ENTRANCE - Energy from Transportable Bio-Char Equipment

ENTRANCE will develop , at feasibility level, an integrated transportable system to obtain combined electrical

power and heat, and valuable co-products from wood and other biomass fuel. The co-products are high value

charcoal, biochar for soil improvement and a means of long term carbon sequestration, and preservatives for

building products. Centralised biomass CHP systems cannot address this market. A transportable system is

needed to operate at the biomass source and remove the transport costs of bulky wood and agri-waste.

ENTRANCE will modify a biochar retort to supply its hot and calorific exhaust gas to an external combustion

(Stirling) engine powered CHP generator, modified for wood pyro-gas. The gas will be storedin a portable buffer

gas store to allow continuous electrical output from the biochar batch operation. Innovative compact heat

exchangers will be used to cool and densify the hot gas for storage and feed to the Stirling combustor, whilst

recyclable filters will be developed to clean the gas and extract valuable compounds. Electricity is for use in

agricultural buildings or grid supply, the heat from the exchangers is used for biomass or crop drying.