[Terrapreta] Charcoal properties II

[Tom Miles]

Sean,
 
I think the integrated process that you suggest is a great project for an
individual or eco-community where motivation and low cost labor can make it
work. I'm reminded of Janice Thies post of a couple of weeks ago:
"Lastly, from my personal gardening experiences, I use spent charcoal from
the filters of the 14 aquaria I maintain for my viewing pleasure. I combine
it as about 5% of my mix with 65% peat moss, 10% vermicompost (from my worm
bin in my basement where I compost all my household kitchen waste - aged and
stabilized, not fresh!), 5-10% leaf mulch (composted on my leafy property in
NY), 5-7% perlite to increase drainage, decrease bulk density and improve
water retention and percolation, and some bone meal and blood meal (to taste
:-) ).  This makes an excellent potting mix for my indoor 'forest'.  I am
very much still playing around with this. " 

Identifying the appropriate quality of charcoal for the appropriate use is
an important step. I think there is a great deal of experience evolving on
what works and what doesn't. If we can link charcoal quality to agronomic
(terra preta) uses then we can find an appropriate means of production. In
my experience, after others have done it once, converting local agricultural
waste to a useful product usually becomes a specialized activity for
someone. For widespread use in our community we need to think down the road
to agro-industrial production.   
 
I'm not sure what industrial scale the EPRIDA process would be. A modular
charcoal plant available today in North America can produce about 20 tons
per day or one truckload. The BEST Energies (US/Australia) 2 tphr system
would produce about 15 tpd biochar and electricity. From there you drop down
to char as a byproduct of a 100 tpd bio-oil plant at 10 tpd or the Hawaii
Natural Energy Institute Demo Reactor at a similar scale. The Bioenergy LLC
kilns in Russia produce from 10 tpd down to 1 tpd. The next level is
probably the Pro-natura/Ecocarbone continuous kiln at 4 tonnes per day. The
flat kilns built in Java for carbon sequestration trials produced about 200
lbs of charcoal per day (.255 t/3 days). ARTI (Appropriate Rural Technology
Institute, Pune India) kilns produce about 50 kg charcoal from sugar cane
trash per day at 7 kg/batch (21 kg biomass). These kilns represent a wide
range of technologies suitable for a variety of situations. 
 
I don't think "rolling trucks to where is the charcoal is wanted is a
problem" in North America. Current bulk deliveries are up to 500 miles from
major plants. A truckload, at 20 tons/load and application rate of 4 ton per
acre (200 lb/1000 ft2), will cover 5 acres or about 2 hectares. Once a
nurseryman, landscaper, farmer, garder or land reclamation engineer is
satisfied about the quality of the charcoal they need and the appropriate
application they might take delivery of one or several truckloads but, like
the Four Corner Nursery) they take the risk for its use. 
 
Tom Miles
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
 
 
Links:
EPRIDA, Georgia, www.eprida.com
BEST Energies http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/bestpyrolysis.html
JFWasteEnergy, Canada, http://www.jfwasteenergysystems.com/
Ensyn Technologies, Canada, http://www.ensyn.com/
Dynamotive Technologies, Canada, http://www.dynamotive.com/
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, Hawaii, US
http://www.hnei.hawaii.edu/bio.r3.asp
Bioenergy LLC (St Petersburg, Russia)
http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/gasdoc/Yudkevitch/charcoal/index.html
Pronatura/Ecocarbone http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/pronaturachar 
Charcoal Production for Carbon Sequestration (JICA/FODOR)
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/fodorjica3 or
http://www.georgiaitp.org/carbon/PDF%20Files/Posters/AndoPoster.pdf
Appropriate Rural Technoology Insitute, Pune, India
http://tekdi.net/arti/content/view/42/40/
Learning to use wood charcoal in farming, Four Corner Nursery
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/haardcharcoal
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

  _____  

From: Sean K. Barry [mailto:sean.barry at juno.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:34 PM
To: tmiles at trmiles.com; mantal at hawaii.edu; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org;
Shengar at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal properties II


Hi All,
 
Kingsford can and does produce charcoal by the "truckload".  The cost of
rolling trucks to where the charcoal is wanted is the problem.  Michael
Antal has designed a device which can carbonize several sorts of biomass;
oak slabs, oak board, leucaena wood, coconut shells, corncob, corn stover,
macadamia nut shell, pine wood, rice hulls, etc.  I think making charcoal
with local agricultural waste sources is a better way than shipping it in,
to get more charcoal put into soil in agricultural growing areas.  I also
think even garden growers, organic growers, and turf growers would like to
have a way to "make" charcoal from the waste biomass they have available
locally, so they can control the inputs and outcomes their own way, rather
than have to truck it in to where they want to use it.  Nurseries have
biomass waste and could make charcoal and compost it themselves, rather than
have it trucked in by the tons, only to have to truck it out.  In Brazil,
'Terra Preta De Indio" is a product today, not just charcoal.
 
Maybe we should consider the whole process of making the Terra Preta onsite;
char local biomass wastes, compost the charcoal in with locally used
fertilizer regimens, grow local plants in it for a year, and till the plant
matter in, etc.  Its entirely possible that cooking grade charcoal might be
darn near poisonous to crops.  We don't want to just focus on charcoal and
then have some farmers use it widespread (by the truckload), unsuspecting,
and then have a bad result.  The whole set of mechanisms of how to make
charcoal and how to get it into the soil for the best agricultural benefit
demands much more study.  I think we need ways to change the charcoal recipe
in distributed places, used by varied researchers and people in this group,
before and instead of finding ways to get at "truckloads" of charcoal. 
 
 
Regards,
 
Sean K. Barry
Principal Engineer/Owner
Troposphere Energy, LLC
11170 142nd St. N.
Stillwater, MN 55082
(651) 351-0711 (Home/Fax)
(651) 285-0904 (Cell)
sean.barry at juno.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Shengar at aol.com 
To: tmiles at trmiles.com ; mantal at hawaii.edu ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal properties II


Hi all,
Just got this email from Thomas Beer;
 
 
 
"Truckload quantities of consistent quality wood char (before it is turned
into briquettes) is available for purchase from Kingsford. Volatiles, ash,
fixed carbon, moisture, ignition temperature all known. Let me know what you
need and I'll get your name to the right people in our organization. 

Thomas Beer
Manufacturing Technology
Clorox Services Company
3900 Kennesaw 75 Parkway, Suite 100
Kennesaw, GA   30144
770-426-2419
770-426-2428- FAX
770-364-1079- Cell "

 
 
 
Erich J. Knight 
Shenandoah Gardens
E-mail: shengar at aol.com
(540) 289-9750




  _____  

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from
AOL at
<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=ht
tp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom> AOL.com. 
_______________________________________________
Terrapreta mailing list
Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070307/c7f74e36/attachment-0001.html