South Florida Biochar Plant Poised to Be Key for Domestic Silicon Chipmakers

By 2029, Green Carbon Solutions’ engineered charcoal will enrich soil, purify water, and generate electricity using ‘every last piece from a piece of wood.’

Martin Ellis, founder and president of Green Carbon Solutions, pauses at the base of a 110-foot retort structure with a horizontal moving grate that processes eucalyptus wood into biochar for silicon chipmakers during a mid-March 2025 tour of the operation in Indiantown, Fla., which will be the only one in the United States capable of supplying high-grade biochar for domestic advanced manufacturing when it goes into full operation this summer. John Haughey/The Epoch Times

INDIANTOWN, Fla.—Martin Ellis is building a first-in-the-U.S. business that he said will boost domestic manufacturing of silicon chips, solar panels, and steel while enriching soil, purifying water, and generating electricity.

The veteran entrepreneur is going to do this in a specialized production plant with a centuries-old process that refines a product man has used for millennia. The plant has been tested in Poland and moved piece-by-piece to a 17-acre pasture in South Florida’s swamp savannah.