Carbonization

A charcoal production plant that also generates heat and electricity from the by-product gas
Biofuel Energy Sustems, Sustainable Energy Ltd., UK, 2004

In 2004 Biofuel Energy Systems Ltd. developed a plant for charcoal production, which uses the gases given off during production to drive a gas turbine, generating heat and electricity. The electricity generated can be used on site (especially useful in remote areas with no electrical grid connection) or sold back to the grid for additional profit.

Conventional charcoal production is very inefficient and wastes half of the energy within the wood. Biofuel Energy Systems' unique plant, however, uses 90% of the wood's energy and uses a totally clean, emission-free process. See the diagram on the Biofuel Energy Systems website that shows the steps involved in simplified terms. This represents a huge advancement in the efficiency and cleanliness of charcoal production.

The gasifier can supply the sensible heat for initiating pyrolysis. This is done by gasifying waste vegetable oil (low ash to interfere down stream) and using the high pressure exhaust from this to recirculate hot gas through wood. The gasifier products and pyrolysis offgas are then fed to the combustion chamber of a small (40kW) gas turbine.

The plant is suitable for both large and small-scale charcoal production as the design can be scaled up or down according to requirements. The amount of charcoal production could range from 200 to 4,000 tonnes per annum and the electrical output of the plant could range from 50kW to 1MW, depending on the size of the plant.

To find out more see the Biofuel Energy Systems website. http://www.biofuelenergysystems.co.uk/index.htm

Carbonized Rice Hull
Courtesy www.Biochars.com, September 28,2008

Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)Rice Technology Bulletin, No. 47, 2005

PhilRice Open Type

Production and use of a soil amendment made by the combined production of hydrogen, sequestered carbon and utilizing off gases containing carbon dioxide
United States Patent 20040111968
Day, Danny Marshal (Atlanta, GA, US)
Lee, James Weifu (Knoxville, TN, US)
06/17/2004

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates to the production and use of a nitrogen enriched carbon based fertilizer and soil amendment made during the pyrolytic conversion of carbonaceous materials which produce charcoal and the reaction of said charcoal with ammonia, carbon dioxide, water and other components generally found in flue gas emissions. The invention also relates to the optimization of that charcoal with mineral and plant nutrients to produce and use the combined materials as a soil amendment and fertilizer. The invention also relates to the use of the material as a way to economically store carbon and captured greenhouse gases in the soil.

Empty Planting Trays on Rack

Fine Wet Processed Charcoal Settling in Flask

Bamboo Feedstock

Softwood Chip Feedstock

Charcoal Production in Woodgas Stoves

Charcoal Grades

Char Measurement

Amended Pots Prior to Mixing

Pots Mixed and Seeds Sown

 First Watering: 8/11/08

Growth After 9 Days

Wheat and Peas Seperated to Avoid Shading

Some design features below:
Exploring interaction effects of feedstock type, soil, char application
rate, crop species, char size, fertilization, and mycorrhizal fungi.
No repetition (n=1), this loses the ability to assign a statistical
significance level to results, but allows more interactions (96 unique
combinations, 96 pots) to be tried given limited resources.

Charcoal produced in WoodGas stoves.
Char yield 12-18% (char mass/air dry biomass mass) (ie not adjusted to conventional dry weight yield unit, yet).
Fine Char - Blended and sieved to 230 mesh (<63 micron).
Coarse Char - Blended and sieved to between ~24 mesh - 8 mesh.
Fertilizer - 4-4-4 NPK Organic (bone meal, feather meal...)
Potting Soil - Potting Mix
Sandy Soil - Mixture of Horticultural Sand and Sandy Loam from Central Valley

Pots arranged in random spatial order (to randomize light/watering variation). Trays rotated to limit effects of light/watering variation.
Automatic drip emitter watering. Pots grown in enclosed cage outdoors.

