Farms of the Future: Bio-oil, Biochar from Biomass
by Lance Nixon (Renewable Energy World) Those pyrolysis plants would pass that crude “bio-oil” on to refineries elsewhere to be made into drop-in fuels and industrial chemicals; they would capture and use for their own energy needs a byproduct called syngas made up of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and perhaps carbon dioxide; and they would send farmers away with an important byproduct called biochar that could go back on the land to help rebuild damaged soils, sequester carbon and alter greenhouse gas emissions.
Sound futuristic? It’s also a current research focus at South Dakota State University.
“We’re looking at this from a whole system approach, and we’re looking at various components in this whole system,” said SDSU professor Tom Schumacher, the project director. “Historically, the distributive nature of crop production gave rise to a network of grain elevators to separate and coordinate the flow of grain to the processing industry. A network of rail lines added new infrastructure to improve efficiency. For lignocellulosic feedstocks, a corollary to the grain elevator would be a collection point that would be within 10 to 30 miles of production fields.”
Those collection points wouldn’t be for long-term storage, but to receive, sort and pre-process or process feedstocks using pyrolysis to break them down into bio-oil, syngas and biochar. Making crude bio-oil would have the effect of densifying the material to a liquid form that is easier to transport for further processing. Meanwhile, the biochar would likely be used in fields in the service area of the pyrolysis plant. READ MORE and MORE (South Dakota State University) and MORE (PowerPoint Presentation) and MORE (DomesticFuel.com)
