Torrefaction machinery

What torrefaction does

Torrefaction roasts biomass at controlled temperature in the near-absence of oxygen. What comes out is no longer agricultural residue in any practical sense: it is energy-dense, it does not absorb water, it does not rot in an open yard, and it grinds in the pulverisers a coal plant already owns.

That last point is the commercial one. A plant burning coal can co-fire torrefied pellets without a retrofit. There is no capital project to approve, no new handling system, no boiler modification — the fuel simply arrives and behaves.

Who buys it

Thermal power stations meeting biomass co-firing obligations, cement kilns, and industrial boiler operators in textiles, paper and food processing who are under pressure to decarbonise process heat without rebuilding it.

Two things, and they are worth separating

We manufacture the machinery. Bequest designs and fabricates torrefaction and pyrolysis reactors — rotary continuous and stationary modular — with heavy fabrication done in-house at Mansa. We are the largest supplier of torrefied-pellet machinery in India.

1,500 MTPD of pellets are produced on those lines by an associate company. We say which is which because they are different businesses with different customers, and because a buyer who assumes we produce every tonne ourselves will find out later and wonder what else was blurred.

What it means for a client either way: the people who can change a thermal profile to suit your specification are the people who designed the reactor.

Feedstock

Paddy straw principally, and the line also runs bagasse, cotton stalks, wood chips and mustard straw. All of it is residue. None of it is grown for fuel.