Blocks - ( 8 pots/block)
    Fertilizer {Yes,No}
    Plant {Wheat, Pea}
    Soil {Sandy, Potting}

Blocks - (12 blocks * 8 pots/block = 96 pots)
    B1 -    Char (0 g)
    B2 -    Char (1 g, Pine, Fine)
    B3 -    Char (1 g, Pine, Coarse)
    B4 -    Char (1 g, Bamboo, Fine)
    B5 -    Char (1 g, Bamboo, Coarse)
    B6 -    Char (5 g, Pine, Fine)
    B7 -    Char (5 g, Pine, Coarse)
    B8 -    Char (5 g, Bamboo, Fine)
    B9 -    Char (5 g, Bamboo, Coarse)
    B10 -   Char (0 g) + Mycorrhizae
    B11 -   Char (5 g, Pine, Coarse) + Mycorrhizae
    B12 -   Char (10 g, Pine, Coarse)
 

Torrefaction: Picture - Machine #2 - 8/14/08
Joseph J. James, Agri-Tech Producers, LLC, August 15, 2008

Agri-tech Machine #2

Colleagues:

As most of you know, we are commercializing a unique form of torrefaction technology, developed by NC State University (NCSU). This process will densify, add value to, improve the characteristics of woody biomass, making it a much better feedstock for which to co-fire with coal, make superior pellets and briquettes and to use in gasifier operations. It also allows treated biomass to be shipped more economically and for greater distances.

Here's a picture of the 2nd-generation torrefaction machine. It is now operational and we are scheduling visits for a very limited number of additional individuals, on Friday, August 29th. Let me know if you wish to visit. Our horizon for having commercial units available is now sooner, rather than later, thanks to the hard work of our NCSU team and our strategic partners.

Regards,

JJJ

Joseph J. James
President
Agri-Tech Producers, LLC
116 Wildewood Club Court
Columbia, South Carolina 29223
Phone: (803) 462-0153
Cell: (803) 413-6801
Fax: (803) 462-9676
E-Mail:josephjjames@bellsouth.net

A handy kiln for making charcoal from urban leaf litter
Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), Pune, India www.arti-india.org

Single Barrel Charcoal Kiln

I can tell you how to make char out of your burnable organic waste. The simplest device is a top-lit updraft kiln. It consists of a vertical cylinder, having relatively small holes near its base for primary air. You fill the cylindrical body of the kiln with the material to be charred and then light it from the top. Once the fire gets going, you place a lid on the cylinder. There is a chimney built into the lid. The lid does not sit flush on the kiln, but there is a gap between the lid and the kiln. The draft created by the chimney sucks secondary air into the chimney, where it gets mixed with the pyrolysis gas to burn it. The biomass burns downwards, leaving a layer of charcoal on top. As the primary air comes upwards, it meets the burning front which traverses downwards. The burning biomass utilises all the oxygen in the primary air, so that the air going up through the layer of char has only carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and the pyrolysis gas left in it. As there is no oxygen left in the updraft air, it cannot burn the char that has formed above the burning biomass.The pyrolysis gas and carbon monoxide burn in the chimney, because of the secondary air that is sucked in through the gap between the chimney and the kiln. You have to find out by trial and error, how long it takes to char the material loaded in the kiln. After that much time is over, you remove the lid, and extinguish the fire by sprinkling water over the burning material.

This particular device is portable and manually operated. There are larger charring kilns, based on the oven and retort process. Prof. Yuri Yudkevich, a Russian scientist, has made them for charring useless material generated by the timber industry in Russia.

We are already using both types of kilns under field conditions in India for charring agricultural waste as also urban waste.

We have a video CD that describes the kilns and you can fabricate them by watching the video CD. Our web site www.arti-india.org would show you how to get our CDs by paying us through Pay Pal.

Yours
A.D.Karve

See also:
Briquetted Charcoal from Sugarcane Trash

Chaotech Pty Ltd.
Rex Manderson [rexm@chaotech.com.au], Australia, July 2008

BiogasWorks Pilot

This site www.biogasworks.com is the portal for the carbon cycle activities of Chaotech Pty Ltd.

