NPUST Establishes Agriculture and Forestry By-Product Development Center to Turn Woody Waste into Biochar

National Pingtung University of Science and Technology established the "Agriculture and Forestry By-Product Circular Utilization and Value-Added Development Center" this year, hoping to develop woody agricultural waste into various biomass pellets or biochar pellets for use as fertilizer, soil amendments, activated carbon and more, in order to solve the agricultural waste problem. In the future, it plans to establish a spin-off company at the school and train students to handle more agricultural waste.

Agricultural production generates agricultural waste such as rice straw or branches. Sending it to incinerators as industrial waste is costly, so farmers often choose open burning, but open burning has a huge impact on air quality. NPUST's "Agriculture and Forestry By-Product Circular Utilization and Value-Added Development Center" uses processes such as pelletizers and carbonization machines to turn woody agricultural waste into biomass pellets or biochar pellets.

Long Wei, assistant professor in NPUST's Department of Wood Science and Design, said that after woody waste such as rice straw and branches is made into biomass pellets and biochar, it can not only be used as fertilizer, but can also be made into activated carbon to adsorb substances in water, improve the environment of aquaculture waters, and reduce the frequency of water changes, thereby reducing groundwater extraction by aquaculture operators. Mushroom space bags, which are difficult to handle because of their high moisture content, can also be made into soil amendments to improve acidic soil.

Long Wei said that biomass pellets can be applied in a very wide range of areas. Based on the development center's production capacity, annual output is estimated to reach 1,000 tonnes and create about 13 million in economic value. If biochar is further developed, the output value would be even more considerable. Long Wei also said that the center's current project has already obtained some patents, and in the future it hopes to establish a spin-off company through the school's incubation center and train students to further expand the application of these technologies.

National Pingtung University of Science and Technology established the "Agriculture and Forestry By-Product Circular Utilization and Value-Added Development Center" this year, hoping to develop woody agricultural waste into various biomass pellets or biochar pellets for use as fertilizer, soil amendments, activated carbon and more.

Biomass pellets can also be used for barbecuing as a substitute for charcoal.