Green charcoal and Agricultural Productivity

Friday, 13 March 2009 00:00

Access to energy, which is increasingly seen as a fundamental right, is a necessary condition for all processes of development. In Africa, Latin America and Asia - including India and China - wood is becoming harder to find and in general alternative energies are not available or affordable for households. Two billion people are facing greater domestic energy needs.

It has led to deforestation, adding to problems of drought and desertification. To fight this, Pro-Natura invented and developed an innovative technology known as “green charcoal”. The technology has proven to be very competitive in relation to wood charcoal, has a positive effect in helping reduce climate change and in recognition of this, received the 1st place prize for technological innovations from the Altran Foundation in 2002.

The solution consists of recuperating agricultural residues or renewable biomass that cannot be otherwise valorized and transforming them into briquettes of green charcoal that can be used in the same way as wood charcoal. With this procedure, Pro-Natura offers an alternative domestic fuel made of vegetable charcoal, obtained through a proven clean and efficient carbonization process. Savannah weeds, reeds, straws of wheat or rice, cotton and corn stems, rice or coffee husk and bamboo can all be used to produce green charcoal. Each machine allows the economical and ecological production of between 4 and 5 tons of green charcoal per day.

The technology is based on the use of a retort heated to 550°C in which the biomass flows continuously, in the absence of oxygen. The temperature of the retort is maintained constant with the combustion of the pyrolysis gases that are recycled and burned in a second post-combustion chamber, thus avoiding the release of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) in the atmosphere.