Railroad Tie Pyrolysis

Railroad tie pyrolysis presents some interesting opportunities.  In the U.S. alone, over 20 million new wood railroad ties are installed every year. While wood is currently the best option for railroad ties (and utility poles) the ability to re-use or dispose of treated wood coming is clearly a critical consideration.  The regulatory, environmental, and financial landscape for re-use and disposal are rapidly changing, with the goal being to re-use these creosote-treated railroad ties and utility poles possibly as feedstocks for bio-oil production. A good proposed process is to use careful temperature and time control in commonly used pyrolysis techniques, such as intermediate and fast pyrolysis. As this exploration continues, it is always a consideration that the water-resistant chemicals and pesticides infused in the wood be properly dealt with. Disposing of used wooden railroad ties properly is important to the ecology, and pyrolysis appears to be a good solution.

For more than 25 years, Lee Enterprises Consulting has fostered innovation at the forefront of the bioeconomy. We have a highly differentiated market position centered around our deep subject matter expertise in very specialized areas. We help clients minimize technical and economic risk by leveraging best practices in our industries, and we have a long track record of providing insightful analysis and practical advice.

Among its 150+ experts, Lee Enterprises Consulting has a wide range of services in bioenergy, biomaterials and chemicals, biotechnologies, and feedstocks.  We certainly have specialists in wood pyrolysis.  In fact, our biotechnology sections handle things like anaerobic digestion, biomass technologies, fermentation, gasification, catalysis, torrefaction, pyrolysis, carbonization, bioreactors, renewable hydrogen & renewable natural gas technologies, carbon capture & storage, waste-to-energy technologies, wastewater and water treatment, gas-to liquids, hydrothermal and thermochemical conversions, syngas generation, bioplastics/polymers, fluidization, Fischer-Tropsch, direct combustion and power generation technologies, bio-fabricated proteins, synthetic biology, nutraceuticals, food products technology, aquaculture, and many other types of emerging technologies in the chemical, renewable/cleantech, and synthetic biology sectors.

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