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I've been learning about biochar/syngas production from biomass. It turns out there's methods that range from 'burn slash in a giant metal bucket' to large ind

I've been learning about biochar/syngas production from biomass. It turns out there's methods that range from 'burn slash in a giant metal bucket' to large industrial gassifiers for producing biochar. There's a part of me that wants to exit the tech sector, buy a couple hundred acres nearby, live modestly, and tinker with biochar production/sequestration.

swiley 7y ago
Drying plants in the sun is a surprisingly effective way to heat a building, I grew up with it. The problems are: burning wet stuff is terrible (surface wetness isn’t bad, it’s the moisture inside the biomass that causes problems.) Secondly you can’t just straight up burn it because you’ll get a lot of heat that you don’t need so you’ll usually burn it in cycles and you’ll get a lot of soot at the beginning and end of the cycles so you need to either wash the exhaust or make sure you don’t have nearby neighbors downwind (in places like this that means within a quarter mile or so.)
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  For sure, excess heat is something that is interesting to explore. Oregon Kilns are basically just a big metal bucket that burns top down and produces biochar, but burns off the syngas. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/or/newsroom/stories/?cid=nrcseprd1499267 https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/or/newsroom... Other systems try to capture the syngas/bio oil to generate electricity or capture the heat for heating/other uses.
- darksaints 7y ago
  One of the more interesting approaches toward wet biomass utilization is Hydrothermal Liquifaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_liquefaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_liquefaction Basically you dump the wet biomass in a high pressure medium temperature reactor, and the water content of the biomass becomes supercritical, then acts as a solvent to break down the biomass into an usable crude oil (fairly similar to fossil crude, but with more oxygen content). This crude can be used directly as a fuel, or it can be upgraded (hydrogenated) into graded fuels like gasoline.
SuoDuanDao 7y ago
I met a guy who made biochar on the woodlot of someone he had an arrangement with - woodlot owners are always looking for new ways to monetise their lots, you may be able to tinker with biochar production/sequestration without the big upfront investment, this guy did it with a few weekends (and free labour from people who wanted to learn the technique) a year.

swiley 7y ago

Drying plants in the sun is a surprisingly effective way to heat a building, I grew up with it. The problems are: burning wet stuff is terrible (surface wetness isn’t bad, it’s the moisture inside the biomass that causes problems.) Secondly you can’t just straight up burn it because you’ll get a lot of heat that you don’t need so you’ll usually burn it in cycles and you’ll get a lot of soot at the beginning and end of the cycles so you need to either wash the exhaust or make sure you don’t have nearby neighbors downwind (in places like this that means within a quarter mile or so.)

Pfhreak 7y ago
For sure, excess heat is something that is interesting to explore. Oregon Kilns are basically just a big metal bucket that burns top down and produces biochar, but burns off the syngas. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/or/newsroom/stories/?cid=nrcseprd1499267 https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/or/newsroom... Other systems try to capture the syngas/bio oil to generate electricity or capture the heat for heating/other uses.
darksaints 7y ago
One of the more interesting approaches toward wet biomass utilization is Hydrothermal Liquifaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_liquefaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_liquefaction Basically you dump the wet biomass in a high pressure medium temperature reactor, and the water content of the biomass becomes supercritical, then acts as a solvent to break down the biomass into an usable crude oil (fairly similar to fossil crude, but with more oxygen content). This crude can be used directly as a fuel, or it can be upgraded (hydrogenated) into graded fuels like gasoline.

SuoDuanDao 7y ago

I met a guy who made biochar on the woodlot of someone he had an arrangement with - woodlot owners are always looking for new ways to monetise their lots, you may be able to tinker with biochar production/sequestration without the big upfront investment, this guy did it with a few weekends (and free labour from people who wanted to learn the technique) a year.