Northern Rivers & Tweed Valley
•PROJECT 540
GARDEN
WASTE FACILITY
•
•B&B
•
•SUGAR MILL
“The Project 540 Kiln has the specific intent to sequester atmospheric CO2,
in many small localities, and to make soil good to the seventh generation.”
Geoff Moxham
www.bodgershovel.com
Constraints and goals
• Accessible sensors
• Validate simple visual tests
• Cheap low-emission designs
• Household uses of process heat
Finessing efficient solutions including
• Vortex flow induced in chimney stacks
• Pre-heated and controlled air to tuyeres
• Multiple purpose dampers & vents
Building and testing prototype kilns
• Catenary and sprung-arch trolley kilns
• Side-loading carriages
• Quenching and inoculating tanks
Educational outreach
• Community kiln-building projects
• Market and show presentations
Phoenix Kiln series
• 20 L • 40L • 3 cu m, small farm
Phoenix Rising
• Human scaled for 1 person
• Output must justify the input
_________________________________________________
• Compact method producing
usable amount of char.
• Metal shell of washing machine
makes smoke proof shell.
• Lined with fire brick
• Contains and store the heat
• Worked well
no need to top up fuel during burn
Ben Speirs
http://absorberroof.com
Mark Feltrin
gasificationaustralia.com
Inside the kiln
Simple parts
Double drum retort
Lifting the lid
Future steps - Using the heat
Creating independence
in the rainforest
• Heat for clothes drying
• Hot water
• Home heating
• Refrigeration
• Micro-gasification
• Electricity generation
Thermoelectric
Organic Rankin Cycle
Ben Speirs
http://absorberroof.com/
Mark Feltrin
http://www.gasificationaustralia.com/
Inoculating Biochar
• Charring the weeds
– Lantana vines
– Camphor Laurel trees
– Bamboo
If composted returns CO2 to
atmosphere in 3-5 yrs.
Biochar sequesters 30-40%
of C for thousands of years.
Charcoal pores:
Tilling it in is
“urban renewal, with
quality public housing”
• Crush finely smaller than ¼ in, while wet
–
–
–
–
–
worms can transport the fines
Course meat grinder
Garbage disposal grinder, drip on inoculant
heavy drum roller
lawn mower over wet char in a bay
• Inoculate with:
– Urine, worm juice, compost percolation
– Sea minerals, brewed crop specific teas
– Biodynamic compost & soil
• Application: 4t/ac = 2 lb/sy. Improves to 1lb/sf
• Animals
– Chickens, cows, humans
Hyphae: Microbial C reef
Mullumbimbi Community Garden
Food
“Growing to Share & Sharing to Grow”
Fund raising
Compost
Design
Seed savers
Promotions
Site
Nursery
Sustainability
Compost loo
Water
Bush regeneration
Events
BIOCHAR
Chooks
Best practises Children’s garden
Sugarcane Farming
Tweed Valley - Robert Quirk
Mulching with green cane tops
50kg N/ha
returns C to soil rather than going up in smoke
250kg K/ha
Nitrogen added, 2lb/ac
6kg P/ha
facilitates break down of machine harvested trash
Legumes planted directly into trash in fallow period
Legumes add nitrogen
Add lime at 2t/ac then scrapes top 8 inch into mounds
giving equivalent 4t/ac of lime in the mounds
Plant cane into the mounds
improves aeration on land subject to flooding
Traffic controlled to inter-rows & reduced cultivation
Lime & cultivate only once every 6 yrs
minimizing soil damage, maximize soil life
Apply char at rate 2-4 ton/ac in 15 plots with some having no char
Test for crop yield, leaching of nutrients, nitrogen cycling, emissions of CH4 & N2O
Preliminary results indicate
reduction in emissions of N2O
with applications of 10t/ha
green-waste biochar
High
sulphate
soils
High N20 with normal cultivation
No agronomic
benefit found
to char
Trails continuing
with reduced N
Biochar field site – Tweed Valley NSW
Lab tests at DPI show up to 95% reduction in N20 emissions
30 MW cogeneration plant fueled by remnants from sugar production
Saves 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year
$220 million capital cost
Government policy has resulted in a plunge
in the price of renewable energy credits.
Future potential for biochar production.
On farm collection of cane trash and use for biochar production
requires proof of agronomic or climate benefit.
There is interest in small scale production for return to fields as trials
Germany seeks to reduce landfill disposal by 65 percent by 2016.
Convert most of residuals into compost and energy.
Current
operation
Next
step:
Receive all green waste and kitchen waste from Wurzburg.
Separate and sieved into fines for composting,
Woody trash for incineration for electricity,
Plastic mixed trash for electricity production in a different plant.
Compost sold to farms and also bagged for retail on location.
Pyrolysis plant on location to char the wood waste & produce electricity
Inoculate the biochar with liquid wastes or blend with compost.
Reduce odor, speed digestion, enhance soil amendment.
