Thermal Extrusion

Process

Thermal extrusion is the process of grinding, shearing, and friction by forcing biomass through a plate or die. The technology uses hardened steel screws that operate continuously with little need for maintenance or repair. 

This technology is often used as a “pre-process” to prepare biomass for a finishing process. For example, Titan uses thermal extrusion to prepare biomass for briquetting, composting, pyrolysis, and bio-chemical extraction.  

The first product to be manufactured with Titan’s extrusion process is the Maratherm^®  Long-Lasting Eco-Friendly Firelog. The thermal extrusion process is used to force wood fibre through a die and into a log shaped product with a density higher than the original tree.  

A composting product is also being produced using the extrusion equipment by forcing biomass through a plate that shears the material into a soil-looking product within seconds. 

One of Titan’s extruders will be dedicated to processing animal waste prior to pyrolysis of this material. 

Products

Briquettes

Biomass briquetting involves the compaction of biomass at very high pressures. The technology compresses agricultural, forestry, and municipal solid waste residues into materials that can be burned in place of wood pellets or coal.  Biomass is compressed in a die to produce the briquettes.

Briquette products have significantly smaller volume than the original biomass and therefore have a higher volumetric energy density, similar to coal. The product is essentially a very large wood pellet that is similar in the properties of energy content and specific and bulk density.

Burning biomass for heat and electricity is carbon neutral since the carbon dioxide (CO₂) released when burned is equal to the CO₂ absorbed during the growth of the biomass. The project not only uses carbon neutral biomass, but uses waste by-products.  Burning the material allows the recovery of valuable energy that might otherwise be wasted. 

Compost

Titan produces compost from mixed waste streams that are not easily converted into bio-char and the other higher value products. The compost is produced from everything from zucchini to diapers and meets the Canadian Compost Quality Guidelines by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

Maratherm®

Titan sells Maratherm eco-logs from our Craik site location. The logs retail for $6.25 for a bundle of five.

Our customers have found these are excellent for keeping wood-stoves hot all night, greatly reducing the need to tend the fire overnight or while the family is our of the house.

As one Maratherm user said, "I can put three or four in and the stove and the house is warm all night. Not only that- our coals are still red-hot in the morning. All I have to do is put a few longs on and away it goes."

Maratherm info sheet

(PDF, 1MB)