[Terrapreta] Fwd: pyro-7 for field production of charcoal

[Gerald Van Koeverden]

Sean,
>
> I see that you don't think that the pyrolysis device needs to be  
> transportable while carbonising in the field.  But it would offer  
> an incredible edge in time and money, that I don't think we could  
> afford to pass up, if it was possible.  It would produce char at a  
> fraction of the cost of a stationary unit - mobile or not.   It's  
> not the distance from the field to unit that is the kicker, but the  
> difference in the number of farm operations required.
>
> Just do a quick time and cost study on the difference:  ...a  
> transportable pyrolysis unit eliminates the densification/baling  
> operation, picking up and storing those bales of crop residues,  
> picking up those bales again and opening them up for chopping,  
> storing the charcoal (remember its pyrogenic) and then loading it  
> onto a spreader and then spreading it.
>
> Such a unit might be too expensive for one farmer, but it could be  
> co-operatively or custom-operated to serve several farmers, if  
> biochar became popular.
>
> Gerrit
>
>
> On 17-Sep-07, at 3:05 PM, Sean K. Barry wrote:
>
>> Hi Gerrit,
>>
>> I agree with your assessment that the transportation costs of  
>> biomass feedstock from and charcoal back to an agricultural field  
>> is just too expensive.  It can make the whole venture of making  
>> charcoal and putting it into soil almost useless.  I think, that  
>> if the biomass comes from the same field that it is being put back  
>> onto, that it would be just stupid not to process it on that  
>> field.  Depending on the distance and the size of the loads, the  
>> emissions from the transport fuel used, may entirely offset the  
>> value of sequestering any carbon.  And, it has to raise the price  
>> of that carbon.
>>
>> Critics of this idea state that the economics of pyrolyzing all of  
>> the waste biomass from a single field are poor, because the amount  
>> of biomass in the field is too small to justify the effort, or the  
>> equipment to do it.  I think there is an assumption that the owner  
>> of the field has to own the equipment to carbonize the waste biomass.
>>
>> I have been saying this on this site for a very long time.  I  
>> believe in it so much, that I am actively designing and building  
>> pyrolysis reactors that can do this.  I do not think the device  
>> needs to be transportable "while carbonizing biomass" at the edge  
>> (or center) of a field, but I do think that a continuous process  
>> reactor can and should be transportable from site to site.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> SKB
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Gerald Van Koeverden
>> To: Terrapreta preta
>> Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 10:20 AM
>> Subject: [Terrapreta] pyro-7 for field production of charcoal
>>
>> Because of the huge transportation costs for charcoal, I keep looking
>> for ways of making charcoal directly in the field from corn stalks,
>> just as a few people on this site have claimed that the Amazonian
>> Indians must have made it.
>>
>> Pro-natura has a small-scale continuous pyrolysis unit for vegetative
>> biomass (Pyro-7).
>>
>> "http://www.pronatura.org/projects/green_charcoal_en.pdf"
>>
>>   Form their description, it seems simple enough that it could be
>> increased in size somewhat and re-designed to be mounted on a
>> platform to be pulled behind a tractor to process cornstalks as they
>> are gathered and chopped up, allowing the char produced to be spread
>> simultaneously as it is produced??
>>
>> If this could work, then it would be the cheapest way of producing
>> char for the field to promote the idea of terra preta, since both raw
>> material and char transportation costs become zero.
>>
>>
>> Gerrit
>>
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>

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