Patent ID: 7891114

Claim:
A method of processing relatively wet bio-mass material, comprising: (a) drying a mass of wet bio-mass material by (i) providing relatively wet bio-mass material to be dried, as a bed of such bio-mass material over a floor of a dryer, the dryer having an inlet and an outlet, an air supply system being associated with the dryer and releasing air into the bed of bio-mass material, (ii) providing a supply of heated air through the air supply system to the bed of bio-mass material, thus to percolate the heated air through the bed of bio-mass material such that the air emerges from the bed of bio-mass material, (iii) mixing the bed of bio-mass material by applying mixing apparatus to the bed of bio-mass material while the heated air is percolating upwardly through the bed of bio-mass material, and; (iv) moving the bio-mass material progressively toward the outlet of the dryer whereby a relatively drier, solid-phase, first portion of the bio-mass material is generally displaced from a relatively wetter second portion of the bio-mass material in the bed of bio-mass material; (b) removing at least a portion of the relatively drier, solid-phase, first portion of bio-mass material as product from the dryer; (c) supplying at least some of the first portion of the dried, solid-phase, bio-mass material, which has been removed from the dryer, to a combustor; (d) burning, in the combustor, the solid-phase bio-mass material supplied from the dryer, to produce heat energy; and (e) converting at least a portion of the heat energy, produced in the combustor, to electrical energy.