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6040 Carbonizer: Win-Win Solution

Two innovators in North Carolina share perspectives on the great potential of the circular biochar economy, and how the mobile, high throughput 6040 carbonizer fits in.

鈥 Paul Iarocci

The 6040, owned by Heritage Tree Recycling onsite near Mount Mitchell.
The 星空传媒 6040 carbonizer is designed to convert forest debris and wood biomass into high quality organic carbon. The following use case details the suitability of the 6040 for debris management and carbon sequestration, while creating an entirely new value stream.

Public sector perspective

After retiring from a rewarding and successful technology focused career, Barbara 鈥疊leiweis relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. Chairing the HOA in her new neighbourhood became a springboard for a second career in public service. In 2018, she was elected Supervisor for the Mecklenburg Soil and Water Conservation District. In this role, Barbara became involved in stream maintenance and bank stabilization, critical elements for flood mitigation. She advocated for farmers and facilitated county support for farmland preservation.

In 2025, she took on more responsibility and increased her positive influence over soil and water conservation when she became Chair of the North Carolina Soil and Water Conservation Commission. The seven-member commission provides oversight, rules and policy for state soil and water conservation programs. In addition, it is responsible for determining cost share allocations to the state's 96 conservation districts. In turn, the districts aid landowners in better managing land and water resources. 鈥淧rivate land becomes a state problem when there is a storm or fire,鈥 Barbara explains.
Barbara 鈥疊leiweis is heavily involved in soil and water conservation in North Carolina. With an influential voice, she is a big believer in the potential of the 6040 to solve many problems related to debris management, erosion, flood mitigation, forest management and agricultural land preservation.
With boundless energy and a passion for resource conservation, Barbara serves on several other boards including the North Carolina Foundation for Soil and Water Conservation, the National Conservation Foundation, Helping Hands Outreach Foundation, and the Charlotte Water Advisory Board.

Barbara views ever increasing impervious ground surface coverage, along with loss of farmland and timberland as the greatest threats to soil and water. All three issues are caused or exacerbated by urbanization and development. However, Barbara has found another common thread. Water quality, flood mitigation, forest management, and agricultural land preservation are also bound together by the potential of a common solution.

The solution is biochar and Hurricane Helene acted as the catalyst. Always one to turn a challenge into opportunity, Barbara responded to the storm impact by launching an initiative to revitalize western North Carolina鈥檚 wood products industry through public-private partnerships to develop production of biochar, along with a downstream market and supply network.


The issue of sedimentation is鈥痑 very big鈥痙eal for developers. Biochar acts as a mechanical block for silt in streams and minimizes the entry of contaminants.


鈥 Barbara 鈥疊leiweis

Barbara envisioned a circular solution that would convert waste wood biomass to a product that solves the kind of problems that she deals with every day. The biochar economy would help government agencies with many soil and water related issues, while helping western North Carolina crawl out of the debris problem overhanging the state since the storm hit in September 2024. She is using her considerable skills to apply for grants to prime this new economy and prove out her ideas.

Excess wood debris is a problem facing municipalities throughout the United States. Even after all the mulch and compost production, there are still over 250 million tons of clean wood and vegetative debris entering landfills. Up until now, it was a problem with no real solution. Barbara was one of the first people in civil service to understand and articulate this. Her goal is to facilitate funding to each conservation district to purchase a carbonizer, turning municipal wood debris into a useful product.

The business case

In 2023, Pactiv Evergreen, a paper mill in Canton, North Carolina, closed its doors to over 1,000 employees after 100 plus years in operation. Historically, it consumed two million tons of chips annually. The closure devastated the economy in the western part of the state. A year later, Hurricane Helene smashed into the Blue Ridge Mountains, wreaking havoc and devastation. Because the mill closure had already eliminated the outlet for鈥痬uch of the state鈥檚 hardwood, post-storm cleanup work was incredibly challenging. There was simply no way to deal with all the wood debris that had to be processed, reduced and redistributed.

North Carolina resident Blair Sheppard is former Dean of Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. His prior role was Global Leader of Strategy and Leadership at PwC. Blair was also thinking about Helene and the mill closure. In the context of these significantly disruptive events, he wondered how he could help.

