Several million broken treated timber vine posts are stock piled on vineyards across Australia from WA’s Margaret River to NSW’s Hunter region.

About 70 per cent of this viticulture waste is treated with copper, chrome and arsenic (CCAs) and 30 per cent with creosote (organic tars). 

An industry presentation processing creosote posts using a commercial mobile biochar plant with the SA-made Green Flame system will be on show at Peats Soil & Garden Supplies, 22 Flour Mill Rd, Whites Valley, at 4 pm on March 5.

The creosote posts resource can be safely converted onsite into a charcoal like product without harmful environmental emissions and this technology option can commence immediately.

The char produced from this process can be used to safely bind carbon into the soil.

An Australian proto-type technology for producing renewable electricity by timber gasification requires conservative funding to prove safe capture of CCAs residues, including assessment of the type and concentration of gases emitted from this technology and an estimate of disposal costs.

The goal of this technology is to safely and without harmful environmental emissions, treat the CCA timber resource and create renewable electricity. 

Full report on the Grapegrower & Winemaker blog: www.grapegrowerandwinemaker.wordpress.com.