The German busi­ness and finan­cial news­paper Handels­blatt takes a look at the value of carbon-based products and reports: “Compa­nies around the world are deve­lo­ping processes to capture and recycle CO₂. Some tech­no­lo­gies have parti­cular potential.”

This is a trans­la­tion of the text excerpts about our company:

Pyreg: Biochar from biomass
Compost, green waste, wood and manure are also CO₂ emit­ters. The engi­nee­ring company Pyreg, for example, manu­fac­tures a system that converts CO₂ contai­ning biomass resi­dues into valuable biochar.
In this process, the biomass is converted into biochar under air extra­c­tion and high tempe­ra­tures in so-called carbo­niza­tion plants. This prevents a large propor­tion of the CO₂ contained in the biomass from esca­ping into the atmo­sphere. The biochar is used, for example, in agri­cul­ture to enrich the soil with nutri­ents and in and in industry as a compo­nent of buil­ding mate­rials. There, the CO2 is “safely stored for thou­sands of years,” says Pyreg CEO Jörg zu Dohna. If the green waste were left to rot instead, the CO₂ stored during the plants’ growth phase would be released again. One ton of Biochar perma­nently binds almost three tons of CO₂ per year.
The system has a further advan­tage: Heat is gene­rated in the carbo­niza­tion process. The indus­trial company Thyssen-Krupp Rothe Erde, which produces large-diameter anti­f­ric­tion bearings, has installed a carbo­niza­tion plant at its produc­tion site in Lipp­stadt. Accor­ding to Wilfried Spintig, COO at Thyssen-Krupp Rothe Erde, it covers around 40 percent of the energy requi­re­ments for heating and warm water in the produc­tion halls, offices and staff rooms. That corre­sponds to the annual demand of just under 180 four-person house­holds. Thyssen-Krupp Rothe Erde uses wood from pack­a­ging waste. Around 2,500 metric tons of wood resi­dues are used annu­ally to gene­rate over 5300 mega­watt hours of heat and heat and around 640 tons of biochar.
Demand for the carbo­niza­tion plants has has risen sharply in the past the past two years. Over 50 plants are in opera­tion world­wide and remove 30,000 metric tons of CO₂ annu­ally. This corre­sponds to equi­va­lent to the climate perfor­mance of 2.4 million trees. The tech­no­logy has has its price: one plant costs around two million euros.

230309_Handelsblatt print_Der Klima­sünder CO2