[Michaelangelica]

Thanks Alec
I was doing alittle reseach on portable pyrolosis and came up with some intresting sites.

There is money in waste.
Directory:Waste to Energy - PESWiki

Who Knew Agricultural Waste Could Taste So Good?

New renewable energy technology unveiled at Western

London, ON - New portable technology unveiled this morning at The University of Western Ontario facilitates the production of bio-oils, which have many uses in the development of pharmaceuticals, alternative fuels and even cooking.
. . .
"Agricultural wastes are typically seasonal and spread over large areas; consequently, stationary processing plants may not be economically viable," says Berruti. "Agri-Therm's mobile technology offers an innovative solution for the efficient transformation of a wide variety of waste materials into valuable green chemicals or carbon dioxide-neutral renewable energy."

(Soory lost URL. Bit about it here
20005 UWO Research

Mobile pyrolysis plant converts poultry litter into bio-oil
A team of researchers from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech are developing transportable pyrolysis units that will convert poultry litter into bio-oil, providing an economical disposal system while reducing environmental effects and biosecurity issues
. . .
More than 5.6 million tons of poultry litter are produced each year in the United States. The litter consists of a mixture of bedding, manure, feathers, and spilled feed. According to Agblevor, current disposal methods, such as land application and feeding to cattle, are under pressure because of pollution of water resources due to leaching and runoff and concern about mad cow disease contamination in the food chain. There are also concerns that poultry litter can harbor such diseases as avian influenza
. . .
According to Agblevor, bio-oil yields ranged from 30 to 50 percent by weight, depending on the age and the bedding content of the litter. Bedding material that was mostly hardwood shavings yielded bio-oil as high as 62 percent by weight:

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa

Turning forest slash into cash
"It doesn't take long before the cost of trucking exceeds the value of the biomass," says Fransham, who decided to take a different approach to the problem. "We take the machine to the biomass."

Advanced Biorefinery has designed a transportable plant with six 20-foot-long modules that are easy to transport and can be assembled on-site within a week. By converting slash into a liquid seven times denser, transportation becomes economical.

Checkmate Public Affairs - Bioproducts - Turning forest slash into cash
A bit pricy for the backyard operator at $700,000(?)

Agri-Therm, a Canadian company, has developed a machine of particular interest for farmers and foresters, both in the industrial and developing world.
Their mobile pyrolysis machine can be used to process agricultural and forestry waste products, with minimal CO2 emissions, into three constituent elements: gas, bio-oil, and solid residue.
Bio-oil can be used as a fuel in tractors, automobiles, and any other combustion based machinery,

Agroblogger » Blog Archive » Pyrolysis

Ethanol Producer Magazine

Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
This site has a small diagram of a portable unit.
It looks like it could be hooked onto the family car?

[Michaelangelica]

Twenty-seventh Annual International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies (IT3) May 12-16, 2008, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
The Conference is organized by the Air & Waste Management Association Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA),
Twenty-seventh Annual International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies (IT3) May 12-16, 2008, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada HOTEL OMNI ROYAL, conference Web site at IT3 Home

http://secure.awma.org/events/it3/im...nalProgram.pdf

[Michaelangelica]

This is what we need.
something that could be taken from farm to farm by a contractor?

This blog had talked turkey about converting poultry litter into electricity. Los Angeles Treehugger Jeremy Elton Jacquot provides a report on transportable pyrolysis units that convert poultry droppings into bio-oil.

After Gutenberg Farmers, Gitmo Guano Oil

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting article not sure where to put it
Sam Carana: Agrichar

[Michaelangelica]

Adriana Downie talks about Best Energies pyrolysis gasifier and making bio char (Terra Preta)
Tue, 2008-06-03 11:20 — admin
This morning on Beyond Zero we are interviewing Adriana Downey, Technical Manger at Best Energies. Her company is involved in pyrolysis, synthesis gas and biomass waste management. These provide benefits such as reduced waste, cleaner energy, improved soil quality and carbon sequestration; potentially music to our ears here at Beyond Zero.

Listen to Podcast Scott Bilby: This morning on Beyond Zero we are interviewing Adriana Downey, Technical Manger at Best Energies. Her company is involved in pyrolysis, synthesis gas and biomass waste management. These provide benefits such as reduced waste, cleaner energy, improved soil quality and carbon sequestration; potentially music to our ears here at Beyond Zero.

Adriana Downie talks about Best Energies pyrolysis gasifier and making bio char (Terra Preta) | Zero Emissions Climate Change Global Warming Solution
Note she sidesteps the char water retention question.
ie Char is not 'water holding crystals/product' by themselves??

