Save Your Multi-Million Industries with Soil Amendment Based Activated Carbon

Golf courses can suffer devastating damage due to over fertilizing or chemical spills. The University of Florida’s 2009 Pest Control Guide for Turf Managers states that it is a good idea to keep a bag or two of activated charcoal in stock at all times when managing fine turf so that the activated charcoal can be applied almost immediately without having to wait for delivery after an accidental spill.

A high end golf course in South Carolina lost months of play during the peak tourist season due to an accidental mix-up in which weed killer instead of fertilizer was sprayed on several fairways. Activated carbon effectively removes organic toxins, such as herbicides, from soil, to provide a safe environment for new or existing root systems. Once the

toxin has been adsorbed onto the carbon, it is biologically inactive and cannot cause further damage.

The DirtDoctor website is dedicated to the issues that affect organic gardeners and covers a widerangeof topics. In response to a question on “Soil Detox for Contaminated Soil” the website expert, Howard Garrett, replied: “Digging the soil out and hauling it off is not the answer. If your soil has been contaminated with heavy metals like arsenic and chromium in treated lumber or creosote in railroad ties, or with lead and arsenic from iron supplements, or if the contamination is from pesticides or petroleum spills, the solution is the same. First, stop the contamination. Second, apply the activated charcoal/ carbon.”

Another way that the activated carbon will  protects the environment is its use in removing pesticides from streams and rivers by spraying the edges of fields. This prevents harmful chemicals from entering waterways and contaminating not only the water, but also the aquatic life and plants that make up their fragile ecosystems.

Activated carbon provides unique performance capabilities that help protect our environment. It is widely used in agriculture as a soil amendment to protect and enhance plant and turfgrass growth and vigor. Its ability to decontaminate soil is beneficial when replanting ornamentals, turfgrass or food crops where herbicides have been previously applied. The effectiveness of activated carbon for these applications has made it the product of choice of leading industry professionals.

To reach that purpose of course, reliable industrial charcoal plant needed to support that activated carbon industry. Our system will produce charcoal as you wish, as we fully realize that activated carbon industry need high quality charcoal for their consintent quality of activated carbon. 

Go Green With Sustainable Energy For All

UN Secretary-General BanKi-moon has called on governments, the private sector and society to commit to his Sustainable Energy for All Initiative at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

In his keynote at WFES, Ban Ki-moon said he has designated sustainable development as his top priority for his next five-year term, and he has set out three objectives to be achieved by 2030:

1. Universal access to modern energy services;
2. Double the rate of improvement of energy efficiency; and
3. Double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

Work on an Action Agenda has already started.Energy transforms lives, businesses and economies. And it transforms our planet — its climate, natural resources and ecosystems. There can be no development without energy.

Biomass is the fourth largest energy source in the world. In contrast to water, wind and solar thermal, biomass is the only energy source that does not depend on the weather in order to ensure stable energy production. Most of the biomass has been used optimally in developed countries, but otherwise there are still many untapped in developing countries. Yet millions of tons of biomass produced annually as a result of agricultural and agro-industrial residue.

Pyrolysis is a technology to process biomass into high-grade fuel. Application of pyrolysis products that biochar can also improve soil fertility. Problem is the lack of electricity supply is a common problem especially in developing countries. According to Ban Ki-moon one in five residents of this planet do not have access to electricity services. Syngas produced from continuous pyrolysis can be used to power plants in remote areas that are rich in potential biomass. 

Green Technology For Palm Oil Mills

Pyrolysis  is the best technology for palm oil mill biomass waste utilization and on the other side to meet the energy needs of the production process at the oil mill.  Energy is one of the highest cost component  in palm oil mills. Reducing  the cost of production is certainly a very attractive  option to increase the profits of the industry. In addition to  reducing the palm oil mill biomass waste and energy  sufficiency, pyrolysis  application will also provide benefits to soil fertility for the  use of biochar plantations, as shown below. Charcoal from  palm empty fruit bunches  are more suitable for the biochar production to  increase soil fertility due to the high ash content which is about 16.60% or higher than ash of palm shell. Charcoal from empty fruit bunches also good for barbeque charcoal, it means lower quality than industrial charcoal application.