As Blair describes it, when the paper mill closed, it wasn't just 1,000 jobs lost. Chip mills went out of business. Hardwood loggers, having lost the outlet for pulpwood, couldn鈥檛 survive producing sawlogs alone, and soon left the industry. Sawmill owners, starved for logs, shuddered the mills. Truckers, foresters, composters, grinder operators, and all the related support businesses were stressed or lost entirely. A large swath of the local mountain economy, reliant on one major employer, was wiped out. Then, in 2024, after all the infrastructure and services around logging and trucking had withered away, the storm hit.

We are maintaining autonomy and building wealth locally, while actually creating something that repairs the damage that was done in the mountains.


鈥 Blair Sheppard

Blair predicted that if there was a way to utilize storm debris, pulpwood, tops and unmerchantable hardwood logs, some great things could happen in the local economy. If waste wood becomes a value stream, it replaces the paper mill outlet. Hardwood loggers and truckers come back, knowing that operators in the value chain can derive a product, and deliver it at a reduced cost compared with wet wood. The value stream subsidizes the lumber business, which brings the sawmills back online. Composting businesses can thrive. 鈥淪o, if you add all that up, you end up having maybe 100 to 140 mid-sized businesses in the state creating generational wealth.鈥 The driver of all this would be the production of biochar. It would be the new outlet for the parts of the tree that can鈥檛 produce a sawlog.

鈥淭he problem with the paper mill is that with one decision to shut the mill, the whole system dies,鈥 Blair explains. 鈥淲ith a network of mid-sized companies, no one can take the system out. It鈥檚 way more resilient and it's also more suited to the mountains. It works for this kind of culture. People like owning their own business here. The problem is those small entrepreneurs got dependent upon one very big firm.鈥

Before committing to biochar production, Blair did his research. He talked to county commissioners who were very concerned about the local economy. He spoke with foresters, loggers, landscapers 鈥 anyone he could think of who generated feedstock. 鈥淚 haven't had anyone say they don't like the idea. And I've never run across an idea like that before.鈥 He crunched numbers factoring in operating cost per hour, production per hour, and quantified three potential revenue streams: Tipping fees, the primary revenue source, downstream revenue from biochar sales, and carbon credit sales. Based on the research, Heritage Tree Recycling, owned by Blair and his business partner Sam Burnette, purchased a 星空传媒 6040 carbonizer from Bullock Brothers in May 2025. The company won a bid with the US Forest Service to process storm debris on Federal forestland, placing the machine on an old heliport site near Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the US east of the Mississippi.

鈥淲e are maintaining autonomy and building wealth locally, while actually creating something that repairs the damage that was done in the mountains. And it complements tourism because the forests are looking better.鈥 Blair鈥檚 goal is to figure out the best way to scale his business and the local industry as a whole. 鈥淲hat I'm trying to do is start a business that proves this idea and then figure out how to scale as quickly as possible. In my two former jobs I was never home but this state has been great to us, so I'm now trying to give back.鈥
Blair Sheppard (pictured) and Sam Burnette co-own Heritage Tree Recycling.

Downstream uses

Barbara is enthusiastic about the great potential of biochar to mitigate or solve many problems within her sphere of influence. 鈥淭he issue of sedimentation is鈥痑 very big鈥痙eal for developers,鈥 she explains. 鈥淏iochar acts as a mechanical block for silt in streams and minimizes the entry of contaminants.鈥 It also minimizes nutrient overload in waterways, absorbing nitrate and phosphate鈥痳unoff that causes toxic, oxygen-sucking algae鈥痓looms. Barbara is studying initiatives to apply uncharged biochar on farmland. Carbon is very slowly released into the soil. Nutrients are absorbed by the biochar and then鈥痳eleased slowly over time. Excess phosphorus from fertilizer applications that would normally run off into water systems is retained, saving money and reducing the overall use of chemical fertilizers. Barbara is passionate about her ideas and committed to engaging other stakeholders. 鈥淚鈥痙on鈥檛鈥痩ike鈥痶o educate. I like鈥痶o motivate.鈥

To give another example, Barbara is closely following the research on biochar as a soil amendment for forestry conservation. 鈥淏iochar could suppress tree growth of certain non-preferred species and encourage oak which is preferable.鈥 Considered a keystone species in North Carolina, oaks are long lived, support diverse ecosystems, and aid in soil health, water filtration and carbon sequestration on a large scale, due to their size and lifespan.

