[Stoves] Pyrolysis adaptation for tea factory

[Pablo]

Dear All,

I am following the group and I find it very interesting. Thank you to 
all for your contributions.

I work in tea in China in a private initiative project aimed to increase 
the sustainability of the organic tea garden and the local community. 
Among other actions, some money is allocated every year to finance small 
projects. I am looking into biochar stoves to improve efficiency use of 
firewood of the local households (currently burning wood and coal), 
however what I am more interested in at this moment is into the 
possibilities of using pyrolysis to supply the energy needed for tea 
processing while enjoying other benefits (i.e., biochar for the tea 
garden soil, waste management by using alternative feedstock such as pig 
sludge, producing vegetable coal,…).

I am not sure if this is the right place to raise the question … but I 
go on:

I know there exists pyrolysis systems to generate heat but the scale is 
too large for the needs in the tea factory. I have explored with some 
companies and the minimum feeding rate of the module is 250 kg/hr of 
biomass and our needs lay somewhere 300-600 kg/day of biomass (12-24 
kg/hour). So my question is, do you know if pyrolysis modules to produce 
heat (and biochar as side product) can be scaled down to what I need? 
And, if yes, do you know of any company working on this?

Thank you very much! and sorry if my question was raised in the wrong place.

Warm regards,

Pablo

Brief description of the area: The tea factory is located in a remote 
mountain area (see some pictures attached). In the factory the tea is 
first heat up to stop enzyme activity, then is rolled and finally 
roasted. Currently the first heat up and roasting is done using wood and 
vegetable coal and the rolling uses electricity. To process the tea of 
one year the factory uses 50 ton of wood trunks (big trunks, with some 
water content), 5 ton of wood brunches (as fire starter, dry thinner 
wood), 3.5 ton of vegetable coal and 35 MWh.

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