[Vogelzang]

Another Ice Age?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 14,00.html

The Ice Age Cometh?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 50,00.html

You're all being suckered
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opini ... 50707.html

[mos6507]

You're wasting your time.

You're wasting OUR time. Get banned alread.

[Tanada]

New study released by Worldwatch Institute, Agricultural use of Biochar could offset 25% of all CO2 emissions per year.

Worldwatch link

Farmers Poised to Offset One-Quarter of Global Fossil Fuel Emissions Annually
by admin on June 2, 2009

Washington, D.C.-Innovations in food production and land use that are ready to be scaled-up today could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to roughly 25 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and present the best opportunity to remove greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, according to a new report by the Worldwatch Institute and Ecoagriculture Partners. As the price of carbon rises with new caps on emissions and expanding markets for carbon offsets, the contribution of land-based, or "terrestrial," carbon to climate change mitigation efforts could increase even further.

Carbon capture and sequestration technologies, which remain unproven and will not be ready for implementation for a decade at best, promise only to sequester greenhouse gases that have yet to be released into the atmosphere. Agricultural and other land use management practices, in contrast, are the only innovations available today to sequester greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere-pulling in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis to grow and sustain more plants.

Mobilizing agricultural carbon sequestration is therefore an essential tool in the effort to reduce the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases to the 350 parts-per-million level that many scientists argue we must achieve to avoid catastrophic climate change. A recent assessment published by Worldwatch in State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World found that emissions of carbon dioxide will have to "go negative"-with more being absorbed than emitted-by 2050 to achieve this goal.

"The science and policy communities in Europe and beyond have focused most of their attention to date on improving energy efficiency and scaling up renewables," said Ecoagriculture Partners' Sara Scherr, co-author of Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use with Sajal Sthapit. "While these initiatives are integral in the transition to a low-carbon economy, any strategy that seeks to mitigate global climate change without reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses is doomed to fail."

More than 30 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to agriculture and land use, rivaling the combined emissions of the transportation and industry sectors. The report outlines five major strategies for reducing and sequestering greenhouse gas emissions through farming and land use:

* Enriching soil carbon. Soil, the third largest carbon pool on Earth's surface, can be managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by minimizing tillage, cutting use of nitrogen fertilizers, and preventing erosion. Soils can store a vast amount of additional carbon by building up organic matter and by burying carbon in the form of biochar (biomass burned in a low-oxygen environment).
* Farming with perennials. Two-thirds of all arable land is used to grow annual grains, but there is large potential to substitute these with perennial trees, shrubs, palms, and grasses that produce food, livestock feed, and fuel. These perennials maintain and develop their roots and branches over many years, storing carbon in the vegetation and soil.
* Climate-friendly livestock production. Livestock accounts for nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land use. Innovations such as rotational grazing, manure management, methane capture for biogas production, and improved feeds and feed additives can reduce livestock-related emissions.
* Protecting natural habitat. Deforestation, land clearing, and forest and grassland fires are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Incentives are needed to encourage farmers, ranchers, and foresters to maintain natural forest and grassland habitats through product certification, payments for climate services, securing tenure rights, and community fire control.
* Restoring degraded watersheds and rangelands. Restoring vegetation on vast areas of degraded land can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while making land productive again, protecting critical watersheds, and alleviating rural poverty.

The report also responds to several key issues that have constrained the use of terrestrial carbon solutions and highlights six principles for tapping the full potential of land use mitigation. These include: incorporating the full range of terrestrial emission options, including cap-and-trade systems, in climate investment and policy; promoting voluntary markets for greenhouse gas emission offsets from agriculture and land use while working out rules for regulated markets; and linking terrestrial climate mitigation with climate adaptation, rural development, and conservation strategies to generate widespread benefits beyond climate-helping to mobilize a worldwide-networked movement for climate-friendly food, forest, and other land-based production.

Although the climate conversation has long focused on developing enduring solutions in the energy sector, Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin says that land use is equally important. "The bottom line is that innovations in agriculture provide the best opportunity to remove carbon from the atmosphere. We cannot reach 350 ppm without changing the way we grow our food and use our land."

[Tanada]

I was already planning to try to create terra preta when Mom told me this other fellow needed two more farms to enroll in order to apply for grant money, so now it is kind of seperately together...I still don't kow if the grant money will come through or not but that won't slow me substantially.

