Powering a TLUD Biomass Pyrolyzer Using its Own Waste Heat and Thermoelectric Devices

The escalating severity and frequency of climate change events, including prolonged droughts, extensive wildfire seasons, rising sea levels, and devastating floods, calls for urgent greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction policies. Waste heat utilization emerges as one potential strategy for climate change mitigation. Controlled thermochemical processes such as biomass pyrolysis offer a climate-friendly alternative approach in the face of biomass decay or open burning, which contribute to emissions of methane and other harmful pollutants to the environment. Biomass pyrolysis can also produce electric power or industrial heat without adding carbon to the atmosphere and providing a stable form of carbon sequestration in the form of biochar. In response to environmental concerns, California’s San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is set to prohibit open burning of biomass starting in January 2025. This paper deals with the potential application of thermoelectric generators to harness waste heat from a Top-Lit Up-Draft (TLUD) biomass pyrolyzer. Thermoelectric generator plates were studied and characterized, where the amount of voltage generation and the effect of external cooling were investigated. The contribution of this paper is to use the thermoelectric generator plates to recover some of the waste heat that is lost during biomass pyrolysis. The electric power produced can be used to replace the external power source required in TLUD pyrolyzers.