Carolina Coal to the Rescue

By David Hunt

The mound of woodchips piled up behind the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center Processing Facility at the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory could fuel a pretty spectacular bonfire. But as Chris Hopkins surveys the mound, he has a better idea.  Hopkins, a doctoral student in forestry at NC State University, is part of a team of researchers working to turn woodchips into a substitute for coal.

Nearby the team members have set up a tall metal machine called a torrefier that performs modern-day alchemy. Woodchips go into a large funnel at the top of the machine and come out as hard, dry, black pellets at the bottom. In the process, they've changed more than just their appearance. They've been physically and chemically altered – through heat and pressure – to make them denser, drier and easier to crush.

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