Patent ID: 8663592

Claim:
A method for producing vegetable carbon with high carbon content from non-food agricultural biomass introduced at an upper inlet into a reactor column, comprising the following phases performed in sequence in an operating process: (a) priming phase, comprising the steps of: tiered pyrolytic distillation of the biomass through injection of hot gases at a temperature between 350° C. and 400° C. into a lower part of the reactor column through a grid supporting the biomass, and removing processed biomass from the lower part of the reactor column when a temperature of a biomass layer just above the grid reaches the temperature of the injected gases; (b) transition phase, comprising the steps of: progressively adding air to the injected gases to enrich with oxygen, oxidizing volatile components located on the grid with the oxygen to increase the temperature of the biomass layer just above the grid, and accelerate biomass mineralization; lowering the temperature of the injected gases into the lower part of the reactor column with the added air; and (c) production phase, including the steps of: when the temperature of the injected gases reaches ambient temperature, replacing the oxygen enriched gases exclusively with compressed air, continuously injecting the compressed air into the lower part of the reactor column through the grid to increase heat transfer between the gases and the biomass to obtain vegetable carbon with high carbon content and to maintain the temperature in the biomass layer just above the grid between 600° C. and 750° C., removing biomass transformed into vegetable carbon from the lower part of the reactor column through the grid, and adding non-food agricultural biomass through the upper inlet to the reactor column as the vegetable carbon is removed from the lower part of the reactor column through the grid while maintaining temperature at a top of the reactor column below 65° C.