Agricultural Issues
Agricultural residues
Agricultural production creates mountains of low-value residues on a daily basis. This includes straws, husks, nut shells, fruit pits, seeds, sugar cane bagasse and manure to name just a few. While many of these residues are best handled through composting and/or farming practices, several are difficult to manage because of their volume, toxicity and resistance to biodegrading or potential health hazards to humans.
Some agricultural crops, (notably rice and flax) produce straw which typically takes years to biodegrade and are of little or no value as livestock feed or as a commercial commodity. "Open air" burning of this straw following grain harvest is a common practice worldwide, where millions of tons of straw is burned annually. Smoke generated by this practice adds significantly to local pollution, poor air quality, "greenhouse" gases and removal of soil nutrients.
Transition Crops
As we move to a global economy in the agricultural industry, certain regions are losing the markets for their traditional crops, such as sugar cane or tobacco. In many cases, farmers are not able to replace these crops with viable alternative crops. With the Agri-THERM mobile pyrolysis plant it will be practical to grow these crops specifically for the byproducts produced. This allows the farmers to continue growing the same crop with their existing expertise and capital equipment.