The final leg 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 Wales study tour took us further away from the rolling hills of East Wales towards the heavy traffic of South East England, to visit Brodie 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 at their Feltons Farm site. Here they manage around 10,000 tonnes of biomass per year with its end use ranging from compost, to biomass boiler fuel to biochar. Speaking with Alex Brodie, I’m led to believe that they are the largest UK producer of biochar – with an output of around 2.5 tonnes per day.

The strength of Brodie Biomass’ approach is in their contextuality. They aren’t experimenting heavily with 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, allowing for consistency in their 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, which results in a consistent solid output. This isn’t due to a lack of innovation, as they are constantly monitoring and adapting their feedstock preparation, grading and storage; as well as their pyrolysis temperatures and times. The reason they aren’t experimenting with different feedstocks is because they receive their wood chip from 30 tree surgeons, all within 25 miles that have been bringing biomass to them for decades. The Brodie family and their facility is entrenched in the local bioeconomy, also selling logs and woodchip (without pyrolysis).

The system they use is the same unit as the one we viewed at Woodtek on Day 2 – the C1000. They couple this with one of Woodtek’s well-acclaimed dryers, drying 0.5 tonnes/hour down to 10% moisture content. We were all quite surprised, and personally I was impressed, by such a low level. I spoke to Tom Brodie, Alex’s son, and he said that this was due to their varied feedstock size, which they screen after drying. He pointed out that the fines (material under 25mm) were likely 6-9% and the 25-50mm material was then probably around 10-15%, which would be optimal for biochar production. This dried biomass is then sorted with grading and screening to be used for its desired function. With anything over 50mm being used for biomass boilers. Tom noted that as the market grows for biochar, they anticipate a need for re-chipping some feedstock so that they can move from large biomass boiler feedstock biomass towards pyrolysis.

They have been working with char on the farm, mixing at different rates – showing their commitment to innovation without needing to change feedstocks. They have been applying char at 50/50 rate on some land parcels to understand impact, which they had to attain a U10 licence for as currently unlicenced you are limited to applying 2 tonnes of char per hectare. They far exceed this with their trial, using 21 tonnes of char on a hectare which they inoculate in 21 tonnes of compost and horse muck (from their horses) for a year, which is needed because of their high level of char to compost. They have also been experimenting with biochar compost layering on their piles – picture a biochar/compost/muck lasagne. Quite unappealing but it has yielded impressive results, in which Tom has managed to grow plants with NO SOIL, just inoculated char. As well as other trials being used as a brick colourant, replacing anthracite.