How Logs of Fruit Pulp Replace Firewood and Charcoal

I was skeptical, since animal feed seems like a higher use, but the people involved actually seem respectful of the material.


This seems like process that could be further refined.

I was going to post this same video in here.  It also feels to me that there might be some lower entropy uses in lieu of/prior to burning this for fuel.  For animal feed the cyanide levels might be a bit high, and for acetic acid production a lot of additional equipment would be required... Couldn't come up with anything else, but it just feeeels like there should be something.

I like this guy's project and I love his disposition.

Anywhere there's a fruit processing industry this is an issue. Wine-growing regions have the problem of what to do with all their residue, known as grape marc. It is acidic, doesn't like to compost on its own, leaches things that sterilise the soil, and reeks on warm days if out in the open.

We've had some local research done on the economics of making biochar from part of the grape marc and using it to co-compost the rest. Once you factor in the costs of disposal and controlling leaching, it starts to look viable. Cogeneration or process heat from the pyrolysis is a valuable yield. And if you can reward the biochar production with carbon credits, then it really starts to make sense.

Anyone who adds biochar to their compost would grok this...you get a better result and the extra carbon in the pile seems to mitigate stuff that would ordinarily tend to go anaerobic and stink.