Cottage Scale Eco-Friendly Process For High Quality Biochar Production

Authors: Dr. Dineth S. Samarawickrama
Affiliation: Senior Scientist, National Science and Technology Commission, Sri Lanka

Published on: October 8, 2025
Journal Name: Vijoriya International Journal for Research & Innovation , Year-2025, Volume-1, Issue-1 [ July to December ]

Page Number: 63 - 69

ISSN: Yet to Assign

Abstract

Biochar is generally produced through pyrolyzing of organic feedstocks in limited oxygen atmosphere. Though high demand for biochar, due to the hazardous smoke generation, cottage scale biochar production is still not popularized. Cottage scale operators produce biochar through primitive traditional techniques, resulted high smoke emission and yields less quality product. Coconut shell charcoal is the major biochar variety in Sri Lanka, mostly used as a raw material for activated charcoal. Large-scale producers use additional firewood kiln to secondary burn the generated smoke from biochar production.  Retort technique is one of the suitable methods, however it is not attracted by cottage scale producers due to its capital intensiveness. This study aims to introduce cottage scale LP-Gas fired kiln to produce high quality biochar material with less moisture content, compared with the other traditional methods. The proximity analysis of resulted coconut shell charcoal had high fixed carbon (86.43 %) and gross calorific value (7654.7 kcal/kg).  The novel process emits less smoke than other traditional methods, can be used for filling the gaps in ecofriendly charcoal production. This approach has the ability to produce high quality biochar from semi-dried materials and feedstock with different densities such as twigs, leaves and flowers. The resulted low-density biochar can lead to novel applications.  Introduction of this process is expected to gain social and societal benefits.

Keywords: Biochar, domestic-scale production, high-quality biochar, fixed carbon