Regenco, LLC - Process

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Regenco

PROCESS

Regenco takes pride processing our high quality products that will reliably outperform and exceed expectations. Our flagship product, activated carbon, is derived from coconut shells - coconut carbon is superior to other types due to its intrinsic hardness, hence produces significantly less ash and is stable to easily forms pores during the activation process. Our innovative, highly efficient equipment process dried coconut shells using proprietary methods of carbonation and controlling the distribution and volume of porosity to ensure that you will receive activated carbon with a very high surface area for maximum adsorption. Depending on specific requests from our customers, we can tailor the activation process accordingly to provide a more mesoporous or microporous activated carbon*. We also provide different granular sizes.

Travel with us through the life cycle of the coconut fruit.

*Turn around times to manufacture a custom product varies and may take a few weeks to months based on quantity.

COCONUT HARVEST

The coconut fruits are harvested from our farms. We hand pick these coconut at the peak of their ripeness in our Quezon province farms. The coconuts are typically placed in one big pile in what we locally called "Lukaran" or processing sheds. The pile will inspected and sorted out; damaged or infested coconuts are segregated. Harvest typically happens every three to four months. Older trees have lesser coconut yields - Regenco farms continue to plant a few trees in place of a non-producing, mature tree that is eventually is chopped and processed into coco lumber.

COCONUT HUSK & PITH

The coconut husk is separated from the fruit. We also separate the outer husk and inner coco pith. The outer husk and pith are washed clean of insects and other debris.

The pith is then soaked in rainwater inside HDPE barrels for 3-6 months to remove the salts and stabilize the pH. The husks are subsequently dried, finely or coarsely ground and pressed into to bricks, ready to be shipped to our customers. The coarser husks are spun into twine of different diameters or weaved to create matting.

Coconut shell charcoal after pyrolysis. The second step of activation follows after cleaning out ash and processing in different aggregate sizes.

A sample of coconut shell activated carbon to be tested.

COCONUT SHELL (ACTIVATED CARBON)

The coconut shell is removed of its meat. It will be dried, broken up and sent to our biochar ovens in batches, to carbonize the shells in the absence of oxygen. Our facility uses our carbonization oven where the smoke and other flue gases are condensed into tar and Pyroligneous Acid. We carbonize the coconut shells up to 500 degrees Celsius for about 2-3 hours in the absence of Oxygen - this process is commonly referred to as Pyrolysis.

The carbonized coconut shells will subsequently be cooled, sieved to segregate the different sizes, and further processed to the granular sizes (we can crush and sieve out requested granular sizes). We have standard sizes for specific applications in our STORE.

The main product of this process, Pyroligneous Acid (a.k.a. wood vinegar) and Tar will be refined and packaged. Pyroligneous Acid is used mainly in agriculture:

Biostimulant: Enhance root system of plants, improving germination of seeds after 24 hours soaking
Produce higher sugar content, larger and better tasting fruit and vegetables
Boost plant resistance to disease and bugs
Increase leafing and fruiting yields
Speed up the composting process
Soil Amendment: Improve fertility of soil
Weed control

Other uses of wood vinegar includes odor removal, cosmetics, antimicrobial, biofuel, enhance animal husbandry,

Tar and Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the other byproducts that can be used as sealants in asphalt, water proofing or as a wood preservative. Due to its potential carcinogenic nature, these particular byproducts are usually disposed accordingly.

Pore structure as seen through a scanning electron microscope (SEM).

Bulk orders are packed in super sacks for safe and secure shipments

We activate coconut biochar in another oven using Phosphoric Acid (H3PO4) in proprietary dosages, and subsequently subjected to temperatures between 600 to 700 degrees Celsius. We can control the temperature hold times heat/cool cycles to create a controllable proportion of micropores and mesopores within the carbon without completely burning off or collapsing the pore structure.

WE ACTIVATE OUR CARBON IN SMALL BATCHES TO ENSURE EVEN ACTIVATION OF ALL CARBON GRANULES AND THEREFORE CONSISTENTLY SUPERIOR PRODUCT. We test our products regularly to confirm microporous/mesoporous distribution and effective adsorbency.

We will recover H3PO4 at the end of activation for reuse. The activated carbon will be washed to remove remaining acid with distilled/deionized water. Washing also removes additional ash that may raise the pH of the carbon. We may opt to use dilute base Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) to further remove acidic components.

Our copra is sun dried and protected from rain in our greenhouse enclosures. After a few months, they will be cold-pressed and virgin oil will be mechanically filtered.

COCONUT OIL

The coconut meat is dried and cold-pressed in our facility. The virgin coconut oil is then fractionated using molecular distillation methods and containerized in HDPE (non-reactive, BPA-free) barrels to be delivered to our customers. WE DO NOT USE HEXANE OR OTHER CHEMICALS IN OUR FRACTIONATION PROCESS.

Fractionation removes the saturated fats from the coconut oil so it has a highly stable shelf life. Fractionated oil is very absorbent and non-greasy when applied to the skin, and does not have the characteristic "coconutty" smell. Since this oil contains only Caprylic and Capric acid, it boosts good cholesterol and is proven to help with weight loss.

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