's thesis in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto. It has long since grown far bigger than me and my lab work. Every member of our team has made an important contribution, and we would not be here without them. The entire CHAR Tech team deserves an enormous congratulations and has my lasting gratitude.
Looking out over Thorold, I am filled with optimism for what comes next. We have secured partners at every stage of the supply chain: feedstock suppliers in Walker Environmental here in Thorold and Lake Nipigon Forest Management with its Indigenous shareholder communities in Lake Nipigon, our joint venture partner BMI Group, and our offtakers ArcelorMittal and Elkem.
Thank you again for your continued support. Over the rest of this decade we will build on this first project to grow a purposeful business, one that is profitable and has an outsized global impact on our environment.
With much gratitude,
Andrew White