The process
One process. Power, heat, and biochar.
Controlled high-temperature pyrolysis turns regional crop and wood residue into power, industrial heat, and stable biochar - and the heat it throws off is what makes the electricity. Here is how the loop closes.
The loop
The residue from growing food goes back into the ground that grew it.
Growing food creates the residue; the residue, converted, goes back into the ground that grows the food. One loop, three outputs - power, heat, and biochar.
It starts in the field
Every season, Arkansas ground grows rice, soybean and corn - and with them, stalks, leaves and hulls that nobody has a use for.
Process overview, simplified for illustration. Residence time approximate.
In short
Cold Steppe converts regional crop and wood residue into power, industrial heat, and a biochar soil amendment, through controlled high-temperature pyrolysis. It is a closed loop: the residue from growing food, converted, goes back into the ground that grows the food. Site 01 in Stuttgart, Arkansas is the one that proves the model runs; the blueprint is built to be repeated.
- Feedstock: rice hulls, corn stover, and woody mass
- Conversion: continuous pyrolysis at ~600 °C, in about twenty minutes
- Energy recovered via ORC heat-to-power (with ElectraTherm)
- Outputs: dispatchable power, industrial heat, and biochar - returned to the soil
How it works
Inputs, technology, and the site blueprint.
- 01
The inputs (feedstock)
Regional ag-waste streams - rice hulls, corn stover, and woody mass - sourced to hyper-focused regional demand.
- 02
The technology
Controlled high-temperature pyrolysis converts residue into stackable outputs. Energy is recovered via ORC heat-to-power, with partner ElectraTherm.
- 03
Site 01: Stuttgart, Arkansas (AR1)
The 'Blueprint' facility - built with execution speed and operator discipline, proudly in Stuttgart, Arkansas.
Then we scale it
A capital-efficient 4 → 8 kiln model.
Once the process is demonstrated on a single blueprint site, it repeats. Expanding a facility from four kilns to eight compounds the output without re-engineering the science.
Projected ~3.5× CapEx
Expanding from four to eight kilns roughly 3.5×'s the capital outlay.
Projected up to 8× return
Driven by energy-price leverage and the throughput a full site reaches.
Repeatable buildout
A standard site blueprint makes each new facility faster to deploy.
Site output
Phase 1 vs. full-site buildout.
Feedstock intake
- Phase 1 (4 kilns)
- ~258,048 t/yr
- Full site (8 kilns)
- ~516,096 t/yr
Biochar production
- Phase 1 (4 kilns)
- ~64,512 t/yr
- Full site (8 kilns)
- ~129,024 t/yr
Gross power
- Phase 1 (4 kilns)
- 6 MW
- Full site (8 kilns)
- 12 MW
Net electric export
- Phase 1 (4 kilns)
- 5 MW
- Full site (8 kilns)
- 10 MW
Thermal export
- Phase 1 (4 kilns)
- 20 MW
- Full site (8 kilns)
- 40 MW
Illustrative per-site figures; forward-looking and subject to final engineering.
Inside Site 01.
