NOVELTY - Vibratory dryer is modified to provide vibrating torrefaction reactor which involves in vibrating dryer having multiplicity of conduits from inside of dryer to outside of dryer, sealing off all but a small predetermined number of conduits, providing dryer with solid plate from one side of dryer to other for supporting a biomass to be torrefied on top of plate, the plate being inclined; and introducing a hot gas underneath the plate so as to heat the plate and provide heat energy to the biomass on top of the plate, where convective heating roasts the biomass in a torrefaction process.    USE - The methods are useful for modifying vibratory dryer to provide vibrating torrefaction reactor; for increasing efficiency of torrefaction reactor in which conductive heating is utilized to heat biomass on top of unapertured plate; for preventing thermal runaway in torrefaction reactor that is heated by non-volatile gas; for improving safety of torrefaction reactor that is result of modification of standard vibratory commercial dryer having multiplicity of ducts connected to it into torrefaction reactor; and for torrefying biomass (all claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The method utilizes thermal conduction to torrefy the biomass in a vibratory reactor in which a heated solid unperforated plate is sealed in the reactor to separate the biomass above from the gas used to heat the plate below. This permits using inert flue gas to heat the reactor which in turn permits the use of a cool air damping system to prevent thermal runaway. Also, syngas evolved from the process is utilized to power a gas engine, the exhaust output of which is recirculated to heat the reactor plate. When the gas engine is coupled to an electric generator, waste energy is recovered for use in other parts of the plant or exported. In order to make the torrefaction process less dangerous, rather than using all of the 15 available ventilation ports on the dryer, all but three of these ports are sealed off, one for syngas and two for flue gas, to significantly limit potential syngas leakage due to gland rupture from the vibrating reactor. There is only one syngas conduit with significantly less ducting, thus decreasing by orders of magnitude the danger of explosions and fires. Thus, eight of the original output ports from the carrier dryer are simply blocked off, thus minimizing the number of leakage points in the modified reactor to only one, that being the syngas port to the gas generator. Cold air damping provides an even flue gas temperature at the underside of the unperforated plate within the reactor, with fires and explosions further minimized by the utilization of a cool air damper. Moreover, thermal runaway can be prevented immediately.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for:    (1) a method for increasing efficiency of a torrefaction reactor in which conductive heating is utilized to heat a biomass on top of an unapertured plate, which involves ducting the syngas that evolves from the torrefaction process to a gas engine and introducing the exhaust from the gas engine beneath the plate to heat the plate, the gas utilized to heat the plate being non-volatile, thus eliminating the circulation of syngas from the reactor back to the reactor for heating the reactor;    (2) a method for preventing thermal runaway in a torrefaction reactor that is heated by non-volatile gas which involves injecting cold air along with a non-volatile gas into the reactor to regulate the temperature of the reactor; or a method of preventing thermal runaway in a torrefaction reactor, which involves heating the reactor with a heated non-volatile gas; and, diluting the heated non-volatile gas with cool air to prevent thermal runaway;    (3) a method for improving the safety of a torrefaction reactor that is a result of modification of a standard vibratory commercial dryer having a multiplicity of ducts connected to it into a torrefaction reactor, which involves providing a solid plate from one end of the dryer to the other to form a bottom plenum and a top plenum in the resulting reactor; blocking off all exit ports of the dryer with the exception of an exit port utilized to bleed off syngas in the torrefaction process: and, providing a flexible gasketed conduit for the syngas from the torrefaction process, where the number of conduits that need to be gasketed is reduced over the original number of conduits;    (4) a method for torrefying a biomass, which involves providing a reactor that is fabricated with a solid plate; introducing the biomass onto the solid plate; heating the solid plate from underneath with hot gas such that heat from the hot gas is conductively transferred to the biomass through the heating of the solid plate; and    (5) a torrefaction reactor comprising a vibrating reactor; a solid plate bifurcating the reactor into a bottom plenum and a top plenum, the solid plate sealed at either end to the ends of the reactor such that the bottom plenum and the top plenum are sealed one from the other; motors having offset weights for vibrating the reactor; and an input screw conveyer at one end of the reactor above the solid plate for injecting a biomass onto the top of the solid plate and an exit screw conveyer on the opposite end of the solid plate for the removal of torrefied material, the solid plate angled downwardly such that vibration of the reactor results in the movement of the biomass from the input screw conveyer to the output screw conveyer; or a torrefaction reactor comprising a chamber bifurcated with a solid plate to form an upper and lower plenum, the plate carrying a biomass to be torrefied, the biomass being conductively heated by the heating of the solid plate.