Biomass Pyrolysis
The pyrolysis plant as of May 2009. At this stage the plant was incomplete.
In 2010 Chaotech completed the construction of a novel slow pyrolysis pilot plant for efficient conversion of biomass to biochar (biomass charcoal). Biochar has a significant potential use as an agricultural soil amendment, as it can simultaneously increase fertilizer-use-efficiency, improve soil water retention, and sequester carbon.
The pilot plant design was developed in-house over a number of years. The plant is designed to maximise the yield of char, at the same time ensuring the product char quality is high. The plant is rated at 40kg/hr charcoal (from a nomial 100kg/hr dry biomass feedstock), with a minimum fixed carbon content of 80% w/w. We are the recipient of a federal government Climate Ready Grant to further develop the concept.
Aside from proving our technology, our aim is to provide a cost-effective supply of charcoal to support local research efforts, so the benefits of biochar as a soil amendment on QLD and NSW agricultural soils can be further understood.
Just prior to the QLD flood, we were in the process of rectifying a few remaining commissioning issues, and were confident of succeeding with some extended production runs. This has now been set back significantly, though we very much look forward to operating the plant on a continuous basis in 2011, and to getting some char in the ground to test its performance on a range of soil and crop types
Pot Trials
In 2009, some of the char produced during process simulations was used for a small pot growth trial. This trial gave a benefit of 42% more radish biomass in pots amended with char and fertilizer, as compared to control pots amended with fertilizer only. The charcoal dosing rate was 20g of char in 2.5 litres of (poor) soil.
