Built from the Forest
Conversations with Forest Business Accelerator Entrepreneurs
Built from the Forest highlights founders who have participated in the Forest Business Accelerator and are building businesses rooted in the future of the forest economy. These entrepreneurs are transforming forest-based materials into high value products, technologies, and solutions that strengthen regional supply chains and expand sustainable manufacturing.
This conversation features Yang Zhong, Founder and CEO of Carbion, a 2025 Forest Business Accelerator company, pioneering a new approach to graphite production using forest and agricultural biomass.
We are now accepting Forest Business Accelerator 2026 Applications. Deadline: June 5, 2026. Apply here.
Q and A with Yang Zhong, Founder and CEO, Carbion
Q: Tell us about your company – what inspired you to start it, and what problem are you solving?
A: Our company was inspired by a simple moment – while drinking coconut water. I began thinking about how natural, renewable resources like plants and trees contain incredible potential for advanced materials, yet we still rely heavily on mining and petroleum-based sources. That realization sparked the idea that the forest, just like a coconut, could be a sustainable source of valuable materials.
Graphite demand is expected to quadruple by 2040, straining global supply chains. Traditional graphite production, whether through mining or energy-intensive synthetic methods, cannot meet rising needs. Meanwhile, China currently supplies 82 percent of total graphite and 93 percent of battery-grade graphite, posing significant geopolitical risks to critical industries such as batteries, steelmaking, aerospace, and nuclear in other economies. In parallel, vast amounts of agricultural and forestry biomass, abundant and carbon-rich, are burned or landfilled – driving air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and elevated fire risks. Together, these challenges call for technologies that turn plentiful underutilized carbon sources into a resilient supply of critical materials. Carbion innovates a thermochemical platform that transforms biomass into high-quality graphite for batteries and other critical industries, faster and more affordably than traditional methods. By turning abundant, underutilized feedstocks into a domestic, cost-competitive graphite supply, Carbion advances domestic manufacturing, strengthens energy security, and accelerates a circular economy.
Q: What’s unique about your product or service, and how does it contribute to forest industry innovation or sustainability in Vermont and the Region?
A: Our product is unique because it transforms forest biomass into high-value graphite materials – without mining. Traditional graphite production relies on resource-intensive and environmentally damaging mining processes. In contrast, we use renewable forest byproducts, such as sawdust, to create sustainable graphite suitable for batteries and other advanced energy applications.
Q: What stage is your business at, and what milestones are you most proud of so far?
A: We’re moving into the pilot stage, where we’ll begin producing and selling our materials to potential partners and customers in small volumes.
Q: How has participating in the Forest Business Accelerator impacted your company or your thinking as a founder?
A: The program has given me a solid entrepreneurial foundation and truly transformed me from a scientist into an entrepreneur.
Q: What excites you most about the future of your company and the industry?
A: Graphite doesn’t have to come from the ground – it can come from the forest instead.
Learn More
Carbion website: https://carbion.xyz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carbion/
We are now accepting Forest Business Accelerator 2026 Applications. Deadline: June 5, 2026. Apply here.