{"id":183188,"date":"2026-11-04T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=183188"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:35:42","slug":"keeping-the-kiln-turning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/keeping-the-kiln-turning\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping The Kiln Turning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
As biochar production moves from demonstration-scale and intermittent runs into commercial operation, equipment that worked well for a few hours at a time may reveal weaknesses that weren\u2019t visible during startup. <\/p>\n\n\n
\nSitos Group uses clean agricultural, forestry and municipal organic byproducts – primarily almond shells and other local nut shells and wood residues – as its biochar feedstock. \u00a9 SITOS GROUP<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
Tom Miles, president of T.R. Miles Technical Consultants Inc., says that one of the most common mistakes happens before operators ever reach the reactor: pairing a continuous thermal process with material handling equipment that was never intended for continuous duty. \u201cLow-cost systems are often supplied with agricultural equipment such as bins, silos and conveyors,\u201d Miles says. \u201cThese systems are designed to operate for a few hours per year with granular agricultural products. They are not designed to operate 7,500 hours per year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result can be improperly designed augers, undersized conveyors and premature failures of motors and bearings. And as production increases, those weak links become harder to hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kyle Langseth, CEO of Langseth Engineering, identifies two issues that repeatedly shape maintenance and uptime in biomass-based pyrolysis systems: feedstock moisture and tar formation. \u201cThe maintenance burden often concentrates in material handling and gas handling: conveyors, augers, airlocks, char discharge equipment and\u2014where installed\u2014condensers and gas-cleaning equipment,\u201d Langseth says. \u201cThese components handle variable solids, abrasive fines or condensable vapors, so wear and buildup can progressively affect performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, commercial reliability begins with matching the equipment to the material and to the operating hours expected of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feedstock Sets the Rules\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Feedstock variability can turn what looks like a reactor problem into a conveying, drying or maintenance problem. Oversized or stringy biomass can bridge in hoppers or wrap around shafts. Fines generate dust that can infiltrate bearings, while changes in moisture affect flow characteristics, bulk density and drying demand. Uneven feeding creates changing loads farther downstream. \u201cFeedstocks are not usually sized to match the materials-handling equipment,\u201d Miles says. \u201cMotors and bearings fail because they are not applied correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\nSitos Group and Treehouse California Almonds announced in October that their $10 million almond-shell biochar facility in Delano, California, had begun production and was nearing full commercial operation. \u00a9 SITOS GROUP<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
Langseth says plants can prevent a substantial share of those issues by defining feedstock specifications, removing contaminants, using proper hopper geometry and selecting conveyors for the actual material they will encounter. Covered storage and drainage matter as well. Every additional pound of water entering the plant has to be heated and evaporated, raising the drying load and potentially reducing throughput. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Garrett Benisch, chief development officer at Bioforcetech Corp., notes consistent particle size also matters because continuous systems are designed around relatively predictable exposure to temperature and residence time. A large piece of material mixed into otherwise uniform chips may not fully pyrolyze, while excessive fines can create dust and buildup inside the system. How the material is dried can determine how much dust operators contend with later in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bioforcetech views the moisture challenge from an unusual angle; its commercial systems process municipal biosolids rather than conventional woody biomass. Benisch says dewatered sludge can still average about 80% water, making moisture removal one of the most demanding early steps in the process. Once dried, however, sludge creates another issue. \u201cThe wood holds itself together, whereas a sludge, when it dries, is more like a soil, so it\u2019s crumbly,\u201d Benisch says. \u201cThere\u2019s a sweet spot of moisture there in handling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As commercial biochar production expands to include a wider range of feedstocks, equipment and handling systems must be adapted to their distinct characteristics. Sitos Group and Treehouse California Almonds announced in October that their $10 million, 25,000-square-foot facility in Delano, California, had produced its first load of almond-shell biochar and was nearing full commercial-scale production. The operation includes three slow-pyrolysis units operating together as a single system, as well as integrated drying and emissions-control equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That kind of configuration also illustrates how maintenance expands beyond the kiln itself as plants become more sophisticated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miles notes that agricultural residues can introduce another complication: chemistry. Higher-ash materials such as bark, pits and nut shells can contain alkali compounds that vaporize or melt at relatively low temperatures and eventually accumulate on heat-transfer surfaces. \u201cFeedstock chemistry and temperature control are frequently underestimated,\u201d Miles says. \u201cWe explored the mechanisms of alkali deposition with the advent of biomass power plants in the 1990s, but the experience hasn\u2019t carried over to new suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Build It for the Hours<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As plants scale, lighter-duty equipment often gives way to heavier construction. \u201cEverything becomes heavier duty,\u201d Miles says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He recalls that heavy conveying and wood-handling equipment in the Pacific Northwest was once commonly described as \u201cPacific Coast Grade.