Bio charcoal is a stable carbon enrichment product formed by agricultural and forestry waste and other biomass through oxygen-free and high-temperature pyrolysis. It has high calorific value, strong adsorbability, oxidation resistance, biodegradation resistance, and other superior characteristics. These make it widely used in energy, metal smelting, carbon sequestration, water purification, and other fields. Moreover, it provides solutions to hot issues such as soil remediation, climate change, and environmental pollution to a certain extent. Therefore, many scientists have dubbed the reputation of “black gold” for bio charcoal.
Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Bio Charcoal
Bio charcoal produced by high-temperature pyrolysis through biochar production equipment has many advantages. That’s why it’s becoming more and more popular. Here are some of its characteristics:
- Greater porosity & stronger adsorption: Biochar has a rich pore structure that provides it with a large specific surface area and excellent adsorption properties.
- Alkalinity: Biochar is generally alkaline. This is very important for acidic soil amendment.
- Good electrical conductivity: Charcoal is a good conductive material. It can transfer electrical energy efficiently in the electrolysis process.
- Fixed carbon structure: The carbonaceous structure of biochar is so stable that it will not disappear for hundreds to thousands of years if buried in the ground.
- High calorific value: Charcoal is produced from the biomass pyrolysis process. During this process, moisture and volatile organic matter are removed from the biomass, leaving behind a carbon-rich structure. This high carbon content causes the combustion of charcoal to release greater energy.
Applications of Bio Charcoal
The excellent physical and chemical properties of bio charcoal bring about wide uses. Investors selling biochar for these applications will earn good returns. More information is below!
- Industrial fuel: Bio charcoal has been widely used as fuel in power plants, steel mills, ceramics factories, and other industrial facilities.
- Living fuel: Bio charcoal can be also utilized for BBQ, shisha, cooking, home heating, and more.
- Increase nutrient retention: Biochar has excellent adsorption capacity so that it can adsorb nutrient elements such as N, P, and K. The high carbon content is the reason why fertile soil is mostly black.
- Improve soil structure: Biocharcoal’s porous structure increases soil porosity and permeability. This can improve soil aeration, water retention, and drought resistance.
- Promote soil remediation: Biochar can adsorb harmful substances such as heavy metal ions and pesticide residues in contaminated soils.
- Adjust the pH value of soil: Biochar can regulate soil pH. It can neutralize acidic soils.
- Keep the animal’s gut healthy: Bio charcoal can regulate the pH of the animal’s gastrointestinal tract and maintain the balance of intestinal flora.
- Improve feed nutritional value: Biochar, rich in Ca, Mg, and Fe, provides additional micronutrients to meet the nutritional requirements of animals.
- Promote sustainable development of animal husbandry: Biochar feed reduces methane production in ruminant animals’ rumen and minimizes the release of harmful gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide from animals’ feces and urine.
The carbon element in the soil is unstable and will be affected by land use change (Most typically, after deforestation, the carbon in the soil is oxidized into carbon dioxide and released into the atmosphere). Today, cleaner and more eco-friendly industrial-scale carbon sequestration technology is becoming more mature, that is, using biochar production equipment to seal CO₂ in “bio charcoal” and then bury it. This biochar can be stably stored underground for hundreds of years. This helps reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere and combat global warming.
The fixed carbon composition of charcoal is high, and the chemical structure is stable, which can resist the influence of heat and pressure. Therefore, bio charcoal can seize the oxygen element in the metal during the high-temperature process to promote the reduction reaction. Finally, it achieves the purpose of metal purification.
Modern Method of Bio Charcoal Production
After knowing bio charcoal’ excellent features and wide applications, now you may be interested in how to make bio charcoal. The modern method of making biochar is to heat the biomass waste at high temperatures in a low-oxygen environment to decompose it. Using charcoal making machine can perfectly finish the production process. The production method usually includes the following steps:
- Pretreatment: Keep the size and moisture of biomass fit for feeding requirements with dryers and crushers.
- Pyrolysis/Carbonization: Convey biomass into reactor. Then heat the reactor. At 380℃ – 450℃, biomass decomposes and charcoal powder is produced.
- Molding: Add binders and water to the charcoal powder. Under specific pressure, charcoal powder is pressed into briquettes.
Development Status and Prospect of Bio Charcoal
In recent years, the “black gold” – biochar has been increasingly recognized and widely used at home and abroad. It has made great contributions to the global ecological environment, sustainable development of agriculture, and other aspects. Here is some of the latest market information for your reference.
- Slow pyrolysis is the main technical for biochar production in 2023, accounting for more than 65.1%. This is driven by its ability to produce high-quality biochar. This method maximizes carbon retention and minimizes emissions.
- Fast pyrolysis is mainly used to produce bio-oil. Biochar is not the main product. Therefore, the proportion of this technology in biochar production is not high.
- Gasification technology’s proportion increases slightly. But it mainly produces syngas. Biochar is not a major product. It is expected to lose its market share in the future.
- North America holds the largest biochar market share, with a revenue share of over 58.5% in 2023. This is driven by its strong agricultural sectors and environmental awareness. Biochar is mostly used in agricultural soil improvement and carbon sequestration.
- Europe’s biochar market is expanding rapidly. Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, etc. are the main development areas
- Economies such as China and India have large and developing agricultural sectors. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to see extremely high growth.
- The Middle East and Africa region has greater growth potential in the use of biochar for soil restoration and wastewater management.
- In 2023, agriculture is the leading application area with a revenue share of more than 77.0%. This includes biochar application in general farming and gardening.
- With increased concern for food safety and body health, the market share of biochar applications in the livestock sector is expected to increase.
- With the focus on environmental management and sustainable development, the market share of biochar in carbon sequestration, and wastewater management is expected to grow.
From the above analysis, you can see that biochar production equipment and technology is more and more popular. Both the industry scale and application prospects are broad. You can also find the best confirmation from the biochar production and applications cases below. If you want to know more information, you can contact Beston Group.
