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Pyrolysis


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One day I will sit down with Adriana or Stephen Joseph from BEST Energies and really sort out what pyrolysis means.

 

Google Image Result for http://www.bestenergies.com/imx/diagram/BESTpyrolysis_2tondiagram_s.gif

 

In the meantime I will post what I see on the web

 

My initial impression is that this is the way to go

  • Low CO2 etc.,
  • Low emission of pollutants;
  • Heaps of carbon (char) + sometimes with added fertiliser;
  • Flexibility in treating biomass(s);
  • Free energy!
  • Waste reduction and use of (sometime very 'wet') "wastes"
  • What else do you want?

 

:)

One of the main energy policy targets of the EU is to accelerate the use of biofuels - any fuel that is derived from biomass (plant or animal waste) in order to transit towards a low-carbon economy.

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa

 

Biomass

In addition biomass is a CO2 emissions neutral source of energy. This is due to the fact that CO2 is taken from the atmosphere and used by plants to grow. Planting trees and crops does soak up an amount of carbon dioxide but it’s limited, if these are then harvested for biomass fuels fossil fuel use is offset thus further reducing the emission of CO2. Although some CO2 is emitted when manufacturing and burning biomass fuels, it is ultimately equal to the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants used to produce this fuel (if the crops and trees are sustainably managed).

 

CCSG Project: The Influence of Nano-Confinement and Hydrogen Bonding on the Transition State of Model Lignin Compounds

(See pic)

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Converting sugar cane trash into domestic fuel

 

This kiln converts sugar cane trash to charcoal

 

Every year the sugar cane fields of Maharashtra State in India produce a staggering four and half million tonnes of leaf waste. As the cane is harvested, the farmer is left with a mass of leaves known as 'sugar cane trash'. The leaves are full of lignin and silica, so don't decompose easily and are no good as food for cows. Traditionally, the answer has been to get them out of the way by burning them.

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy | Converting sugar cane trash into domestic fuel

Google Image Result for http://www.ashdenawards.org/images/winners_02_01a.jpg

 

A mobile unit?

Google Image Result for http://www.ashdenawards.org/images/winners_02_01a.jpg

refox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

A book?

Google Image Result for http://www.biomatnet.org/secure/images/fphbvol2.jpg

 

http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/HC270799/RWEDP/images/ccmaking.jpg

 

Google

Image Result for http://www.charcoalremedies.com/newsite/images/charcoal.jpg

 

 

to adsorb cholesterol has been reviewed.

 

 

Fundamentally charcoal is just carbon. In fact most chemical engineers and manufacturers simply refer to charcoal as “carbon”. But, what makes

 

charcoal different from other carbons, like the soft graphites used in pencils or those found in hard diamonds? It has long been known that the carbon rings in graphites lie in planes and are easily shed one from another, while the structures in charcoal are more like a spherical latticework.

 

 

Also, unlike the impregnable structure of diamonds, charcoal offers access to its interior.

 

In 1985 researchers H. W. Kroto and R. E. Smalley were curious about the atmosphere of giant red stars. It was known that carbon forms cluster molecules under such conditions. Among other carbon species, they detected the carbon molecule C60 for the first time. It possessed unique physicochemical properties, extra stability, as well as some previously unexplained phenomena.

To account for these features, they proposed a geodesic-like structure, one that essentially looks like the pattern on a soccer ball. Consequently the molecule was named after Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of geodesic domes (made famous at the 1967 World's Fair). Buckminsterfullerene (fondly referred to as “Buckyballs” amongst some researchers) is the chosen name for C60, whereas the name

 

fullerene is conveniently used for this whole family of closed carbon cages. They may not be as big as giant red stars, but these microscopic cells are just begging to be filled.

 

 

 

In 1999 Eiji Osawa, and colleagues at the Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan , demonstrated that C60 can also be extracted from wood charcoal. As a result, many researchers now visualize

 

charcoal as a structure made up of fragments of these “Buckyballs”. Along with the discovery of nanotubes or “Bucky onions” there is the suggestion of new magnetic and electrical properties. It all sounds a little bit like science fiction. No doubt in time these latest models for charcoal will again be

 

 

modified. In the meantime charcoal still mystifies even the informed. Scientists marvel as they continue to ask, “How is charcoal able to…?”

