Technologies
competing with biomass to charcoal
Combustion
The commonly considered means to utilise a biomass resource is
combustion to make electricity. This requires collection and
transfer of very large quantities of biomass to a central facility,
to be economically justifiable. A rule of thumb is that the fuel
resource must be available year round with a maximum distance from
the facility of 50 km.
Electricity prices in Australia are low compared to most other parts
of the world. As a result, many biomass power projects are unviable,
because the cost of supplying biomass to a central facility does not
allow an adequate return on the investment to be achieved.
Gasification
Gasifiers or gas producers were used on cars, trucks and farm
machinery in World War two. Why not now? In simple terms fossil
fuels are just a lot easier to use. Gasifiers are typically fussy
about their fuel, time consuming to maintain and reduce engine
performance. That said, gasifiers have many potentially attractive
niche applications and both the charcoal and the off-gases from a
BiGchar unit are well suited to fuelling modern gasifiers. Hence the
two technologies can be used together in situations where each
technology on its own may not be viable.
Torrefaction, ethanol from plant fibre and other bioenergy
technologies
Torrefaction is a variation on charcoal production with the
advantage of a higher yield of solid product. With modification the
BiGchar process can be operated to torrefy biomass.
Ethanol from plant fibre and related biorefining technologies show
promise for the future, but they are not readily rolled out at
present. |