Production of  "green fuel"  of pyrolized palm shells are very potential and promising for palm shell  charcoal briquettes.  With our technology the palm shells can be pyrolyzed for increasing energy density  as high as possible, especially for metal casting or smelter applications with calorific value of 8,000 kcal / kg or more.  Biooil which is the liquid pyrolysis products can be directly used as fuel in the boiler furnace or further purified  for the production of a variety of liquid fuels or as raw material for various chemicals. While  the wood vinegar,liquid products other than biooil will be used as fertilizer  for the palm oil plantation.

Conventional Energy system  of palm oil mill looks  like the diagram below

Conventional Energy System in Palm Oil Mill

Will then be turned into such a scheme following for the  application of continuous  pyrolysis:

Improved Palm Oil Mill with Continous Pyrolysis System

Waste heat recovery from the pyrolysis unit was also  still be used to increase energy production.

Excess  of oil palm shell is also potential for torrefied wood production.Our pyrolysis technology is able to work on the torrefaction mode in addition to the pyrolysis itself. More on our continuous pyrolysis technology, please  click here or here.

Three Motivations For Biomass Thermal Conversion

At least, three motivating factors on biomass thermal conversion, like is mentioned below :

A.    Renewability Benefit
Fossil fuel like coal, oil and gas are good and convenient source of energy, and they meet the energy demands of society very effectively. However, there is one major problem: Fossil fuel resources are finite and not renewable.Biomass on the other hand, grows and is renewable. A crop cut this year will grow again next year; a tree cut today may grow up within a decade. Unlike fossil fuel, then, biomass is not likely to be depleted with consumption. For this reason, its use, especially for energy production, is rising fast.

We may argue against cutting trees for energy because they serve as a CO2 sink. This is true, but a tree stops absorbing CO2 after it dies. On the other hand, if left alone in the forest it can release CO2 in a forest fire or release more harmful CH4 when it decomposes in water. The use of a tree as fuel after its life provides carbon-neutral energy as well as avoids greenhouse gas release from deadwood. The best option is new planting following cutting, as is done by some pulp industries. Fast-growing plants like switch grass and Miscanthus are being considered as fuel for new energy projects. These plants have very short growing periods that can be counted in months.

B.    Enviromental Benefit
With growing evidence of global warming, the need to reduce human-made greenhouse gas emissions is being recognized. Emission of other air pollutants, such as NO2, SO2, and Hg, is no longer acceptable, as it was in the  past. In elementary schools and in corporate boardrooms, the environment is a major issue, and it has been major driver for biomass thermal conversion such as pyrolysis for energy production. Biomass has a special appeal in this regard, as it makes no net contribution to carbondioxide emission to the atmosphere.

Regulations for making biomass economically viable are in the place in many countries. For example, if biomass replace fossil fuel in a plant, that plant earns credit for CO2 reduction equivalent to what the fossil fuel was emitting. This credits can be sold on the market for additional revenue in countries where such trades are in practice.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions
When burned, biomass release the CO2 it absorbed from the atmosphere in the recent past, not millions of years ago, as with fossil fuel. The net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere through biomass combustion is thus considered to be zero.

Sulfur Removal
Most virgin or fresh biomass contains little to no sulfur. Biomass-derived feedstock such as municipal solid waste (MSW) or sewage sludge does contain sulfur, which requires limestone for capture of it. Interestingly, such derived feedstock also contains small amounts of calcium, which intrinsically aids sulfur capture.

Nitrogen Removal
A combustion system firing fossil fuel can oxidize the nitrogen in fuel and in air into NO, the acid rain precursor, or into N2O, a greenhouse gas. Both are difficult to remove. In a pyrolysis system, nitrogen appears as either N2 or NH3, which is removed relatively easily in the syngas-cleaning stage.
Nitrous oxide emission results from the oxidation of fuel nitrogen alone. Measurement in a biomass combustion system showed a very low level of N2O emission (Van Loo and Koppejan, 2008, p.295)

Dust and Other Hazardous Gases
 Highly toxic pollutants like dioxin and furan, which can be released in a combustion system, are not likely to form in an oxygen-absenced pyrolyzer. Particulate in the syngas is also reduced significantly by multiple gas clean up systems.