 

Henry Schaefer is the resident Quantum Chemist at the University of Georgia and five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize. He is the third most quoted chemist in the world. He writes of his different discoveries: “The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new and saying, “So that's how God did it!”” You may ask, “How is charcoal able to…?” God knows

.

CharcoalRemedies.com - Facts

 

Google Image Result for http://www.sintef.no/upload/Energiforskning/Bilder/Biomass-and-waste.jpg

 

If you check out the pyrolysis images on google you will find a great deal of information

m

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Weightron

Benefits for energy from waste under new ROCs banding - COMMENT UPDATE 23/05/2007

By Claire Churchard

 

Technologies such as energy from waste, anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis may benefit from a new banding system for Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs).

Materials Recycling Week news and information

 

I thought a rock was something you threw into a pond or to another kid,:turtle: or maybe listened too.:turtle:

Does someone want to enlighten me?

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I suspect they are something like RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates, not sunken ships!) here in Australia. Where a government sets a mandatory target for renewable energy as a percentage of total electricity, it is managed by requiring all particpants in the pool to accumulate enough certificates to meet the target. In NSW this target is applied to the retailers I think, if they sell 100 MW hrs of electricity in a year and have a mandatory 2% renewable energy target, they will need certificates for 2 MW hrs of renewable energy purchased from accredited generators. By including pyrolysis on the list of technologies that can create RECs (or ROCs!) it creates another revenue stream for operators of pyrolysis -> energy plants. Many places (including NSW) are ramping up their mandatory renewable energy targets, 20% by 2020 is a common figure. These targets are intended to support the development of renewable technologies like solar PV, solar thermal, wind etc but it should help pyrolysis too. Solahart, the company that makes rooftop solar domestic hot water systems, is a large generator of RECs for example.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

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Thanks Tony

BEST's plant at Somesby is not connected to the grid as it is only operated intermittently.

They did find however that the costs & money asked to connect to the grid was prohibitive.

Four + tonne of biomass an hour produces a lot of electricity!

BEST Energies wins UN World Environment Day Award

Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco,CA,USA

Adriana Downie, who accepted the award for BEST Energies, said the commercial uptake of the BEST pyrolysis technology will result in significant carbon ...

See all stories on this topic

Farming For Energy

Times of India - New Delhi,India

Pyrolysis oil is produced by rapid combustion of biomass, which is rapidly condensed so that the ensuing vapours or smoke yield oil that is nearly ...

See all stories on this topic

 

 

Companies plan to make cellulosic ethanol by pyrolysis

By Jeff Goettemoeller(Jeff Goettemoeller)

(PINKSHEETS: SSTP) to capitalize on their unique Rivera Process of Hydrolysis/Pyrolysis which delivers Cellulosic Ethanol. The first negotiated facilities to deliver this revolutionary solution are in Mason City, Iowa with a projected ...

Energy Answers - Energy Answers

 

IMG_3406

By [email protected] (Pyrolysis)

Pyrolysis posted a photo:. IMG_3406.

Photos from Pyrolysis - Flickr: Photos from Pyrolysis

 

Soil, a potential large scale carbon store

By Philip Roberts

It is a black carbon byproduct of a process called pyrolysis, which involves heating green waste or other biomass without oxygen to generate renewable energy. As shown below, compared to afforestation (left), when biochar (right) is ...

CABI Blogs: hand picked... and... - CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

 

Impact of Drugs on Society

By davidhughes

Over the past decades attempts at the pyrolysis of scrap tyres for recycling have not been successful because the principal by-product, a carbon rich pyro-char, could not be economically upgraded for commercialisation. ...

Society - Society

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Hi Michael

 

The mechanics of connecting to the grid can be complicated, and I'm not surprised that a pilot plant like the BEST installation at Somersby doesn't find it viable. However, for a full size plant operated continuously, grid connection would certainly be viable in many locations. The introduction of a feed-in tariff (which I believe is being considered in South Australia and Victoria) would make it even more attractive. However, the size of most pyrolysis plants means that in many cases they will be better served by acting as a captive power supply for a nearby industrial plant (which may also be the source of the pyrolysis feedstock). The energy can be provided either directly as gas (eg if they have a boiler for producing process steam or hot water) or as electricity.

 

The trick is to see these things as obstacles to overcome (challenges!) rather than as reasons to not proceed (excuses!).

 

Regards

 

Tony

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  • 3 months later...

Tim Flannery is calling for on-farm pyrolysis machine subsidies.

