becoming energy autarkic with mill residues and closing material cycles
The production of products in grain and feed mills requires a lot of energy in the form of electricity, heat and often also process steam. Most mills are dependent on external supplies for these forms of energy. Especially for heat and steam generation, regenerative sources are usually not available but there is a dependence on fossil fuels and their markets.
At the same time, mill operations generate residual materials such as husks, hulls and bran. These are usually passed on to e.g. biogas or composting plants at little or no revenue with technical and logistical effort.
Mill residues are an excellent input material for autarkize plants. Due to the compact design of the plants, they can be easily integrated into existing mill sites and material flows.
With the help of the autarkize technology, mill residues are turned into energy-rich pyrolysis gas, which can be converted into electricity and heat in a combined heat and power plant as well as into steam in a steam boiler. Mills can thus cover a large part or even all of their energy requirements with their own residual materials alone and become autarkic.
At the same time, a high-quality biochar is produced. This can, for example, be passed on directly to the supplying arable farms and used there to improve the soil, or it can be sold on the market.
Since biochar has similar properties to activated carbon, feed mills can also incorporate it into innovative feed mixtures.
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climate-neutral electricity and heat or steam - and less logistics
Many mills operate in 24/5, 24/6, or 24/7 mode. Sieve, milling, or peeling residues are constantly produced. Since these often cannot be used on site, they are temporarily stored in silos and regularly transported by truck to reutilizers such as biogas plants or feed manufacturers.
Since autarkize plants are also designed for 24/7 operation and optimally process the still energy-rich mill residues, these can be upgraded as an input material to biochar and pyrolysis gas directly at the production site in an autarkize plant with no or only short intermediate storage. In combination with combined heat and power plants and steam boilers, autarkize plants thus provide up to 1.2 megawatts of energy for the mill from its own residual materials and make the mill independent of energy supplies.
Due to the compactness and optional container design, the autarkize systems can be easily integrated on the company premises. Thus, storage and logistics costs can be drastically reduced.
market produced biochar as soil conditioner and fertilizer
Biochar produced in the process meets the high standards for use in agriculture, viticulture, fruit growing, horticulture and landscaping.
Mill operators can sell this biochar directly on the market or activate it on site with microorganisms and nutrients in further refinement steps and then market this Terra Preta product.
The marketing/transfer of biochar to the supplying arable farms is particularly charming. This creates a closed cycle that first supplies flour from the harvested grain, then energy, and finally improves and fertilizes the soil on which the grain grows.
sale of CDR credits
The biochar from autarkize plants is not only a valuable soil conditioner but also a permanent carbon sink. Plants take CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow and use the carbon to build their cells and structures. Normally, this carbon sequestered in the plant is turned back into CO2 by rotting or burning. However, the autarkize process converts a larger portion of the carbon into a stable biochar. If this carbon is then e.g. introduced into soils, it can hardly be decomposed and the CO2 once bound remains permanently removed from the atmosphere.
Each autarkize plant removes several thousand tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. For this immensely important contribution to climate protection, producers and users of autarkize biochar can obtain certificates. The so-called Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) credits are issued in quality-assured processes and are purchased by companies and private individuals, e.g. on international stock exchanges.
The CDR certificates not only indicate what an important contribution to climate protection farmers and mill operators can make. They are also a good additional revenue stream and offer companies and private individuals the opportunity to offset their partially unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions locally in domestic growing areas.
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