[Terrapreta] Farm Produced Biochar

[Richard Haard]

On Aug 14, 2007, at 4:19 PM, Gerald Van Koeverden wrote:
> I agree whole-heartedly with Tom.  The idea of the average wheat,
> corn or soybean farmer getting into this, is highly doubtful at the
> economic level.
>
> At this point, the potential interested clients would be either:
>
> a) City gardeners with small plots.  For many of them, economics is
> nothing.  They are willing to spend the time and money to get a
> bigger tomato than their neighbours.
>
> b) Market gardeners with high-priced vegetables.  They do need to
> 'see' the economics, but having very expensive land close to town,
> they would more receptive to considering the comparative costs of
> increasing yields through improving the soil quality with char versus
> the cost of buying more land.
>
> Gerrit



Good comment Gerrit - here is my own addendum

My question is at what point in escalating energy value would having  
such a system an easy economic decision.

Tom

Yours is a system engineering look at such a unit but as a subsystem  
of a future cast scenario the bookkeeping would be significantly  
different. It would be nice to engage a architect on a green mission  
or Swedish ecologist/planner Folke Gunther

http://www.holon.se/folke/kurs/logexp/logexp_en.shtml

for input on integrating biomass gasification, biochar as soil  
conditioner, water purification, remote energy/process needs.  
Actually I have had some conversations with Folke and put forth a 3  
pager to local developers and A&E community for an opinion on the  
idea of an energy sufficient community with food and manufacturing  
capability and this reason why I hang out here and at gasification,  
and biomass listserves.

Science fiction at the moment but my own survivalist scenario which  
we have at 4CN major elements already in play.

Here is a pyrolyser system that would serve a small scale interest  
such as mine. Our energy source is coppiced willow as a byproduct of  
a yet hypothetical 30 acre continuous cropping system within 2 miles  
of our present location. We are actually planning to bring this  
aspect of our farm up to this scale in a few years. The willow cash  
value would return operating cost and harvest labor and technology  
would be simple, ie a rebuilt 50's era dual fuel tractor fitted with  
charcoal/gasifier, perhaps. Which was my tractor 15 years ago while  
creating this farm and is now waiting overhaul.

Labor costs in such a model community can easily be discounted  
because this pool of labor would be essentially communal with live in  
residents for our self sufficient farm. Much like a 300 acre farm I  
have been studying for 3 years along Hwy 12 that is luckily for them  
situated alongside a sewage treatment plant and is using treated,  
nitrogen rich wastewater for irrigating crop for a captive (contract)  
market of herbaceous ornamentals.

If and when we move to another energy paradigm then the captive  
market in a urbanized place would be food and fiber production.

With carefully allotted hydroelectric power an we have here in the  
PNW base power costs could be kept at reasonable levels but product  
refigeration and pumping costs would be excessive. It seems then  
there would be need for intermittent sources of power above base  
load. Perhaps instead again intermittent and peak power for  
processing in small scale manufacturing. Power generation of course  
is another infrastructure investment but that tractor could serve  
such a multipurpose role with pto utilized power.


On Aug 14, 2007, at 2:13 PM, Tom Miles wrote:

> http://www.vidir.biz/index-biomass.htm Vidir's smallest system  
> consumes 500
> lb/hr (3 Million Btuh) of wheat straw. If built as a pyrolyzer it  
> would
> produce 100 lb charcoal and 1-2 million Btuh heat. The system cost is
> $200,000. Annual operating cost with straw at $10/bale is estimated at
> $16,000. Labor is figured at 3 hours per day $15/hr. Economics are  
> based on
> 6 months operating time (in Manitoba) or 375 tonnes (752 x 500 kg
> bales/year). At 20% yield that would produce 82 tons (75 tonnes) of  
> charcoal
> which could treat about 12 acres (at 7 tons/acre). In four years  
> you would
> produce enough charcoal for a 40 acre farm. At $200/ton the  
> charcoal would
> be worth about $16,400/year whch would just offset the operating  
> costs but
> not capital. If you had a use for the heat (2 million btuh x 70% to  
> hot
> water = 1.4 MMBtuh, 33.6 MMBtu/day) in 30 days you would recover  
> more than
> $12,800 additional revenue to help pay for the plant. In six months  
> you
> would recover $16,400 in charcoal value and $76,800 in heat  
> savings. So the
> payback could be 4 years with heat recovery.