Lysle Whitmer, giving a quick tour of the technical upgrades
to an Iowa State University biofuels pilot plant, pointed to a long series of
stainless steel pipes and cylinders. They’re called cyclones, condensers and
precipitators, he said, and there’s an art to getting them to work together.
The machinery is all about quickly heating biomass
(including corn stalks, switchgrass or wood chips) without oxygen to produce
solid biochar and liquid bio-oil. The former can fertilize crops; the latter
can power the economy.