## 1 Introduction  
Aluminum is produced from alumina (Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\)) electrolytically using carbon anodes. Anode production in Canada is approximately 1.5 million tons per year [1]; around 0.44 tons of carbon is consumed and approximately 2 tons of CO\({}_{2}\) (equivalent) is generated per ton of aluminum [1, 2]. It is desired that anodes have high density, low electrical resistivity, and low air and CO\({}_{2}\) reactivities. They should also have good mechanical properties [3], which are important since anodes have to withstand different manipulations while they are placed in and removed from the baking furnace and the electrolysis cell. High-density anodes contain more carbon available for aluminum production. They also have lower porosity so that air and CO\({}_{2}\) cannot penetrate easily into the interior of the anode and react with carbon. High-density anodes have lower electrical resistivity, which decreases the energy consumption due to the Joule effect. Thus, the utilization of good-quality anodes decreases the cost, emission of GHGs, and power and carbon consumption, hence, increasing aluminum production. The quality of the raw materials and the operating parameters of the different processes (mixing, compacting, cooling, and baking) used during the production of anodes influence the anodes' properties [4]. A carbon anode is composed mainly of petroleum coke and coal tar pitch [5]. Unfortunately, the quality of these raw materials is continuously deteriorating [6]. Along with the aluminum industry, the forest industry is considered one of the most important industries in Quebec and in Canada. Canada has 9% of the world's forests [7] and is ranked first in pulp and paper production. However, their use has declined significantly due to the advances in digital media [8]. As a result, the forest industry wants to diversify its activities by emphasizing the development of new and innovative products. The utilization of biocoke, produced via the pyrolysis of wood residue, to replace a part of petroleum coke, which is one of the major raw materials needed in anode production, could be a great opportunity for the wood industry. It is inexpensive, sulfur-free, renewable, abundant, and freely available [9]. During anode production, biocoke also produces CO\({}_{2}\), just like petroleum coke. However, wood is a renewable material. The CO\({}_{2}\) produced during biocoke production does not contribute to GHG emissions because a similar amount of CO\({}_{2}\) is used by trees during photosynthesis to produce O\({}_{2}\). Thus, the partial replacement of petroleum coke with biocoke would potentially reduce the GHG emitted during carbon anode production [10]. Since biocoke is not wetted well by pitch, it does not enter into the pores of biocoke, which is highly porous. This significantly decreases the density of an anode. Consequently, the addition of biocoke deteriorates the properties of an anode as reported in the literature [9; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16]. It was suggested that only a part of the fine fraction of coke should be replaced by biocoke, since the effect of the porosity is much less for this fraction. In addition, during the calcination of biocoke, the number of heteroatom-rich functional groups (i.e., C-N/C-O/C-S, C-O/CSO\({}_{2}\), and COOH) present on the biocoke surface decreases [9]. The heteroatoms facilitate the interactions of coke/biocoke with pitch. Therefore, the decrease in heteroatoms decreases the interactions of biocoke with pitch [11]. Earlier, our carbon research group at UQAC (Research Chair on Industrial Materials (CHIMI)) modified petroleum coke using additives to improve the weak interaction of calcined biocoke with pitch [17]. The results showed that two of the six additives used enriched the surface of coke and, thus, improved the interaction of coke with pitch. In addition, there were a number of attempts to modify the biocoke as reported in the literature. [PERSON] et al. [15] reported that good-quality anodes were produced with acid-treated biocoke.