Robinson Carbon announced it will invest $16.3 million to establish a biochar manufacturing facility at England Airpark in Rapides Parish, extending its family-owned wood products business into a new market more than 130 years after its founding in Louisiana.

Robinson Carbon is expected to create 42 direct new jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 60 indirect new jobs, for a total of 102 potential new job opportunities in the Central Region. The project builds on Robinson Lumber Company’s longstanding Louisiana presence, with the fifth-generation family business expected to retain 22 existing positions.

The facility will operate two rotary drum pyrolysis reactors, converting approximately 100,000 metric tons of Southern Yellow Pine residuals annually into 16,500 metric tons of biochar. Robinson Carbon plans to source the material from nearby mills and produce biochar to customer specifications for agricultural, horticultural and pollution remediation applications. The company has relocated a pilot reactor from its New Albany, Indiana, manufacturing site to Alexandria, where it will be used to train employees ahead of full-scale production. Once certified under the Puro Standard, the facility is also expected to generate approximately 40,000 CO2 Removal Certificates annually, each representing one metric ton of carbon dioxide removed.

Robinson Carbon is the carbon products division of Robinson Lumber Company, founded in New Orleans in 1893. The company’s expansion into biochar manufacturing represents the latest evolution of a Louisiana business with more than 130 years of experience in the global wood products industry.