I think we need to get Councils hooked in with their urban green-waste first.

How we can save ourselves - Opinion - theage.com.au

 

I doubt if the Family farm could efficiently keep a plant going with bio-fuel.

Perhaps feedlots or big agri-business.

I think payment for carbon sequestered would be better.

What do you think?

 

Some other recent articles on pyrolosis

 

 

Dynamotive to build biofuel to electricity plants in Argentina

Cleantech - San Jose,CA,USA

"Dynamotive's proprietary fast-pyrolysis technology is a proven and cost-effective method of turning agricultural and forest residues into renewable fuel ...

 

 

 

 

Thermogravimetric analysis and kinetic study on pyrolysis of ...

To obtain detailed information on the pyrolysis characteristics, a thermogravimetric study on the pyrolysis of 14 typical medical waste compositions was carried out in thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) equipment using dynamic techniques ...

ScienceDirect Publication: Waste... - ScienceDirect - Home

 

System and method for thermally reducing solid and liquid waste ...

By eqn(eqn)

A system and method are set for pyrolysis of waste feed material including a first retort segment disposed through a combustion chamber and a second retort segment disposed outside of the combustion chamber. ...

782574 - 782574

 

Advanced Biorefinery Inc.

By Kate Chazan(Kate Chazan)

This system is a modular and quick-to-assemble pyrolysis plant that can follow logging companies into forests and convert their trimmings into clean-burning renewable fuel on the spot. With this technology, companies can take the ...

MGCR 331 - MGCR 331

 

Process for the pyrolysis of medical waste and other waste materials

By aet(aet)

A process for the pyrolysis of waste materials, particularly medical waste, is provided. In the pyrolysis process, waste material is placed in a sealed container. The sealed container is placed in a load chamber and the waste material ...

484306 - 484306

 

How we can save ourselves

The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia

Pyrolysis machines need to be subsidised and installed on all Australian farms, and the electricity and biofuel they generate become integrated into our ...

 

 

Method and apparatus for recovering constituents from discarded tires

By nauspyxi(nauspyxi)

Discarded rubber tires for reclamation and recovery of the constituents therein and/or environmentally safe disposal are transferred from a pan feeder system into a hopper and transferred by an auger into a pyrolysis chamber. ...

Ebony Amateur - Ebony Amateur

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Google News Alert for: pyrolysis

 

Octagon wins RM400m contract in Colombo

Malaysia Star - Malaysia

... governments and companies from Asia, the Middle East, North America and Europe on the export of its waste-to-energy and waste tyre pyrolysis technology. ...

See all stories on this topic

 

Diesel Made From Waste Products: Technological Innovation ...

Earthtimes - London,UK

At a temperature of 400 degrees Celsius - which is far lower than the temperature used in conventional cracking processes such as pyrolysis - long ...

See all stories on this topic

 

Algae-in-a-vat may power the future

ABC Science Online - Australia

Finally, he says, the plan is to burn the algal waste using a process called pyrolysis, which sterilises the algae and produces a form of stored carbon ...

See all stories on this topic

 

Google Blogs Alert for: pyrolysis

 

Synthesis of multiwall carbon nanotubes by simple pyrolysis

P., Mahanandia , PN, Vishwakarma , KK, Nanda , V., Prasad , K., Barai , ...

ScienceDirect Publication: Solid... - ScienceDirect - Home

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  • 2 months later...
Dynamotive demonstrates fast-pyrolysis plant in the presence of biofuel experts

Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation, a leader in bio-oil production technology, today announced it hosted a tour of its fast-pyrolysis plant in Guelph, Ontario, with over seventy-five global biofuel experts attending. Amongst them were scientists from the International Energy Agency's Bioenergy Task 40, to which we refer often as they are leading research into global bioenergy trade and logistics.

Dynamotive's plant is the first commercial-scale facility to produce bio-oil from biomass.

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa

 

Hasn't mercedes taken over Mitsubishi?

Dynamotive and Mitsubishi Corporation sign cooperation agreement

Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation, dedicated to producing second-generation biofuels from cellulosic biomass via fast pyrolysis, and Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan's largest general trading and investment company, signed a letter of agreement whereby development and strategic opportunities for cooperation are identified and protocols are established to jointly advance them.

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa
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  • 2 months later...

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?

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  • 2 months later...

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/images/FinalProgram.pdf

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  • 2 months later...

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

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
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. .

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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

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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.

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