It’s Day 2 of the International BiocharBiochar is a carbon-rich material created from biomass decomposition in low-oxygen conditions. It has important applications in environmental remediation, soil improvement, agriculture, carbon sequestration, energy storage, and sustainable materials, promoting efficiency and reducing waste in various contexts while addressing climate change challenges. More Initiative’s Wales Study Tour (and, yes, today we are actually in Wales). Today the group spent the day at Caebardd Farm, Woodtek’s 100-acre testbed and the Jones’ family farm. They’ve been applying biochar to the land since 2021 and have become synonymous with biochar in the UK – recently, developing their partnership project with Shropshire Council, assisting their pursuit of Net Zero status.

Woodtek utilise an innovative pyrolysisPyrolysis is a thermochemical process that converts waste biomass into bio-char, bio-oil, and pyro-gas. It offers significant advantages in waste valorization, turning low-value materials into economically valuable resources. Its versatility allows for tailored products based on operational conditions, presenting itself as a cost-effective and efficient More approach, which does not operate with a pyrolysis chamber separate from the combustion chamber. It instead uses a flame curtain that cuts the feedstockFeedstock refers to the raw organic material used to produce biochar. This can include a wide range of materials, such as wood chips, agricultural residues, and animal manure. More off from oxygen. This does result in a biochar that is slightly lower in carbon 80%, but this is still only 2-3% lower than would be achieved otherwise, using their feedstock. However, there is significant upside, as the flame curtain slightly oxidises the outer layer of the biochar. This, Mick Jones – the founder and father of operations, noted that this improves the exchange capacity of the char. Despite losing a small amount of carbon to oxidisation, they still retain a healthy yield. Daily output is around 2.5 – 3 tonnes of biochar from 10 – 12 tonnes of biomassBiomass is a complex biological organic or non-organic solid product derived from living or recently living organism and available naturally. Various types of wastes such as animal manure, waste paper, sludge and many industrial wastes are also treated as biomass because like natural biomass these More.

To keep this output, there is a clear dedication to operationality, moving away from batch production to 24/7 functionality. This is assured by additional valves and outlets that filter emissions that make come from green material and fines. This has reduced potential SO2 and HCL emissions by around 98%. The excess energy from the system goes towards it’s parasitic load, largely with grinding, and 70% of the entire sites power. However, this is largely due to poor conversion from the turbine system that they use – it currently converts energy at around 9%, but alternatives consistently offer 20% and some claim 30%. Stuart Jones, the brilliance behind their C1000 system, noted that this could be fitted in a way that you could power a “reasonable sized village”. The heat output, once it leaves the system, has to be used for electricity conversion, as 550kWh is coming out but at a low temperature that isn’t suitable to even use for drying.

Stuart remarked that the C1000 design process began with external biomass boilers, bringing them in and modifying it inhouse. This was made possible by the 2010 government funding influx where they would pay for every kWh of naturally sourced energy. Stuart looked at other systems and noticed that every system required a lot of manual input and this made them unreliable and inaccurate. As the C1000 was being developed, they slowly moved away from a system that was reactive towards a system that works more pre-emptively.

Whilst giving the applause to his brother and father, the organiser of the whole event was Darren Jones. The day went brilliantly, with farm tours round a biochar lovers dream farm; burner demos; intricate biochar art; carbon storage displays; and, most importantly, biochar fuelled food (biochar-grown veg borsch and curry cooked with a burner retort stove).