[Terrapreta] Charcoal in Compost? 4USA?

[Sean K. BArry]

Hi Tom, Bernie,

How much biomass waste is transported to and received at a municipal compost site?  Could the biomass be processed into charcoal on site, in the place where it grew, and tilled in to that soil?  The $200/ton cost for charcoal from "free" biomass waste should not cost that because of the transportation fees of either the feedstock, nor the product distribution.  Processing plants will need to be many and mobile.  Preferably, the whole biomass gasifier/pyrolysis reactor/charcoal kiln system will be transportable on, and run entirely on biomass based fuels and energy.  The Germans and these Swedish Drs. Fischer & Tropsch had transportable wood to fuel systems, that made liquid transport fuel from biomass on site.

Small, efficient, transportable systems will be far less expensive than large processing plants, or heavy tpd compost processing lots.  Capacities will be small # of tons per acre-day or small kilotons per acre-year.  A system like this will process biomass and deliver the product without the cost of transport of either.  Right now, the most reliable source of biomass is distributed everywhere.  Transport of it would be the primary cost of acquiring most of the waste biomass for a large processing plant.  Transport  to any application site & application of the product will be most of the cost (fuel costs) of delivering any charcoal product made in a large, centralized, biomass processing plant.  One of the presumed "best" places to apply charcoal is agricultural soil, to partake of the "Terra Preta" phenomenon to improve the ability of the soil to hold its fertility and promote the growth of plants (including valuable agricultural food and energy crops).  There is agricultural waste on most acres of agricultural land every year, for a time.

Application of the charcoal made from plants and into the soil they came from is easy.  The ancient Amazonians were not likely transporting biomass or much charcoal.  At least not large amounts very far.  Pyrolysis was done on the spot, in the land intended to be used for crops.  It is obvious that conversion of biomass to charcoal, for use in soil, is done on the soil, with the standing biomass whenever possible.  It certainly should be a less energy intensive and subsequently less expensive methodology, than large centralized biomass to charcoal processing plants.

It should be noted that the energy inputs required for processing biomass into charcoal, are most likely only just met by the producer gas BTU content and waste heat.  There is likely not enough energy to transport the biomass around a lot or over long distances.  The tractor fuel gathering waste biomass in a field may also not be supplied by enough fuels produced in the pyrolysis reaction.  Wood chippers run on liquid fuels.  When biomass is pyrolyzed to obtain a higher yield of charcoal, then there is less "producer gas" and less bio-oil released, so less to be extracted from the reaction.  It will be harder to make a biomass processing system energy efficient, when transport costs are involved.

Regards,

SKB


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Miles<mailto:tmiles at trmiles.com> 
  To: 'Bernie Lenhoff'<mailto:bernie at greenwasterecycleyard.com> ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 6:40 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal in Compost? 4USA?


  Bernie,

   

  California has had pyrolysis demonstrations in the past but none of them has demonstrated using char in agriculture. What would it take to demonstrate to landscapers and nurseries in your area that char would be useful to them? The nursery next door making saving money or getting better production by using char? Where do we start this process?

   

  One 50 dry tpd plant would produce about 10-15 tpd char plus oil and waste gas. Gas from the process would be  used to make the oil and char. 

   

  A char product could go out as 10%-20% in blended planting mix products or as char to agricultural applications. At concentrations of 2-4 ton/acre a day's production would cover 2.5-7.5 acres; 625-1875 acres per year.   

   

  Delivered planting mix products are about $200-$250/200 ft3 unit around here. Pick $200/ton as a price and you have a gross char sales of $2,000-$3,000 per day; $40,000-$60,000 per month. Char production would be 2500-3000 tons per year. 

   

  It sounds like as a biomass producer you'd rather sell to a char and oil processor rather than produce the char yourself. How do we get the guy next door to build a charcoal plant? 

   

  Regards,

   

  Tom

   

   

   

   

  From: Bernie Lenhoff [mailto:bernie at greenwasterecycleyard.com] 
  Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 3:08 PM
  To: Tom Miles; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
  Subject: RE: [Terrapreta] Charcoal in Compost? 4USA?

   

  Hi Tom,

   

  I'll refer you to the Advanced BioRefinery web page for their descriptions of their plants:

   

  http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/oneton.html<http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/oneton.html>

  http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/50ton.html<http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/50ton.html>

   

  Our yard could probably utilize their 100 ton unit (which is essentially a double 50-ton). But I wouldn't take us as necessarily representative, since we aren't yet diverting a large percentage of the total local green waste volume. Any substantial municipality processes more woody biomass than we do, I'm guessing 100s of tons daily.

   

  We certainly would entertain the possibility of being a producer. Theoretically, the biofuel could also produce power for other parts of our operations, including the wood mill. The promise of such a closed system is enticing.

   

  Realistically, however, at this point it would make more sense for us to supply the biomass to a separate plant (if one existed), because of the investment involved (in cost, permitting, etc.). We currently send some of our biomass to cogen plants. If we had a pyrolysis alternative, it would certainly seem preferable.

   

  Bernie

   


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Tom Miles
  Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 2:48 PM
  To: Bernie Lenhoff; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal in Compost? 4USA?

  Bernie,

   

  What is a "1-ton" plant? Is that 1 ton of biomass per day , i.e. 400 lb char per day?

   

  What size of charcoal processing system, in tons of waste wood/day, would be suitable at a recycling yard like the ones you operate? 200 tpd?

   

  Do you see charcoal products being produced at an operation like yours or in a separate plant? 

   

  Would you 

   

  Thanks

  Tom Miles

   

   

   

   

  A demonstration 1-ton plant is about $60k, with their commercial and higher capacity plants being far more expensive. A good current strategy might be to encourage Waste Management authorities to put together government/business/nonprofit/academic partners to set up demo plants with associated research projects using the biochar and biofuel products created.

   

  Bernie Lenhoff

  Business Manager

  Bernie at GreenWasteRecycleYard.com

    

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