The CarbonZero Biochar Reactor is designed to produce large quantities of biochar at low cost. In addition, it also produces a clean burning syngas (a combination of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane), and byproducts of tar and wood vinegar if these are desired. The syngas can be used as a replacement for propane or natural gas, producing heat for poultry sheds or greenhouses for instance. It can also be used to generate mechanical energy for irrigation pumps via a heat exchanger and modern steam engine, or to generate electricity.

Our pyrolysis reactor is a continuous feed device that can economically process any type of relatively dry biomass waste into biochar and energy. The operating parameters can be adjusted to any temperature range or residence time desired. Hence the kiln can produce biochar of various qualities, or even torrefied biomass.

Our smallest model has a retort volume of about 5 cubic meters and can process upwards of 1 tonne of air-dried, chipped woody biomass per hour, including orchard or vineyard pruning waste, sugarcane bagasse, forestry or sawmill waste. Conversion efficiency of woody biomass to biochar is some 30 to 33 percent, so the unit will produce some 300 - 330 kilograms of biochar per tonne of biomass input. Straws and grasses have lower lignin content and hence a lower conversion efficiency to biochar, approximately 17% can be expected.

Each tonne of air-dried biomass processed will produce approximately 1.4 MWh of chemical energy in the syngas produced, in addition to a copious amount of waste heat, which could be used in a relatively simple arrangement of burner and steam turbine to produce approximately 1 MWh of electricity. Fed into the grid at an assumed payback rate of $0.05 a KWh, the unit would recoup upwards of $50 an hour, or $1200 a day in electricity revenue alone.