C.    Sociopolitical Benefit

The sociopolitical benefits of biomass are substantial. For one, biomass is locally grown resource. For one, biomass is a locally grown resource. For a biomass-based power plant to be economically viable, the biomass needs to come from within a certain distance from it.  This means that every biomass plant can prompt the development of associated industries for biomass growing, collecting, and transporting.
Some believe that a biomass fuel plant could create up to 20 times more employment than that created by a coal-or oil-based plant (Van Loo and Koppejan, 2008, p.1).  The biomass industry thus has a positive impact on the local economy.

Another very important aspect of biomass-based energy, fuel, or chemicals is that they reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels. The volatile global political landscape has shown that supply and price can change dramatically within a short time, with a sharp rise in the price of feedstock. Locally grown biomass is relatively free from such uncertainties.

New Uses of Charcoal Increasing in Japan

The consumption of carbon in Japan increased from 38,800 t (meric ton) in 1985 to 192,000 t in 1999. In 1999, 27% of the consumption, Or 50,835 t, was used for purposes other than fuel, as shown in Figure below. The highest proportion usage, i.e. 30.6%, was in the agricultural land, mainly as soil amendment. The second highest, i.e., 22.3%, was in the livestock industry, where charcoal powder was mixed with litter or animal feed for deodorization. Other uses were in the humidity control of houses, water purification other than by activated charcoal, as a reducing agent or a decolorant in industries, etc. Thus, the use of charcoal with various characteristics is currently diversified in Japan.

Marketing of the new uses of charcoal besides fuel in Japan in 1999. Source : association of the of the new uses of charcoal in Japan (2001)

 To meet the demand of course reliable pyrolysis system will be used for this. With plant capacity begin 60 ton/day up 200 ton/day INPUT and abundant biomass feedstock available especially in Indonesia and South East Asia region, we ready as your partner to make your dream come true.

Entering the Second Generation Biofuel With Pyrolysis

The first generation biofuels are characterized by the production of biodiesel and bioethanol from food feedstock will soon be abandoned, it is because of fears of biofuel feedstock competition with human food needs. Conditions that encourage the birth of a second generation biofuels using biomass (non-food) as a raw material. Pyrolysis is a technology to produce second generation biofuels. The potential of biomass is abundant in Indonesia and on the other side of the energy needs that can not be fulfilled so that the pyrolysis of this application will be very promising.

Industrial-scale pyrolysis technology that can produce biofuels to meet the energy needs of Indonesia's current needs. Our pyrolysis technology has specific advantages that can work on torrefaction mode (mild pyrolysis) with torrefied wood products / torrefied biomass and the pyrolysis mode (slow pyrolysis) with the primary product BioCarbon (charcoal). Both products, wood & BioCarbon torrefied has many uses as a superior fuel and it takes a variety of industries for various applications. In both these processes will also be produced biooil and syngas, which can also be used for fuel or raw material of various chemical industries. To get a more detailed overview of this technology following our presentation or here.

Biochar activity in Southeast Asia Promote The Growth Of Biochar Industry

A variety of literature, research, seminars, training and trials around the world have proved that the biochar or agrichar; charcoal produced from the pyrolysis process provides great benefits for soil fertility so that crop productivity will increase. Japan is one country that is known users biochar to agricultural land for decades. This makes some parts of Southeast Asia are also affected to use biochar to improve soil quality. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Phillipines are a number of countries in Southeast Asia are trying to apply the biochar.

 

This activity provides an encouraging result because it gives a positive result and reduces pollution because it uses raw material of various types of waste biomass. The hope of this activity continues to increase the use of biochar on a larger scale and more sustainable. Indonesia and Malaysia as the largest CPO producers in the world would require an intensification in the agricultural field to improve soil quality in addition to the energy requirements for CPO and its derivative production processes so that is where the biochar industry using pyrolysis technology will be crucial. Industrial-scale continuous pyrolysis technology is easy to use would be needed for this.