Refinery Fuel Agreements
Rio Tinto Signed Its Bio-Pellet Offtake Deal With SuperChar
Adam Harrie — July 23, 2026
Rio Tinto signed a five-year offtake agreement with SuperChar Limited for locally produced bio-pellet industrial fuel to supplement coal at its Gladstone alumina refineries, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2028. Operational trials demonstrated that bio pellets could replace up to 30% of the coal used to generate refinery boiler steam, while the new agreement will enable testing of blends ranging from 5% to 50% bio pellets.
SuperChar plans to build a production facility using locally grown bana grass, a high-yielding perennial energy crop suited to Central Queensland that remains productive for more than 15 years and can be harvested using existing sugar cane equipment. At full volume, the project could reduce Rio Tinto's Scope 1 emissions by up to 90,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.
Rio Tinto shows how regeneratively grown biomass can provide a scalable, regionally sourced pathway for decarbonizing energy-intensive industrial manufacturing processes.
