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Innovation is at the heart of any successful business. Radial Timber in Yarram, Victoria with a strategy already in place for its mainstream timber operation, has embarked on a new approach to using its wood waste that takes the company deeper into the heart of the sustainable, circular economy. Source: Philip Hopkins for Timberbiz Radial has installed a pilot plant that uses pyrolysis technology; organic material, in this case wood residues, is burnt at high temperatures without oxygen to produce biochar, a stable solid that is rich in carbon and can fertilise and endure in soil for thousands of years. “The plant can also produce heat and energy, and wood vinegar – a liquid, potentially usable in agriculture, also in cooking,” said Radial’s managing director, Chris McEvoy. The heat will play a crucial role in running the timber mill, with a potential heating source for the local community. The $1 million pilot continuous biochar maker is the result of three years’ research and development and is a joint venture between Radial; Earth Systems, which provides the technology; and Spiegel Bioenergy, a South Gippsland battery supplier owned by John and Linda Ballis. “We have a pure resource, most of the biochar plant around the world are working with waste, plastic waste, arboreous waste – green leaves, different species and densities; the product that comes out is not that uniform,” said Mr McEvoy. “Our timber is all dense class, one or two timbers, all exactly the same shape. First, it should go through well, and secondly, should be a really high-value, consistent product. We’ve got plenty of resource, plenty of forestry residue. The beauty of the continuous char maker is you can put through much larger volumes. Take the biochar and put it into degraded soil’s to improve it – I love this circular economy story.” Earth Systems, the technology provider based in Port Melbourne, was originally an environmental consulting firm founded in 1993. “For about a decade, we have been doing pyrolysis systems. We’re small but have offices all over the world for our consulting work, yet this side of the business in the last couple of years has started to take off. There is a lot more interest in biochar,” said Ricky Dent, Earth systems’ environment technology specialist who is from South Gippsland and is loving being ‘back home’ installing a plant in the region. The company already runs a plant at Lysterfield in the Dandenong Ranges. Mr Dent, running his hand through the feed stock – the mill’s sawdust residue – explained how the plant works. “The residue will feed out to the first stage conveyor and go up into our shuttle drawer system. The purpose of this system is to create an air-tight seal between the outside world and the pyrolysis happening inside,” he said. “Because pyrolysis is heat in the absence of air – it’s thermal degradation, so we must keep as much air out of the process as possible. The job of our furnace is to spread the feedstock as widely as possible to maximise surface area so we get the maximum reaction in the shortest amount of time. “The feedstock will be then conveyed along the length of the furnace, where it will convert from wood biomass to pure carbon, which is the biochar that comes out at the end. The gas travels in the opposite direction to the feedstock; in that way it is able to deposit its heat onto the incoming feedstock, making the whole system closed loop with very little emissions. Ricky said in the chamber, the aim was to get the biochar to about 500 deg Celsius, with the gases jumping right up to the potentially as high as 1300 deg C. Normally we try and keep the temperature lower, but we’re talking about generating electricity from that process, so if you want to generate electricity, the higher the temperature we get, that generally means the higher efficiency. Mr Dent said the mill itself needs heat and electricity. “That will be the next stage to this project, deeming what’s most economic, what works out best for everyone. We will either capture additional heat from here to assist in their process or offset their energy use at that end, or we will aim for as much electricity generation as we can, which will go into the battery storage on site and that can go out to feed the rest of the mill,” he said. At this stage, the operation is looking at about 75 kilowatts of electrical output mainly for internal use. For external use, a bigger scale of plant, or a multiple of these plants, would be required. “The big thing about thermal technology, it doesn’t scale in a linear fashion – it’s more exponential. Should anything go mildly wrong, the machine will shut itself down. We’ve now run long enough in Australia and we have a good relationship with the CFA; they even grant us permits to run on days of extreme fire danger. We’ve even got a permit to run on total fire ban, but we choose not to.” Mr McEvoy will assess how the biochar plant fits in with Radial’s current operation. Having lost access to VicForests’ native hardwood timber, Radial’s plan is to use its own hardwood plantations to make the business self-sufficient in the long term. In the interim, in the absence of larger logs, Radial will concentrate on its new peeling plant. A small log line is part of the peeler plant, which can peel a small log down into veneer sheets, which are dried, glued and pressed. This engineered timber can theoretically be used to make mass panels “We could not run the peeling plant we want to run because of the requirements to heat the logs before they are peeled. Once peeled, you must dry the veneers through this big dryer; doing that on gas and electricity, you would never afford it. “We can’t put a peeling plant in without a bio-plant. If […]

A former minister in the Hodgman and Gutwein governments, Sarah Courtney, has been named the independent chair of the Tasmanian Forest Products Association (TFPA). Source: Timberbiz After a successful three-year tenure from Inaugural Chair Bryan Hayes, Ms Courtney says she is eager to guide the TFPA in coming years. Speaking following the announcement, outgoing acting-Chair Shawn Britton acknowledged the wealth of experience Ms Courtney brings to the role. “Sarah has considerable experience, including in the areas of governance, management, agriculture, aquaculture, finance, stakeholder management, public policy, and small business. She’s ideally placed to continue the great work of the TFPA,” Mr Britton said. “In an industry traditionally dominated by men, it’s pleasing we can now have a strong female voice representing our businesses. Having her lead the association shows the modern forestry industry is shedding off the reputation of its past.” Ms Courtney said she’s ready to represent the forest industry across all aspects of the Tasmanian business and political arenas. “The TPFA and the Tasmanian forestry industry are well respected on both sides of the chamber in Tasmanian politics,” Ms Courtney said. “I’m excited to be able to assist these great Tasmanian businesses continue to grow our economy and our communities. Tasmanian forestry employs over 5,500 people across the state, is a key driver in the Tasmanian economy, and integral in Tasmania meeting its bold climate change goals,” she said. Ms Courtney will begin her tenure as the TFPA chair immediately, representing and promoting all aspects of the forestry value chain.