No green waste to landfills + fees:
$80 /ton on weigh bridge
$40 / ton Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Ballina Shire
Food Links Project: Build resilience
against climate change & peak oil
Waste Management Centre
Self hauled green waste = 6000 t/yr
Bio solids = 2000 ton/yr
Pickup green waste & kitchen = 4000t/yr
Shred all 12000 ton/yr
Row compost for 6 to 8 weeks
Sieve to separate:
Fines for compost = 5000 t/yr
Chips for mulch = 4000 t/yr
Pyrolyze - biochar = 3000 t/yr
Send back to community
Residential gardens
Community gardens
Broad acre application on farms
Small horticultural farms
Macadamia, avocado, bananas
Thank you
From the
Project 540
Team
http://bodgershovel.com
Low-emission, low cost biochar kilns for
small farms and villages
• Focus is to prove that emissions from small biochar kilns can be controlled to
best practice standards, while using easy designs, accessible materials, and
simple cues for emissions checking.
• Project results are committed to the Creative Commons public domain.
• Available annual biomass worldwide: (Rounded from Yevich, Logan 2002)
– 4 Gt of agricultural waste (2 Gt developing world including 400 Gt field-burned, 740 Gt fuel)
– 2 Gt wood fuel burned
• Vision: 1 Gt of C sequestered globally via small scale pyrolysis and hands on
land management = Terra Preta
EXAMPLE: Anila Stove Project, Tamil Nadu
(D. Friese-Greene, Schumacher Inst, Bristol)
25,000 Number of families cooking/day 25,000
31,250 Kg wood used/day
62,500 Kg of bio- residue used/day
25,000 Kg of charcoal used/day
10,000 tonnes Charcoal production in 1 year
Accessible Pyrometry Instrumentation
Three main indicators
for good pyrolysis
CO
monitor
• Temperature of the kiln
chamber ceiling - non-contact
N-type
Thermocouple
inserted 100mm
into drum
Non-contact
Infra-Red
thermometer
infrared thermometer
• Temperature of the pyrolysis
vessel core - N-type
thermocouple in ceramic shroud
• CO content of the flue gasses automotive CO monitor
Time-keeping is important
The “soak” period of one hour at 450C - 500C, needs to commence as soon as the
reaction vessel core reaches temperature. This requires an process-area clock, or in
our case a dedicated laptop data-logging set-up.
Biochar potential from waste biomass
Available Global Biomass:
• Global charcoal production, 1992 = 24 mt (FAO)
• Biomass & field residues burned, 1985 = 2.9 Gt (1995, +20%) (Yevich, Logan)
• Total field waste available = 4 Gt (developing world = 2.0 Gt (Yevich, Logan)
• Total Forestry production = 9.5 Gt/yr
• Net Primary Production (NPP) = 60 Gt C/yr
• Human Appropriated NPP (HANPP) = 20 Gt C/yr (32%)
Conversion efficiency:
• 60% of wood is emitted as volatiles: CO2 , CO, CH4 , and NMHC.
• Traditional methods require 6 to 12 tons of wood for 1 ton of charcoal.
Biochar potential (assuming 40% C fixing efficiency):
• 1 Gt C/yr (assuming 50% of Ag, biofuel & forestry waste)
• 2 Gt C/y (assuming conversion of 25% of HANPP or 8% of NPP).
CARBON/ENERGY BALANCE
FOR CHARCOAL PRODUCTION & COMBUSTION
NMHC
[2.8/34]
CO
[56/112]
CO2
[234/234]
Wood
[1000]
CH4
[17/367]
aerosol
[2.2/2.2]
Charcoal kiln
Biomass pyrolysis charcoal
GWP = 749
Pyroligneous liquids
[185]
CO
[45/90]
[403]
NMHC
[1.3/15]
CH4
[2.9/64]
charcoal stove
combustion
GWP = 477
aerosol
[0.7/0.7]
CO2
[353/353]
‘fines’ & handling losses
[100] (=10% but could be 20%)
Brackets contain C in grams, followed by 20 year CO2 equivalent global warming potential (GWP)
Charcoal production and use is more climate damaging than burning.
Kiln data – Lacaux, et al 1994; Stove emissions – Smith & Thorneloe, 1992. Warming potential of CO assumed to be 2 - ibid
CARBON/ENERGY BALANCE
FOR TERRA PRETA
Small Kiln Scale
CO
[56/112]
CO2
[234/234]
CO2
[17/17]
NMHC
[2.8/34]
aerosol
[2.2/2.2] Useful
heat
5MJ
Pyrolysis Retort
Waste
Biomass Biomass pyrolysis charcoal
GWP = 399
[1000]
Pyroligneous liquids
[185]
CO2
[?]
[503]
N20
[?]
Soil sequestration
& crop growth
GWP = +CH4
[?]
Brackets contain C in grams, followed by 20 year CO2 equivalent global warming potential (GWP)
Biochar soil sequestration provides relative GWP – 500, if CH4 is captured.
Kiln data – Lacaux, et al 1994; Assume waste biomass emissions = wood.
Correlation of methane emission
with combustion efficiency
(CO2/CO+CO2)