March 12, 2009

Its Time for a Conversation about BioChar -

BioChar is basically taking torrefied wood and tilling it into farmland. Why would you do that?

1) Because it would sequester the carbon -- it doesn't break down quickly
2) It is reported to be quite helpful to the soil (and this is where the debate seems to be)

But here's the important thing.  If BioChar gets legislated as an acceptable form of carbon sequestration.......... Watch out!

 Torrefaction will soar. The existing nasiant industry will explode and existing players will either take off or get blown away by savvy investors that bet big bucks on a 'better machine'.

A lot of smart, knowledgable people point to science that says it really helps soil quality. I recently learned that a Duke Professor has a trial patch in NC (the southeast has a lot of marginal farmland). I'll track that particular experiment.

Althought the science seems compelling, the press and industry are not all over it.  I'm not sure why. If short rotation crops were turned into biochar and tilled under the soil of nearby food production acreage we might get a win win. Cornell and Duke are deep into the subject.

If you want to do your own reading click on any of the following:


If you know why biochar is not getting more attention in the discussions on carbon sequestration please update our growing audiance by commenting below.

6 comments:

The Better BTU said...

Interesting and thoughtful post.

I visited your blog and found it quite informative. I've added it to the links on this post and also on the overall links for this blog.

Readers -- click on over and See what Erich has to say on biochar. Thoughtful writing.

http://terrapretasoils.blogspot.com/

I particularly recommend the second post in the archive "Sustaining Future:"

Erich J. Knight said...

Thanks BTU,
Sorry,,,, here's better links;

UN Soil Carbon Sink sense:

http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/AWGLCA5/menu.php

CRS Biochar report;

http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40186_20090203.pdf

Anonymous said...

Torrefied biomass created in around 300 Celsius isn't suitable for putting in the ground as the pore structure is undeveloped and will break down quickly. For this to work char created at higher (500 Celsius) range would need to be used

Tom

Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources

tbutler6@uwo.ca

Chris said...

I heard about biochar a few months ago from a friend of mine. I never thought that something as simple as charcoal could do so much for the soil and the environment.

I was amazed after reading "The Biochar Revolution" from http://biochar-books.com/The_Biochar_Revolution.

Check it out. It was a great help in opening my mind to issues that affect us all.

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