Steam Powered Wood Chipper

Basic concept: a steam engine is directly (mechanically) coupled to a wood chipper. No electricity is generated. The whole purpose is to process wood. A portion of the wood chips is used to power the steam engine. The heat module relies on pyrolysis instead of combustion of biomass. While this lowers the yield significantly, it generates biochar as a by-product. The char can be sequestered locally, i.e. in forest soils.

The steam engine can be switched over to a certain amount of hydraulic output, i.e. it can drive hydraulic motors, allowing hydraulic implements to be run, such as:
- pulley of steel ropes, which are used to bring large branches toward the machine
- chainsaw to cut logs into smaller pieces
- hydraulic log splitter
- spader to sequester biochar in soil
- electric generator
- perhaps other GVCS elements such as The Liberator

The steam engine's boiler may also generate some superheated steam that is used to quickly dry the wood chips.

also see: The Biochar Economy