[Terrapreta] Flash carbonization

[Michael J Antal]

Hi Rob: thanks for your message.  I have just returned from a long trip and am catching up on email.

We burn all the gas effluent in a catalytic afterburner.  We have published one technical paper on this subject that is available to the public.  We have scaled up the afterburner to accomodate the effluent of our demo reactor, and this afterburner performed well in our most recent test.  It is likely that detailed information on the demo reactor's afterburner will only be made available to our licensees.

Regards, Michael. 

----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Flanagan <saffechina at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, August 18, 2007 9:40 pm
Subject: Flash carbonization
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Cc: Ankur <ankur at ankurscientific.com>, "Michael J. Antal, Jr." <mantal at hawaii.edu>, naomi luckett <naomiluckett at gmail.com>

> Hi all,
> 
> I've just had the chance to go back over some mails and I see we 
> have some
> new members so I'll do my best to pass on what I know.
> 
> A few weeks ago I posted this regarding charcoal production from green
> waste,
> 
> "Regarding pyrolysis, the only reactor that make sense for green 
> feedstockto achieve high char yields in the shortest time with low 
> energy inputs is
> the "Flash Carbonizer"". Finding a way to deal with the high 
> volume of wet
> tar rich gas is the only downside.
> 
> The key question regarding good char and bad char is, what is the 
> microbialresponse to different char and does that response 
> dramatically change when
> the char is produce at different temperatures? If we're looking 
> for long
> term carbon storage in the soil then the biological response 
> should be one
> of the key areas of research."
> 
> Now I see that Ron has already asked Michael how he deals with the 
> offgas so
> I'd be very interested in reading the response. One thing that 
> comes to mind
> is the ability to flash off different compounds by using pressure 
> reliefvalves in series as he's running at 145psi. Some of the 
> compounds could help
> seed germination http://asgap.org.au/APOL2/jun96-6.html and 
> Christoph has
> just published one paper on the microbial response to charcoal 
> when vinegar
> (liquid smoke) was added.
> Regarding the list of companies that produce charcoal reactors I 
> think a
> good place to start is the setting up of some basic criteria ie. 
> Commercialapplications? Charcoal applications (field & pot 
> trials), some base data to
> show if their char is better than char made from the same biomass. 
> Regardingthe Ankur gasifier, I've been in contact with them and 
> they can modify their
> gasifier to get about 15% charcoal. I've also encouraged them to 
> do a
> biochar trial to show the
> effect of the biochar produced. My fear is if we don't start with 
> some basic
> criteria then every Tom Dick and Harriette will be trying to jump 
> on the
> band wagon as expressed by Mark Glover at the IAI conference this 
> year. I
> know the guys at BEST have done quite a lot of work in char 
> specification so
> maybe some one there could give us some guidelines? As for commercial
> applications maybe we set the bench mark at three now that Dr 
> Antal has met
> this criteria?
> 
> Just an observation, from my view (Technician) we really need to 
> focus on
> data collection at this point and maybe not worry so much about 
> equipment(horse before the cart). The variables as I see them are 
> feedstock's(Forest, agriculture and animal waste) then processor 
> (pyrolysis,gasification & flash carbonization) then temperature. 
> Now moisture content
> should help determine what feedstock is best suited to what 
> reactor. The big
> variable that as yet remains unanswered is that is the most suitable
> temperature and what with the effect be when the same temperature 
> char is
> used in soil of different pH? I've heard it all, high temp "V" low 
> temp and
> the most credible information I've received to date is from Robert 
> Hill that
> feedstock appeared to have more on an impact on microbial response 
> thentemperature but he did note that char make from the flash 
> carbonizerappeared to have an extremely beneficial response. On my 
> own field trials
> I've stuck with 500C and on this years rice hull char I'm getting a
> very positive response. Dr Zhong's student will collect all data 
> from this
> trial and when he processes it I'll pass it on. We need a more 
> practicalguide for people to follow "Biochar manual" and at this 
> point I don't think
> it has to be based on strictly published data. Note a technician 
> never looks
> for the name of the guy that wrote the training manual, so at this 
> pointeven if you just set up a few pots with and with out char and 
> show us the
> results you'll be doing your part for the "Biochar training manual"
> 
> 
> I hope this is of some help,
> 
> Rob.
> 
> -- 
> Robert Flanagan
> Chairman & President
> Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.
> 
> Tel:   86-571-881-850-67
> Cell:  86-130-189-959-57
>