After Big Table Farm winery in Gaston cleared out a hillside for a new vineyard, it was left with numerous piles of trees and brush in September 2018. (Jeremy Fenske)

In 2018 Brian Marcy and Clare Carver of Big Table Farm winery in Gaston cleared 13 acres of a hillside for a new vineyard. The only problem was how to dispose of the dozens of piles of fir trees, Scotch broom and brush without fouling the air.

Adding an accelerant and lighting the piles on fire is the preferred disposal method in the Willamette Valley. Marcy and Carver, however, wanted a solution that did not send carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter spiraling into the atmosphere. The couple's steadfast motto is "waste not, want not," so the solution also needed to leave them with something more useful than piles of smoldering ash.

A year of research led Marcy and Carver to the Carbonator-500, an 83,000-pound portable air curtain carbonizer made in Chester, New Hampshire, by Ragnar Original Innovation. The Carbonator-500 is a $600,000 super-sized kiln on wheels that incinerates wood and debris piles without significantly polluting the atmosphere. It also turns those piles into a useful soil amendment known as biochar, a charcoal-like substance comprising mostly carbon and ash.

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The Carbonator-500 at work at Big Table Farm winery in Gaston. (Jeremy Fenske)

With all their boxes checked, Marcy and Carver contracted with Blackwood Solutions, an authorized Carbonator-500 dealer based in Indiana, to bring one to Big Table Farm. On May 14, the Blackwood Solutions team arrived for what Carver describes as "the Carbonator-500's very first on-site carbonization of cleared vegetation in an agricultural setting."

Carbonization is hot and quick. An excavator fills half of the Carbonator-500's ceramic-lined combustion chamber with wood debris that is set on fire. A short time later, powerful fans, started by remote control, throw an invisible curtain of air over the flames. The air curtain keeps the smoke in and oxygen out as the debris burns by a process known as pyrolysis. This air curtain is the key to the Carbonator-500's superiority over open burn piles when it comes to greenhouse gas and hazardous small particle emissions.

The excavator then begins reloading the combustion chamber with wood debris. The chamber’s 2,500-degree Fahrenheit fire quickly reduces the debris to chunks of biochar. The biochar is then cooled by water jets as augers push it out the rear of the machine. A conveyor belt transports the biochar to a large pile where it is sorted into “supersacks” that hold two cubic yards each.

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The biochar produced by the Carbonator-500 from wood and brush piles. (Jeremy Fenske)

By June 1, the Carbonator-500 had disposed of all of Big Table Farm’s wood and brush piles. Left behind were clear blue skies and massive piles of biochar.

Jason Feagans, president of Blackwood Solutions, estimated the Carbonator-500 was churning out 12.5 cubic yards of biochar a day. “Other than a few idiosyncrasies we had to work out with the machine, the project went well. We were pleased to partner with Big Table Farm to put all that carbon back into the soil instead of in the atmosphere,” Feagans said.

Big Table Farm has over 100 “supersacks” to date. “We are going to place as much of it as we can into our compost piles,” Carver said. “That way we can work the biochar into the ground and hopefully keep the carbon sequestered for hundreds of years while attracting and holding nutrients, water, and microbial life.”

Carver may also sell some of the biochar to help offset project costs, which are not insubstantial. “It is $12,000 a week to lease the Carbonator-500, which is the most cost-effective solution if you take open burning off the table," Feagans said. “I have also seen biochar listed for sale at $500 a (cubic) yard. If it is actually selling at that price, you could recoup a lot of your costs.”

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Biochar from the Carbonator-500 is moved along a conveyor belt and dropped into a pile. (Michael Alberty)

Marcy and Carver hope the success of Big Table Farm’s biochar project will draw the interest of vineyard owners and farmers throughout the region. “As agricultural land in the Willamette Valley transitions from tree farms to vineyards and orchards, we want to pioneer a new way to capture carbon and nutrients from biomass, build farm soils and keep more smoke and carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere,” Carver said.

Marcy and Carver’s showcase project is already drawing the attention of other wineries. Feagans said that as of June 7, Blackwood Solutions is in discussion with three Oregon wineries interested in leasing the Carbonator-500.

When it comes to the future of the Willamette Valley and converting land from one agricultural use to another, Marcy and Carver hope that where there’s no smoke, there’s a Carbonator-500 fire.

Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine.

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