The Role of Air Burners in Burning Agricultural Waste

For growers, burning vegetative waste is a common and essential practice. For hundreds of years, growers open burned vegetative waste to clear fields, prepare land for planting, and improve crop yields. Open burning agricultural waste generates significant black smoke which severely degrades the local air quality and has a negative effect on the environment. A contained combustion process offers notable advantages over open burning. This approach saves time, reduces operational costs and significantly minimizes air pollution and impacts on the environment.

Agricultural incinerators offer an alternative to open burning for agricultural waste disposal. These permanent installations feature dedicated smokestacks and employ hydrocarbon-based fuel to ignite the wood, facilitating more complete combustion and reducing particulate matter emissions compared to open burning practices. However, agricultural incinerators have significant drawbacks. Without substantial capital investment, they typically have very low throughput, making them inefficient for processing large volumes of waste. These factors, combined with high operational costs, make agricultural incinerators less than ideal for efficiently and cost-effectively managing substantial quantities of agricultural waste in most farming operations.

Air Burners, on the other hand, present a more versatile and cost-effective solution for managing vegetative waste. These portable units require minimal capital investment while offering high levels of waste throughput. Their mobility and efficiency make Air Burners a superior alternative to traditional agricultural incinerators.

Air Burners eliminate vegetative waste with maximum speed and minimal environmental impact.

Our air curtain burner technology eliminates agricultural waste onsite 40x faster than an open burn, reducing harmful smoke particulates by 98%, and leaving behind 2% of the original biomass as biochar and carbon ash to sell or mix into the ground to enrich the soil. Air Burners improve air quality for everyone in the area and reduce the negative effects of burning agricultural waste on vineyard grapes, orchard fruits, and other crops in the region. Plus, incorporating biochar back into the soil is a carbon-negative process that reduces your overall carbon footprint.

The effect of burning agricultural waste affects our planet. Let’s get Scientific.

Open burning of agricultural and vegetative waste is responsible for the uncontrolled release of 35% of all Black Carbon worldwide. According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Black Carbon, CO₂, and methane are significant contributors to climate change, with CO₂ being the primary greenhouse gas impacting modern climate change.

CO₂ is a naturally occurring compound that can originate from both biogenic and non-biogenic sources. Non-biogenic CO₂ is produced from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. Non-biogenic CO2 contributes to the net increase in atmospheric CO2 levels because it releases carbon that has been stored underground for millions of years, adding to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

In contrast, biogenic CO₂ comes from natural, biological processes, such as the respiration of plants and animals, decomposition of organic matter, and the burning of biomass (e.g., wood, crop residues). It is part of the carbon cycle, where carbon is absorbed by plants during photosynthesis and later released back into the atmosphere.
Air curtain burners enable the complete combustion of organic matter, releasing biogenic CO₂ into the atmosphere. Biogenic CO₂ is considered carbon-neutral because it’s part of the natural carbon cycle, with the CO₂ released during combustion being offset by the CO₂ absorbed when the biomass was growing. Over time, it doesn’t contribute to the net increase in atmospheric CO₂ levels.

Let’s clear the air on burning vegetative waste.

Many places have environmental regulations to prevent growers from open burning. While these measures may help curb pollution and fight climate change, they can also delay planting, impacting a vineyard or orchard grower’s bottom line. Tested by the U.S. EPA, Air Burner’s pollution-control technology is approved for use even on no-burn days in certain areas. Many municipalities also benefit from the environmental and economic advantages of burning vegetative waste using Air Burners. This approach diverts agricultural waste from landfills, plus the biochar and ash can be incorporated back into local soils, improving moisture retention and nutrient cycling. The combination of these factors makes Air Burners a sustainable vegetative waste management solution for many communities.

Air Burners. The green solution to burning agricultural waste.

While agricultural incinerators are designed to be more controlled and efficient than open burning, they can still face challenges in terms of environmental impact. These systems typically rely on secondary fuels, such as hydrocarbon fuels, to operate. Although they may reduce visible smoke and particulate matter compared to open burning, they still produce negative greenhouse gas emissions, depending on factors like the fuel source, combustion process, and emissions control technology employed. Ultimately, the environmental performance of agricultural incinerators can vary, and their net impact should be evaluated holistically.

Open burning, on the other hand, can take days to burn vegetative waste, releasing harmful black smoke that damages both the ecosystem and human health. To address this, regulators have promoted methods like “chip and till,” where wood is chipped into small pieces and mixed into the soil. However, this seemingly effective solution can negatively affect crop yields. The wood chips decompose slowly, tying up nitrogen and other essential nutrients, which can reduce the soil’s fertility over time. This process is unnatural and disrupts the soil’s balance, often requiring additional fertilizers and insecticides to compensate for nutrient deficiencies. In vineyards and orchards, where soil nutrients are critical to the flavor profile of the fruit, the introduction of wood chips can significantly alter the taste and quality of the fruit.

In contrast, air curtain burners offer a natural process that Mother Nature has relied on for millennia to manage and rejuvenate ecosystems. Unlike open burning or chip and till methods, air curtain burners control the combustion process to burn vegetative waste more cleanly, reducing harmful emissions. Furthermore, the ash produced from this process can be returned to the soil as a beneficial soil amendment. This is not only a natural way to replenish nutrients but also a carbon-negative activity, as it adds sequestered carbon back into the soil, promoting healthier plant growth and contributing to a more sustainable agricultural practice.

Read more about the negative impact of Chip & Till in this UDSA paper here.

