Around this time of the year, driving southeast out of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley towards the Mexican border is an exercise in slow pyrolysis \u2014 the temperature soars from time to time into the low 120s and breathing in the gaseous fire they use for breathing air, you start to feel the oxygen debt. Try and golf in this weather and by the 18th fairway you\u2019ll feel like rubber and swinging anything heavier than a seven-iron isn\u2019t in the cards. There are moments when you think that, if you don\u2019t find a roadside oasis soon, you\u2019ll become a neatly-piled up heap of desiccated dust.<\/p>\n
Congratulations, you\u2019ve become human biochar.<\/p>\n
The world of feedstocks is watching biochar very carefully these days, and for good reason. Although it might feel quite a long ways upstream from the world of making and upgrading liquid fuels \u2014 affordable, sustainable feedstock is the pathway to biohappiness, and in a world where competition for waste feedstocks is rising, there\u2019s more demand for calories and water aggregation is under stress \u2014 agricultural yields and water efficiency is under the microscope for everyone proposing to use biomass.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, we\u2019d also like to reduce atmospheric carbon, in case you haven\u2019t heard.<\/p>\n
All of those factors are powering the whispering around biochar these days. Will it work? Is it affordable? Companies like Cool Planet are working hard on it.<\/p>\n
In a perfect world, biochar checks off an awful lot of boxes. Sequesters carbon from the original biomass and packs it permanently into the soil. Improves, obviously, soil carbon. Depending on the configuration of the biochar particles, it can assist greatly with water and nutrient retention. Check check check.<\/p>\n
The biochar story is a romantic one \u2014 usually the tale begins back in the ancient Amazon, where the tribes developed a soil-improving method of building up soil carbon through what is called terra preta. It has enough \u201cSeven Wonders of the World\u201d performance to it, that researchers have been scratching their heads for decades trying to exactly reproduce it. Most efforts are based in pyrolysis \u2014 since slow cooking of biomass is undoubtedly the approach these ancient Amazonians took.<\/p>\n
In recent years, a number of players have popped up in the chase from biochar. Some comes from the energy side and have embraced biochar as a valuable first product with an enthusiastic supporter base. Others have come to biochar from the sustainable grower community.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to Interra Energy and its Interra Preta product.<\/p>\n
The CEC Grant round<\/p>\n
In January 2015, a group of three companies received grants from the California Energy Commission towards the development of modular bioenergy systems for \u201cforest\/urban interface areas\u201d, and biochar figured in one of the winning entries.<\/p>\n
The CEC focus was improving the financial performance of small waste-to-energy systems that have to a great extent in the California market lived off tipping fees from accepting construction and yard waste and chipping and grinding them down for power gen \u2014 as an alternative to shoveling more waste into landfills.<\/p>\n
But, why not biochar?<\/p>\n
The winning technology in question is Interra Energy, which has developed a carbon-negative system and that is because of the focus on generating biochar \u2014 at affordable costs. Some 75 percent of the energy coming in to the project becomes system energy or syngas used for power gen \u2014 but the slow pyrolysis used by this technology has been supporting 23-28 percent biochar yields.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second grant for Interra from CEC. Another one came in during the 2013 round, for development of the initial pilot-scale reactor.<\/p>\n
The goal for this modular system is a 4 ton per day commercial unit that would produce roughly 1 ton per day of biochar that could be commercially sold at around $800 per tom. That\u2019s transformatively lower than the prices generally seen for biochar \u2013 even in the California market where water is scarce and crops such as grapes, strawberries and almonds have exotic revenues per acre.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as biochar hits quality metrics, we are going to be able to manufacture at a price much lower than competitors,\u201d said Interra CFO Kenny Key, in an interview with The Digest. \u201cAt a commercial price of $600-800 per ton, there would be movement from the major agricultural players, Right now the larger ventures are selling at around $1200, and some over $1500 per ton, and it\u2019s difficult for large-scale agriculture to get behind biochar at that price.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commercial-scale unit and business model<\/p>\n
That 4-ton per day system \u2014 which is the next step in Interra\u2019s evolution as it transitions from a testing-size 2 ton per day system \u2014 would be enough for the company\u2019s first commercial project to be cash positive, and that prospect has the company out in the market raising a financing round that could range from $2 to $4 million for equipment, site upgrading at the company\u2019s proposed first commercial site in California\u2019s Imperial Valley, and for working capital.<\/p>\n
The range in this financing round stems from an opportunity to acquire an established chipping and grinding operation, which could be partly debt financed \u2014 and which would provide the front end for the project as well as the site for the first commercial project.<\/p>\n
For the first three projects, the company is expecting that it will be in a build, own and operate business model \u2014 as the technology is proven to potential licensors \u2014 long-term, the expectation is to move towards the more capital light licensing model.<\/p>\n