Our slow carbonization pilot plant is now rated 40 to 60kg charcoal per hour for lightweight feed such as sawdust. The specification particle size limit is 8mm largest dimension. Process simulations have produced a yield of ~40% char on a dry mass basis with ~80% total carbon content in the char.

See: Biogas works

I was surprised that there were no how to's for charcoal productions without the need for kilns, drums etc, so thought this might be of interest to some as a trial technique. It is not very efficient by way of volume of charcoal to volume of biomass to start, but can be useful if you have quantities of garden waste such as prunings, bark, leaves etc. This type of stuff normally goes into green waste, or needs chipping to compost or use as mulch as it is too big for compost bin.

This is a process I have used which requires only an open fire or fire pit, shovel or rake and water (hose or steel buckets with water). It is a minor modification of the techniques used when cooking using the camp oven - which only uses coals instead of flame. Instead of transferring the coals to the oven pit, they are wetted down to stop burning, and create charcoal.

Basic technique is the same as if you want to make a fire for a barbeque, or camp fire. To avoid smoke use only dry fuel. In this example we had large quantities of prunings, small branches, dry leaves, bark etc. which needed to be removed before fire season. Most fuel was 5-20mm diameter. Got good results with quantities of bark and dried leaves in another burn.

Start with a small fire, and constantly add fuel - trying to keep the fire relatively small without too much flame. Once the initial fuel burns, either add more fuel or let it die down to a small pile with coals, often covered with a layer of ash. Once the fire stops producing smoke, or flame, it is pretty much ready. See photo below.

Camp fire

This is fairly advanced into the fire, showing more fuel added to fire. Below is pretty much at the end of burning all available fuel.

Ready to remove coals

Once all the fuel has burnt, it is now a bit cooler and easier to remove the coals to damp them down, or just wet the entire fire down with hose - thoroughly soak the fire, raking to ensure you have wet it all down. The photo below left is the fire cone opened up to remove coals. In this case I did not have a hose nearby, but steel drums full of water I shovelled coals into. The drums are handy for this as they can then be used to carry the charcoal to the garden area - and charcoal can be crushed in the tin.

Removing coals

A bucket full of charcoal

Ready to use

This shows a shovel full of charcoal after wetting down. I then drain the bucket or transfer from wetted fire pit to bucket, and can be crushed and used straight away. Using garden prunings rather than large branches results in smaller charcoal to start with, and easier to crush. In this case, I got around 200 litres volume of charcoal.

As yet I have not planted anything into the vegie garden beds with the charcoal added, but will now be retaining all green waste to make biochar.

Casmance Kiln

Benjamin Domingo, Argentian, April 29, 2008

Simple charcoal kiln
Folke Gunther, April 24, 2008

A wonderfully simple method for making charcoal at home or on the allotment.

"http://picasaweb.google.se/folkeg/TheSimplestOfTheSimple

--

There is a wide demand for charcoal kilns to be used by anybody having an allotment or garden sized plot. The idea of making char of surplus biomass instead of firing it is widely spread in Latin America (and Japan?). Burning the pyrolysis gasses instead of emitting them makes the method comparatively safe, although not efficient regarding their potential utilisation of gasses.

I agree that his is a very small scale method, bu imagine 2 billion people having it, making 1 kg char a week for their lots. That would imply about 0.1 Gt annually, or 5% of what would be necessary to sequester for making a change.

Naturally, this is not the method to save the world from entering a tipping point, but it could well be of some help.

Besides, making 50 kg of char annually, would certainly make a change for the production form a normal sized allotment, certainly so if you go on for several years.

I don't agree that using barrels for making char automatically would imply methane emissions. That must certainly be a consideration depending of the charring method, not the material used.

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Folke Günther
Kollegievägen 19
224 73 Lund
Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)46 141429
Cell: +46 (0)709 710306
URL: http://www.holon.se/folke
BLOG: http://folkegunther.blogspot.com/