The FireBox is an economical and environmental alternative to the agricultural waste incinerator.

Air Burners are designed to be easily moved around your property, allowing you to burn agricultural waste like orchard prunings and vineyard waste on-site without the need for preprocessing or separating metal. This is especially beneficial where metal can become entrapped in vines over time like in vineyards, making it impossible to remove manually when the vineyard needs to be turned over after a minimum of 10 years. With an air curtain burner, you can simply toss in piles of vegetative waste—including almond and nut trees, olive and eucalyptus trees, cherry trees, apple trees, pear trees, sticks, slash, branches, root balls, and wooden crates—without worrying about separating the metal. The burner efficiently handles the waste, and the metal is pulled out at the end for recycling. If it fits in the top, you can eliminate it with ease, all while benefiting from a cleaner, more natural process that adds sequestered carbon back into the soil as a carbon-negative activity.

Hearing is believing.

Word-of-mouth travels fast— about as fast as our air curtain technology burns vegetative waste.

Here’s what some of our customers have to say:

“The S330 FireBox is Air Burners’ largest machine, and we can burn up to 6-8 acres of agricultural waste a day depending on how wet the debris is. We don’t have to pull any wire or stakes out. Everything can stay in the field. There’s not a lot of prep time. We can come in, pile it up, and start burning. We do see the benefits to the environment using these FireBoxes—cutting emissions by 80 to 90%, using a smaller motor, and taking the waste down to 2 or 3%. The other thing that helps, too, is fuel consumption. Fuel consumption on a 1,000 HP grinder is 100 gallons of diesel per day versus 3 gallons per hour on an Air Burner. A lot less waste and a lot less fuel consumption. It’s a win-win. Setting up the Air Burner in the field is relatively easy. We bring it on a slide axle and pull it off with an excavator or loader. Our support has been great. We’ve had great interactions with Air Burners, and we love it. Would we recommend Air Burners to other companies and growers as a viable option? Absolutely.” —Zach Fowler, CEO of Fowler Brothers

“We get all the byproducts. It’s just the good stuff… the hulls and the shells because that’s our revenue source. But we also get the dirt and the sticks. Dirt is going to composting and other things. Sticks have remained a large problem without co-generation for the sticks to go to, we have two years of sticks we haven’t been able to do anything with; and so, it’s a great benefit to have the Air Burner to use this time of year to be able to start whittling away that large pile of sticks. The thing I really like about my Air Burner is that it’s a permanent solution to the problem. You get a 98 percent reduction in agricultural waste by burning it and 2 percent ash left over and getting ash in a form that can then be put out on fields.” — Minturn Huller on the FireBox S220

“We have a 46-acre orchard and grow pears and cherries commercially. We burned all the large prunings generated on the orchard, and we took out a block of mature cherry trees. Air Burners allow us to burn during the summer months when there is a burn ban on slash piles of vegetative waste. It is a useful tool; it burns clean, and it feels really good for the environment when you’re not putting that much smoke in the air. It’s amazing when you get done! You have trailer load after trailer load of wood to burn, and once the burn is done – there’s only 3 or 4 inches of ash on the ground, so there’s very little left.

Anything you can do to reduce the amount of particulates and gases put into the air is important. “— Cindy Collins, Orchardist, Hood River, Oregon

Air Burners. The right machine for any job.

The trailer-mounted BurnBoss arrives ready to burn agricultural waste. The easy-to-use hydraulic system lowers and raises the FireBox. Cleaning up is no problem as you burn directly on dirt, raking to land apply the residual soil amending ash.

The Boss Series runs on just a half gallon of diesel per hour and has an average throughput of 5 to 10 cubic yards each hour.

The remote-controlled TrackBoss does it all. The easy-to-maneuver TrackBoss pivots on a dime, changing directions and zig-zagging between fences, poles, and other obstacles. The ‘tank inspired’ tracks can handle anything in its way. With superior stability, the TrackBoss can maneuver steep, rocky, uneven terrain. This versatile machine is designed to easily navigate difficult-to-reach areas deep within forests and high in the mountains.

CharBoss was developed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Forest Service as a mobile biochar production system. Now, you can burn agricultural waste to create valuable carbon-rich biochar onsite automatically. Quickly move through orchards and vineyards, eliminating agricultural waste and producing biochar. Biochar can be packaged and sold as a marketable commodity. Prices for biochar fluctuate; last year, customers were able to fetch up to $145 per cubic yard. It’s advisable to research current market pricing in your area. Additionally, the production of biochar may also qualify for carbon credit programs, providing another potential revenue stream.

FireBox S300, S200, S100
The FireBox is the most tested air curtain burner in the world. Air Burners arrive fully assembled and ready to go anywhere vegetative waste needs elimination. Air Burner’s air curtain technology creates an air “lid” over the top of the FireBox, trapping the particles of smoke under a curtain of air for fractions of a second causing them to reburn. This secondary burn eliminates the particulate matter and heat waves are released from the FireBox. This process transforms up to 100 tons of vegetative and agricultural waste to 2-5 tons in soil amending ash and biochar each day.

About us
Air Burners Inc. is proudly celebrating 28 years of delivering innovative, environmentally conscious, and economically efficient solutions for eliminating agricultural and vegetative waste. Based in Palm City, Florida, Air Burners is committed to developing machinery that protects our environment, supports forest management, mitigates wildfires, and helps growers boost their yields. The world’s #1 air curtain burner, Air Burners.