MiniTorr: Small-scale, portable, decentralized, community-scale biomass pretreatment system to reduce feedstock procurement costs

Rural communities are often shut out from the socioeconomic benefits of biomass conversion, as the crop and forest residues in rural communities are often loose, wet, bulky, and too expensive to collect and transport to a centralized conversion facility. The non-merchantable residues not only represent a $120 billion/year loss, but can also lead to significant air pollution, whether through open-air burning, or through fueling of catastrophic wildfires. Takachar is developing small-scale, low-cost, portable biomass systems that can latch onto the back of tractors and pick-up trucks to deploy to rural communities, allowing localized conversion of residues into higher-value bioproducts and biofuels. In many cases, the resultant products have a local demand, thereby closing the local waste-to-value loop. In other cases, transporting the processed, densified residues can reduce the logistical cost by up to 50%, by multiplying the amount and value of residues that can be loaded onto the same truckload compared to raw biomass. We have identified a promising community partner to conduct an initial pilot. In Phase I, we will engage various local stakeholders in a series of interviews and visits to better understand the specific needs and requirements, as well as the type(s) of bioproducts that will work best in this community. This will allow us to run preliminary tests of the community’s biomass samples, and generate small batches of the bioproducts in order to validate their chemical characteristics and to generate end user feedback. The result will be a tailored technoeconomic and lifecycle analysis of our proposed process, an initial design package that incorporates the functional requirements defined by the community, as well as an education and outreach plan. If successful, the design package will be acted upon to produce a community-scale bioconversion pilot to be developed and tested in Phase II. Through the pilot, we will engage with forested landowners who are already interested in purchasing our systems to help them reduce the enormous logistical costs of vegetation management and woody residue removal. If scaled successfully, our decentralized biomass conversion systems can create additional livelihood in underserved rural communities, reduce the risks of catastrophic wildfires, and mitigate both air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.