\u201d When lighter and more competitively priced equipment began entering the region in the late 1970s, failures followed until manufacturers strengthened those systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same learning curve is appearing in some biochar projects. For instance, low-cost systems may use steel that is too light for the duty cycle, leading components to simply wear through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Langseth says commercial operation exposes a similar gap between proving a process and proving reliability. \u201cI\u2019ve seen short runs understate the impact of tar buildup,\u201d Langseth says. \u201cEquipment can perform adequately during a demonstration, but deposits progressively restrict gas flow during longer operation. Cleaning between runs can conceal a maintenance requirement that becomes a production bottleneck during continuous operation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Langseth says successful scale-up requires proving not only that a system can achieve its intended throughput, but also that it can maintain that output over extended periods without frequent maintenance interruptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continuous-duty drives and bearings, accessible inspection points and practical replacement procedures all become more important once downtime directly reduces production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heat, Tar and the Gas Path<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The reactor may be the centerpiece of a pyrolysis plant, but the equipment around it can be equally critical. Miles says refractory is one common failure point, particularly when material selected for woody feedstocks encounters agricultural residues with different ash chemistry. He also sees \u201chot spots\u201d in augers where air intrusion or partial oxidation pushes temperatures above what the steel was designed to withstand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benisch says thermal expansion and contraction must also be accounted for in piping and other high-temperature sections. Controlled ramp-up and shutdown procedures can mitigate thermal shock rather than subjecting equipment to rapid changes in temperature. \u201cIf you don\u2019t compensate for how much the whole system can expand as it warms up and then how much it\u2019ll contract as it cools down, problems can follow, particularly when those temperature changes happen too quickly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tar presents a different maintenance challenge. Langseth says heavier organic compounds can condense as pyrolysis vapors cool, creating sticky deposits that trap char fines. Over time, those deposits can narrow piping, foul heat-transfer surfaces and interfere with valves and fans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miles sees the same problem in systems handling pyrolysis tars and oils. \u201cThey accumulate and clog piping and ducting,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solution is not simply more frequent cleaning. Langseth says designers and operators need to control where condensation happens by maintaining temperature upstream of the intended condensation stage, eliminating unintended cold spots and providing drainage and cleanout access where deposits can accumulate. \u201cWhat surprised me most was how a localized cold spot could create a maintenance problem elsewhere in the system,\u201d Langseth says. \u201cCleaning alone may address the symptom while leaving the underlying temperature or flow problem unresolved.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once char leaves the reactor, cooling and discharge become the next maintenance and operating challenges. Benisch says the degree of pyrolysis affects the risk of self-heating after char is exposed to oxygen. Cooling requirements also vary by feedstock. Bioforcetech uses a combination of controlled water application, conveying time and heat exchange to bring material temperature down. \u201cThe more complete your pyrolysis, the more confident you are there, the more you drive off the syngas, the more you know that your biochar will cool correctly,\u201d he says. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is one reason maintenance and product quality cannot be separated. Poor feed consistency can change residence time. Buildup can alter gas flow. Failing instrumentation can allow temperature changes to go unnoticed. What begins as a mechanical maintenance issue can eventually affect process stability and finished-char consistency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spare parts planning is another component of reliability. Langseth recommends ranking parts according to their ability to stop production and their replacement lead time rather than simply their purchase price. \u201cBearings, seals, drive components and essential instruments deserve attention even when their purchase cost is small,\u201d Langseth says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the Calendar to Condition<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Plants are also gaining more tools to identify deterioration before it becomes a shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James E. Mister, head of strategy and solution engineering at Biological Lattice Industries, says temperature profiles, conveyor and auger motor current and torque, vibration, filter pressure drop, feed rate and incoming moisture can all provide useful signals in a continuous industrial process. The greater value comes when those measurements are connected with maintenance events, operator actions and production outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe biggest opportunities are scheduling maintenance around the actual condition of the equipment and the production plan instead of the calendar,\u201d Mister says. \u201cAnd troubleshooting faster because the full history of what changed before a fault is available in one place.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He cautions that experienced operators remain essential. Serious failures may occur too infrequently to provide AI models with much training data, sensors themselves can deteriorate in harsh environments, and unusual failures are precisely the situations in which human judgment matters most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That may be the larger maintenance lesson as biochar matures commercially. More sensors, automation and data can help, but long-term reliability still depends on understanding feedstock, choosing equipment for continuous duty and designing every system with inevitable wear in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As biochar plants scale, that distinction may ultimately be the measure that matters most. \u201cCommercial operation therefore requires more than demonstrating throughput,\u201d Langseth says. \u201cIt requires demonstrating how long that throughput can be sustained between maintenance events.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As biochar production moves from demonstration-scale and intermittent runs into commercial operation, equipment that worked well for a few hours at a time may reveal weaknesses that weren\u2019t visible during startup. Tom Miles, president of T.R. Miles Technical Consultants Inc., says that one of the most common mistakes happens before operators ever reach the reactor: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":183200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Commercial reliability for biochar production begins with matching the equipment to the material and to the operating hours expected of it","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[27722,12738,22614,5842,10416,12518,13461],"supplier":[28799,28800,28797,28801,28796,28798],"class_list":["post-183188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-agriculturalresidues","tag-biochar","tag-biofeedstocks","tag-biomass","tag-circulareconomy","tag-feedstocks","tag-pyrolysis","supplier-bioforcetech-corp","supplier-biological-lattice-industries","supplier-langseth-engineering","supplier-sitos-group","supplier-t-r-miles-technical-consultants-inc","supplier-treehouse-almonds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183229,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183188\/revisions\/183229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183188"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=183188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sitos](\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/10\/4_PMM_26_Feat2_Sitos_Lede_7ed450743a.jpg\")
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