The technology story<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pressurized, slow pyrolysis. The reactor is pressurized and in the reactor test runs that were set up under the California Energy Commission grant, the reactor was run at 20, 35 and 45 psi.<\/p>\n
The chipped material enters the reactor via what is commonly known as a knife gate among those who have worked in the pulp-and-paper industry \u2014 the biomass has been heat dried down from an initial 30 percent water content to something in the 10-15 percent range. Once running, the biomass provides all the system energy \u2014 and residence time is in the 45-60 minute range. So think in terms of a larger reactor than we would see in fast pyrolysis \u2014 as more than 250 pounds of material are going into the reactor, per batch.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t see slow pyrolysis systems very often \u2014 they produce minimum bio-oil content and interest from the energy community has focused on the higher value and utility in the liquids. And we generally don\u2019t see much of the screw-conveyor auger systems. So, Interra\u2019s approach is a novelty \u2014 although there\u2019s nothing particularly daunting about an auger screw conveyor to move material into a reactor, or the scientific world of slow pyrolysis, which in some ways isn\u2019t completely different to braising a meal in a pressure cooker.<\/p>\n
Recycling energy is a key feature however \u2014 capturing waste heat to drive the drying of biomass prior to entering the reactor \u2014 for example.<\/p>\n
The final pressure that the system will run at \u2014 that awaits the data from all the configurations that were run under the CEC grant. Ultimately, the reactor design could support as much as 100 psi, but the current design iteration has seen just enough seal damage from running biomass through the knife gate that operation at above 75 psi is likely not feasible without a design revision.<\/p>\n
Here come the claims<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the basic Interra claim: \u201ccomparing to traditional gasification systems of similar scale (four tons\/hour), Interra\u2019s system is approximately 1\/3 the capital to build and has the potential to produce 3 to 24x the operational profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s an early-stage company and has a ways to go to prove that out, but it gets your attention.<\/p>\n
The rationale? Twofold.<\/p>\n
First. \u201cDue to the technology\u2019s patented (U.S. and International) design, Interra can increase the tons-per-day throughput, gas quality output, and biochar yield while decreasing the capital cost compared to existing technologies.\u201d
\nSecond. \u201cThe technology produces two saleable products that do not require expensive upgrading equipment prior to their end use. Revenues from the dual co-products of biochar and bioenergy\/biofuel are diversified and can cross-subsidize each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feedstocks<\/p>\n
The CEC grant was specific to forest and urban woody waste \u2014 so, the 27 different configurations tested to date have featured that feedstock set. Ultimately, the system is designed to be more feedstock-agnostic than that and would support the use, for example, of manure resources at a large ag licensor \u2014 a little more drying there and costly in terms of the energy inputs, but feasible.<\/p>\n
The bio-char<\/p>\n
The mystery to some extent is in the biochar\u2019s performance. Given that the focal point in this CEC grant-supported set of configurations has been validating the design and measuring yield, we are about two months from wrap-up in this round from having biochar over at an external lab to analyze and compare in terms of product quality. Following that analysis, next steps would be to take the top candidates into field testing to understand how it performs as a soil enhancer. So,. we\u2019ll be standing by on that.<\/p>\n
The Interra backstory<\/p>\n
The company is the brainchild of founder Thomas Del Monte, who was the co-founder of the Journal of Climate & Energy Law while at University of Sam Diego, and was president of the Environmental Law Society there, stemming from a \u201cstrong interest in green construction practices and similar industries.\u201d<\/p>\n
He researched California energy law and policy as applied to manure management practices using anaerobic digesters to capture methane to create electricity. During his research, he stumbled upon an internet article about pyrolysis and biochar \u2014 as a carbon negative method of producing energy.<\/p>\n
In May 2012, Interra launched its first line of biochar enriched soil products. The Interra Preta line currently features both a biochar enriched soil amendment and a biochar enriched potting soil.<\/p>\n
But expansion of the company beyond terra preta enthusiasts is predicated on deployment of this commercial-scale system.<\/p>\n
To that end, the \u201clarge, California-based agricultural partner\u201d working with Interra is not disclosed at this time, but for sure Interra has been working with San Diego State, which has an Imperial Valley campus at Brawley, which lies southeast of Palm Springs and the Salton Sea and is roughly 24 miles north of Calexico, which is the \u201cnorth of the border\u201d counterpart to Mexicali.<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line<\/p>\n
One more round of funding is probably enough at this stage to see if Interra can translate promise into \u201cpromise realized\u201d \u2014 but progress has been made, that\u2019s for sure. The financial upside and low \u201ccash-to-breakeven\u201d makes this a tempting target for those who find the allures of $800 biochar more compelling than $450 per ton biocrudes. We\u2019ll be watching the results out of the lab to see if this venture can make a biochar that can unlock, through a combination of price and performance, the interest of larger-scale agricultural ventures in California.<\/p>\n
Lower inputs mean more sustainable feedstock and more of it. And that\u2019s good for all who find themselves downstream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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