Biochar Coming to West Australia

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POULTRY farmer Rob Kestel is confident a large-scale pyrolysis plant proposed for Western Australia will provide an effective way to dispose of chicken litter by making biochar (bio char).

The proposed plant, to be built near Bunbury, south of Perth, is expected to produce three megawatts of power and about 10,000 tonnes of biochar a year.

Rob, who is a shareholder in the plant, expects it to provide a solution for poultry waste management on his farm at Gingin, north of Perth.

Manure from chicken-meat farms is commonly used as fertiliser. However, it also harbours the biting stable fly, which attacks humans, domestic pets, horses and other livestock.

“The use of raw poultry manure from chicken production will be banned in WA from 2010, to reduce fly populations,” Rob said.

On a recent overseas study tour Rob visited a pilot pyrolysis plant in the US.

The proposed pyrolysis plant will burn poultry litter (half chicken droppings and half sawdust) in the absence of oxygen, to produce charcoal and a synthetic gas, or syngas, for generating electricity.

Rob said the biochar byproduct would provide a cleaner fertiliser and allow the plant’s operator to engage in emissions trading.

“One of the best things about the biochar is that it is carbon negative, actually capturing carbon from the atmosphere,” he said. The plant is expected to be operating by 2011.

The company behind the pyrolysis plant, Blair Fox Generation, is part-owned by members of Western Australia’s poultry industry.