Advanced BioFuels USA

by Kent Goeking (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest)  Biochar is the charcoal-like carbon product obtained when biomass is heated in an oxygen deficient environment, i.e. pyrolysis. Biochar is well known for its agriculture amendment value for increasing crop yields, and as a form of activated carbon in water filtration and toxin remediation applications.  It is also important as a carbon sequestration strategy as recognized by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The feedstock used, and quality produced of biochars can vary widely but it is possible through well-controlled pyrolysis technologies to create biochars that can be considered engineerable in their properties and serve as a new sustainable carbon platform.  Such carbons would be suitable for more sophisticated applications like replacing the graphite and activated carbon electrode materials in high demand energy storage devices including Li-Ion batteries, and supercapacitors.

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A typical automotive EV battery requires about 50 kg of graphite for its Li-ion battery.  That graphite comes from either natural forms that are mined, or synthetically made from petroleum coke.  Neither source is sustainable or capable of meeting future graphite demand.  Furthermore, natural graphite and synthetic graphite sell for $5000-$10,000/ton, whereas biochar can be produced at a significantly lower price.

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Most biochar production technologies today were either developed primarily for biofuel (syngas) production with biochar as a non-optimized by-product, or were targeted at high volume production of agriculture quality biochar through continuous processes.  In order to take advantage of biochar’s engineering potential, there needs to be a production technique that can produce lab quality biochar at scale, where material quality is the primary driver, not biochar or syngas volume.

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Thai Carbon Co. Ltd. in Thailand is currently developing such a technical grade biochar using technology developed over 10 years by Biochar Now in Colorado, USA.  The batch pyrolysis system is based on a ring furnace design, as opposed to more common retort style furnaces, which allows for autothermal internal heating and superior thermal uniformity and control.

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The experimental literature reviewed to date indicates that biochars from a variety of feedstocks are highly suitable as both supercapacitor electrodes and Li-ion battery anode materials. The performance can be increase by enhancing the pore densities, changing the morphology, and doping the materials with heteroatoms. The key will be upscaling the lab produced biochars into industrial scale production while preserving quality.  Biochar can become an important sustainable engineered carbon for helping solve future energy storage requirements. READ MORE