Scott Bilby: Are you improving water retention?

Adriana Downie: The agrichar when it's applied to the soil has a good effect on the general physical structure of the soil.
Because the agrichar has a really high surface area, it means that there's lots of pores in the soil which can then retain moisture and act as little reservoirs for the water to be retained in the soil.
As well as this, all of the surface area helps to bind nutrients in the soil and also provides a microhabitat for micro organisms in the soil which are essential for the natural processes in the soil which allow micro organisms to flourish. .

[Eclipse Now]

Hi,
these 3 sites refer to nitrogen in the mix... cooked in 'inert gases'. My fear is that nitrogen must take a fair bit of energy to remove from the atmosphere and that this would affect the overall ERoEI of the energy system.

Formation of NH3 and HCN in slow-heating-rate inert pyrolysis of peat, coal and bark
Search Results
1998 Fire Publications - Critical Mass Pyrolysis Rates for Extinction in Fires Over Solid Materials.


This site talks about the RISKS of Biochar if we get a bit too carried away and try cutting down more forests to supply ever more agricultural zones to feed our furnaces. Biochar seems to be a great tool, like fire, but of course all tools can be misused.
eGov monitor - A Policy Dialogue Platform | Promoting Better Governance

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Eclipse Now

Hi,
these 3 sites refer to nitrogen in the mix... cooked in 'inert gases'. My fear is that nitrogen must take a fair bit of energy to remove from the atmosphere and that this would affect the overall ERoEI of the energy system.

Formation of NH3 and HCN in slow-heating-rate inert pyrolysis of peat, coal and bark
Search Results
1998 Fire Publications - Critical Mass Pyrolysis Rates for Extinction in Fires Over Solid Materials.


This site talks about the RISKS of Biochar if we get a bit too carried away and try cutting down more forests to supply ever more agricultural zones to feed our furnaces. Biochar seems to be a great tool, like fire, but of course all tools can be misused.
eGov monitor - A Policy Dialogue Platform | Promoting Better Governance

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI), which is organising the conference, promotes the idea that disastrous climate change can be prevented of we use enormous amounts of biomass for bioenergy, obtain
charcoal as a byproduct and use that charcoal as a fertilizer.

Well I got to par 2 of last article

promotes the idea that disastrous climate change can be prevented of we use enormous amounts of biomass for bioenergy, obtain
charcoal as a byproduct and use that charcoal as a fertilizer. They claim this is a "carbon negative" process, and that the charcoal improves soil fertility and carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, their claims are

No one is making these claims.
There are vast amounts of municipal, agricultural, industrial, household and other wastes that can be turned into char and produce free energy as well Far before before we cut down the first tree. If we get that far it will be a miracle and hopefully by then we will all be painting our homes with photosynthesising-solar-energy-producing-paint and have vast Algae farms producing bio-oil, and biomass Vertically so as not to use valuable food-producing or tree-producing land.
The BEST Energies Australian pilot plant can handle paper mill waste with up to 70% water!!!!
At that level you would be unlikely to get any free electricity maybe a little bio-oil if you were lucky.. A far better use of it that present where it is put in methane producing, increasingly scarce and environmentally sensitive landfill sites.
Terra preta will help slow global warming. It won't stop it. Not unless it was adopted world wide on an unprecedented scale. I think that is unlikely as the number of framers using it so far I can count with my fingers.

unfounded and they fail to account for the fact that vast areas of land would have to be turned over to monoculture plantations to produce enough biomass.

Yes,you would have to grow huge plantations of biomass specifically for charcoal production to STOP global warming.
Remember however that you are also getting up to 400% better food production, maybe saving water, certainly saving fertiliser and the polluting effects of fertiliser run-off into creeks and rivers.
The rest of the article is a rave based on the same unfounded assumption
Clever to find BEST's website though, I never have.

I am not really qualified to address the nitrogen thing
I suggest you talk to Dr Stephen Joseph or Adriana Downie at BEST Energies in Somersby Australia.

[Michaelangelica]

Journal Blog Archive Biochar and Terra Preta

[Michaelangelica]

Journal Blog Archive Biochar and Terra Preta

FOUND!
BEST Energies website
http://www.bestenergies.com/companie...pyrolysis.html

[Michaelangelica]

The Case for Burying Charcoal

Research shows that pyrolysis is the most climate-friendly way to consume biomass.

Technology Review: The Case for Burying Charcoal