Halfway, Ore.-Biochar Products, a small start-up company focusing on pyrolysis to turn forest wastes into soil conditioners and fuels, is in the early stages of developing a 10-dry-ton-per-day prototype plant near here with hopes of putting the concept to use in small communities located near forested landscapes. Eric Twombly, the company’s president, is a former U.S. Forest Service employee who envisions a market for owners of private timberland and federal land managers who might otherwise burn or dispose of waste from forest thinning projects. “One of these plants in my estimation might pencil out to 10 or 15 jobs, and we could easily have three or four in this area around Halfway, Baker City, Trout Creek, and other places in Baker and Union counties,” Twombly told the local press during a recent tour of the plant for timber owners and others from northeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. Biochar is simply charcoal that is created using a pyrolysis process, heating biomass in a low oxygen environment. Biochar is spread on agricultural fields and incorporated into the top layer of soil to increase crop yields by preventing fertilizer runoff and leeching. It also aids in moisture retention. Twombly started investigating alternatives to burning waste from forest health projects in slash piles and found a prototype machine that can turn wood and agricultural wastes such as chicken manure into fertilizer and fuel. He resigned from the Forest Service to set up the prototype plant under an agency grant.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain