Carbonix

The P180 process

One plant, not three.

P180 is Carbonix’s process for turning iron ore concentrate into hot briquetted iron, and the first technology Carbonix originates projects around. Carbonix doesn’t build P180 plants: it originates the projects, partners build and own them, and Carbonix keeps a royalty on every tonne.

Conventional route
three plants

Mine concentrate
Plant 1 Upgrade to DR grade
rail or ship
Plant 2 Indurated pellet plant
rail or ship
Plant 3 Shaft-furnace DR plant
DRI or HBI

P180
one plant

Mine concentrate
Step 1 Upgrade to DR grade
Step 2 Micro-pelletize
Step 3 Reduce and briquette
HBI Solid carbon

After the mine, the conventional route takes three plants, often on three sites, joined by rail or ship. P180 makes all three conversions in one plant, using hydrogen it makes from natural gas.

The bottleneck is clean iron.

Steel is moving to electric arc furnaces, which melt scrap together with clean metallic iron: direct-reduced iron (DRI) and its briquetted form, HBI. Making that iron has meant premium direct-reduction (DR) grade feed, and only a small share of the world’s ore qualifies.

P180 is designed to widen that window. It upgrades ordinary concentrate to DR grade on site and skips the pellet plant.

3–7%

DR-grade feed’s share of seaborne iron ore supply, on Midrex’s assessment. The share depends on the flowsheet.

Source: Midrex

100+ Mt

The DR-grade iron ore deficit McKinsey projects by 2031: more than 100 million tonnes a year.

Source: McKinsey & Company, The resilience of steel: Navigating the crossroads, April 2023

June 2024

High-purity iron ore joined Canada’s critical minerals list. Ontario’s list followed in March 2026.

Sources: Government of Canada; Government of Ontario

Two reactors, one site.

P180 runs as a closed loop. In Reactor 1, hydrogen reduces iron ore micro-pellets to metallic iron. In Reactor 2, natural gas cracks over that hot iron, which acts as the catalyst: the hydrogen goes back to Reactor 1 as its reductant, and the carbon stays on the iron.

Water vapour
Natural gas
Micro-pellets
2–4 mm, from upgraded concentrate
Reactor 1
hydrogen reduces the pellets to metallic iron at a 920 °C design point
Reactor 2
natural gas cracks over the hot iron, which acts as the catalyst
Hot briquetting
the iron is pressed while hot
HBI
with 1.5–3% engineered carbon
hot reduced iron
hydrogen
carbon-bearing iron
A closed loop: the hot reduced iron is the catalyst for the turquoise hydrogen step, and the hydrogen it releases is the reductant for Reactor 1. Carbon from that step stays on the iron, so the HBI carries its own carbon; surplus carbon fuels the process.
  1. 1

    Upgrade

    Ordinary iron ore concentrate is polished to direct-reduction grade on site.

  2. 2

    Micro-pelletize

    The fines are formed into 2–4 mm micro-pellets that need no induration furnace.

  3. 3

    Reduce

    In Reactor 1, hydrogen reduces the pellets to metallic iron at a 920 °C design point.

  4. 4

    Make hydrogen

    In Reactor 2, natural gas cracks over the hot iron, which acts as the catalyst. The hydrogen goes back to Reactor 1 as its reductant, and the carbon is deposited on the iron.

  5. 5

    Briquette

    The carbon-bearing iron is pressed hot into HBI with 1.5–3% engineered carbon, ready to ship to electric-furnace steelmakers.

P180 is pre-commercial. The figures on this page are design targets. The pilot campaign is designed to demonstrate integrated operation.

Proof comes in stages, checked by others.

The P180 pilot campaign runs in stages, each with acceptance criteria set in advance. The next stage starts only when they are met.

Carbonix and SGS Canada signed a definitive agreement in June 2026, building on a working relationship at SGS Lakefield that goes back to 2012.

Who runs and checks the pilot

SGS Canada, Lakefield
Prepares the feed, oversees the reactor campaign, runs the assays and characterization, and issues the milestone reports.
A reactor vendor
Runs the reduction tests at its own pilot facility.
An independent metallurgist
Reviews the test protocols and acceptance criteria.

The stages

  1. 1

    First reduction test

    A fluid-bed reduction test on the target feeds.

  2. 2

    Pilot campaign

    Extended runs at pilot scale, with specification tests on the carbon co-product.

  3. 3

    Qualification dossier

    The technical record an owner and its lenders need before they build.

Where things stand. Component and subsystem evidence is in hand. Integrated operation is what the campaign is designed to show.

“We have built our own AI on this process — it narrows where to look before a campaign, runs alongside the pilot, and reads what comes back. Pilot time is the scarcest thing in this business.”
Paul Pede, remarks at SGS Lakefield’s 85th anniversary, September 2026

Carbonix’s process development runs on two tools side by side: the AI built into the Forge and Aspen Plus process modelling. The Forge is Carbonix’s own AI-assisted platform for originating, shaping and developing projects; its AI helps choose and read the tests, and the results that count are the ones SGS reports.

For iron ore producers

Convert to metallic iron on your own ore, on your own rail-and-port route, without building three plants.

Talk to us about your ore

Contact us.

Ore producers, steelmakers, investors, communities and partners: we’d like to hear from you.

General inquiries

info@carbonix.ca

Head office

697 Mountain Rd.
Fort William First Nation, ON P7J 1C1
Canada