Out of the ashes: Contraption could turn Helene debris into useful product
Matte yellow and dull black, the shipping-container-sized contraption belches fire into the afternoon air. Waves of heat waft from its open top, and various levers and buttons adorn its sides. The behemoth sits on treads, surrounded by a sea of mud, and it is, improbably for a machine its size, driven around via remote control.
A narrow conveyor belt rises from one end, terminating more than 15 feet up in the air. From the end of this conveyor, tiny chips of an ebony substance rain down into a white bucket, tattooing a rhythmic counterpoint to the ever-present rumble of whatever is going on inside the machine. Even the thing's name sounds like something a four-year-old would dream up — The Tigercat 6040 Carbonizer.
In many ways, it is a dream. The dream of revived economic opportunity in Western North Carolina. The dream of flood-depleted soil suddenly refreshed with plant-friendly nutrition. The dream of turning Helene debris into something useful rather than have it take up space in Haywood's landfills.
That's John Fletcher's dream. Now he's just got to find somebody to help him pay for it.
Fletcher, owner of Suncrest LLC and Canton Hardwoods, used to make a living purchasing pulpwood, making chips out of it, and selling the end product to the paper mill. When the mill closed, Fletcher pivoted to the mulch industry. But there's another product Fletcher's had his eye on for a few years — biochar. It's the tiny black chips being spat out from the conveyer at the end of the Tigercat 6040 Carbonizer. And according to Fletcher, it's the answer to a lot of WNC's pressing issues.
An unassuming miracle product
Biochar is essentially a specialized form of charcoal. It has an array of helpful applications in the agricultural world. For one thing, it can replenish soil that's had its nutrients stripped by flood waters, explained Bill Yarborough, chairman of the board of supervisors for the Haywood County Soil and Water Conservation District.
"The value of that is huge," Yarborough said, especially in flood-prone WNC. "There are other uses. When you have toxins in the soil and you need to clean them up, there's nothing better, because it will absorb those materials and hold them tightly. It's also used heavily in water treatment and filtrations."
Biochar is a valuable end product. But even better, both Yarborough and Fletcher said, it's a solution to two ongoing problems. When the paper mill closed, it negatively impacted the forestry market for hundreds of miles in every direction. And when Helene rolled in, it toppled trees in roughly the same area.
"You've got 800,000 acres of public and private lands in Western North Carolina that have downed timber. It's gonna be the biggest fire we've ever seen if we don't do something with it," Yarborough said.
"That's not a solution, that's a problem," Fletcher said, pointing to a nearby ridge, where a convoy of trucks trundled mulched Helene debris to the privately-owned landfill at the site of the former paper mill.
Fletcher is a man who cares deeply about both the forests and the people of WNC. And he's spent his career turning trees into jobs (and money). Every time one of those trucks drives by, all he sees is a colossal waste. What he'd like to do with Helene debris is turn it into biochar. After that, he sees biochar coming out of construction sites, logging operations, and more.
In his mind, it's a win all around — it would refresh WNC's forestry industry, keep Helene debris from taking up valuable space in landfills, and create a product that can facilitate both agriculture and environmental cleanup operations.
Tigercat says its machine can turn 100 tons of woody material into ten to 15 tons of biochar. That ratio is one of the things Fletcher's company is testing, said Daniel Vaught, sales manager at Suncrest.
Vaught was squelching through the mud as he tracked circles around the 6040 Carbonizer, pulling a lever here, pressing a button there. He took a moment offer a simplified version of how it all worked.
"There is a big motor and a fan that is basically churning the air and keeping the heat on the inside," Vaught said. Once the fire is going, another big machine drops in more woody material ever so often. The material burns down to a precise size before falling through a grate and being bathed in water to halt the burning process at just the right moment. Then the machine spits the resulting biochar into a bucket.
Voila.
Unfortunately, Fletcher hasn't had much luck getting a contract for debris handling. And he's running out of time. He's currently leasing the Tigercat essentially as a visual proof of the concept to lead public and private partners to the light. Yarborough said he's not sure how much longer Fletcher can continue footing the cost for the multi-million-dollar machine.
That's why Yarborough and his state level colleague Barbara Blieweis are going all in on biochar evangelizing.
"Biochar is one of the answers. But the startup cost for something like this is immense. To do production and industrial application, you need many like this all across North Carolina so that everyone can benefit," said Bliewis, the president of North Carolina Association for Soil and Water Conservation Districts. "Our vision is to come up with a pilot that works, that shows the entire business supply chain. What we are is rebuilding an economy using mobile technology. But to be an official large-scale pilot, I continue to pursue state and federal funding for that."
Meanwhile the Tigercat 6040 Carbonizer sits on borrowed time in Fletcher's hands, not-so-quietly waiting for its chance to turn the byproduct of a natural disaster into black gold. Yarborough said that interested folks should contact their public officials and "say that this idea has value. It can actually benefit us."
"It could create jobs, it could create lots of opportunities," he said. "But the main thing is it's just, it makes sense."
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