Blair is thinking of several downstream industries with potential to become another source of revenue for mountain communities. With many development and construction projects underway in the state, concrete and asphalt producers are high on his list. 鈥淣orth Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the country right now. They need a lot of asphalt and concrete. Biochar enhances both 鈥 asphalt, particularly in warm weather, and concrete in all conditions, increasing the strength 30 to 40%. And because biochar is no more expensive than the traditional feedstock for those two products, it鈥檚 a natural fit.鈥

Blair rhymes off several other uses. Biochar as an additive in cattle feed significantly reduces methane release and delivers animal health benefits. Other construction uses include roofing and insulation products. Part of the water treatment process is breaking down ammonia into nitrogen. Biochar can capture the nitrogen, and this charged biochar can then be repurposed as fertilizer.

Challenges

Mount Mitchell is a very windy place. Sam, who runs day-to-day operations, is cognizant of wind speed and direction, factors that can limit production. The financial model must factor in lower machine availability due to adverse conditions. Another glaring challenge is related to dirt content in the feedstock. Two years out from the storm, there are still 14 million tons of debris clogging private, state and national forests in North Carolina. The trees didn鈥檛 just blow down. The material was pushed in landslides, ending up in mud or tangled in streams and riverbeds. This doesn鈥檛 bother Blair and Sam too much.

North Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the country right now. They need a lot of asphalt and concrete. Biochar enhances both.


鈥 Blair Sheppard

鈥淗alf to two-thirds of it is just caked in dirt. You can't get it all off. It sits in a place that's wet, so the bottom half of the wood is terrible stuff to burn. It still burns, and we still create grade-C biochar at 13 tons per hour.鈥 Good, clean wood yields higher production rates at 20 tons per hour and grade-A biochar with 86% carbon content. 鈥淏oth grades pass every other test with flying colors. The ratios are right, so this is carbon that's going to last a thousand years. For the grade-C product, we are thinking about it as a debris management model.鈥 The product is still being reduced by 90%, drastically reducing transport costs relative to grinding. The carbon is still sequestered, and the product is useful to local farmers.

鈥淚n Yancey County, there are 22 farms that are now just silt and sand. Those guys need a blend of biochar and compost. So, for regenerative farming, we will need one grinder per carbonizer.鈥 As part of the resilient biochar economy that Blair is trying to build, he plans to partner with compost producers who will regrind and compost biomass to create a blended biochar compost product to recondition soils that were destroyed by flooding and erosion. 鈥淎gain, we're trying to create this model where there's a bunch of mid-sized businesses working together in the network.鈥
Eighteen months after Helene, the volume of debris on the ground is staggering. The material was pushed in landslides, ending up in mud or tangled in streams and riverbeds.

Fit for purpose

Blair learned that the standard FEMA storm cleanup model, designed for flat coastal regions, doesn鈥檛 work in the mountains. Coastal areas have a lot of flat land and not too many trees. It is relatively easy to set up large, centralized yards that can accept massive volumes of debris and stage multiple grinder systems. Conversely, mountains have a lot of forest coverage and not so much flat land. If the biochar economy can scale quickly, Blair envisions multiple operators with carbonizing and grinding capacity. 鈥淭he grinder would create the compost that you blend with the biochar. You've got everything you need to deal with the next disaster,鈥 Blair asserts. 鈥淵ou never have to bring someone from the outside. It鈥檚 not just resilient; it鈥檚 building independence. When the debris is gone, you turn to the pulpwood, and when the next storm hits, you leave the pulp for a while and turn back to debris.鈥

Blair characterizes the 6040 carbonizer as a technology with the potential to positively disrupt. 鈥淭here will be critical technologies that, if you can get them to scale, the whole system changes. This is a perfect example. If we get carbonizers to scale, we change entirely how we deal with debris. We could replace paper with biochar, which is a much more sustainable industry, and the downstream consequence is we are sequestering carbon. Everybody wins. The downstream industries are all growing in the teens per year. It doesn't matter what the policymakers say; if the economics work, if the business model is sound, it is going to happen.鈥