I was just looking to see if you ever posted your results but I can't find them.

How did it go? Good, bad, downright ugly?

[Cabrone]

I read this report a few months ago of a biochar study that took place in the Cameron.

The study found that:

a) Adding biochar at the rate of 10 or 20 tonnes a hectare typically added about 85% to the weight of grain produced compared to the adjacent plot with no fertiliser.

b) This is about the same increase as would be gained by adding both organic and artificial fertiliser to the unfertilised soil. So biochar is as effective at increasing yields as heavy application of fertiliser.

c) If both biochar and two types of fertiliser are added, the yield rises to an average of about 140% of the level without any additions. Biochar therefore substantially increases the food production of land above what would be achieved either with or without added fertiliser.

d) The most striking results are found on the poorer soils.

Overall some very promising results (at least on the type of soil found in Cameroon). Maybe a much needed boost for future food output?

[erich]

Modern thermal conversion of biomass can manage nutrients, provide biofuels and conserve the elemental carbon. only burning the hydro-carbon oils & gas.
Black Swan of Biochar
Short a nano material PV / thermoelectrical / ultracapasitating Black swan,
What we can do now with "off the shelf" technology, what I proposed at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, to the EPA chiefs of North America.
The most cited soil scientist in the world, Dr. Rattan Lal at OSU, was impressed with this talk, commending me on conceptualizing & articulating the concept.

Bellow the opening & closing text. A Report on my talk at CEC, and complete text & links are here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bioc ... ssage/3233

The Establishment of Soil Carbon as the Universal Measure of Sustainability

The Paleoclimate Record shows agricultural-geo-engineering is responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. The unintended consequence, the flowering of our civilization. Our science has now realized these consequences and has developed a more encompassing wisdom. Wise land management, afforestation and the thermal conversion of biomass can build back our soil carbon. Pyrolysis, Gasification and Hydro-Thermal Carbonization are known biofuel technologies, What is new are the concomitant benefits of biochars for Soil Carbon Sequestration; building soil biodiversity & nitrogen efficiency, for in situ remediation of toxic agents, and, as a feed supplement cutting the carbon foot print of livestock. Modern systems are closed-loop with no significant emissions. The general life cycle analysis is: every 1 ton of biomass yields 1/3 ton Biochar equal to 1 ton CO2e, plus biofuels equal to 1MWh exported electricity, so each energy cycle is 1/3 carbon negative.

Beyond Rectifying the Carbon Cycle;
Biochar systems Integrate nutrient management, serving the same healing function for the Nitrogen and Phosphorous Cycles.
The Agricultural Soil Carbon Sequestration Standards are the royal road for the GHG Mitigation;

The Bio-Refining Technologies to Harvest Carbon.
The photosynthetic "capture" collectors are up and running all around us, the "storage" sink is in operation just under our feet, conversion reactors are the only infrastructure we need to build out. Carbon, as the center of life, has high value to recapitalize our soils. Yielding nutrient dense foods and Biofuels, Paying Premiums of pollution abatement and toxic remediation and the growing Dividend created by the increasing biomass of a thriving soil community.

Since we have filled the air,
filling the seas to full,
soil is the only beneficial place left.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.

Find out more at IBI;
http://www.biochar-international.org/

[careinke]

Biochar carbon sequestration is the only form of Geo-engineering that makes sense to me. I practice it on a very small scale. Makes the soil so much nicer.

[Graeme]

Waterless solar concentrating toilet turns waste to biochar

The University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) has built a self-contained, waterless toilet using a $777,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To be unveiled in India, the toilet uses concentrating solar power to sterilize and heat human waste to a high enough temperature and create biochar, said project principal investigator Karl Linden, professor of environmental engineering. The biochar, a highly porous charcoal, has a one-two punch in that it can be used to both increase crop yields and sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

The CU-Boulder invention consists of eight parabolic mirrors that focus concentrated sunlight to a spot no larger than a postage stamp on a quartz-glass rod connected to eight bundles of fiber-optic cables, each consisting of thousands of intertwined, fused fibers, said Linden. The energy generated by the sun and transferred to the fiber-optic cable system--similar in some ways to a data transmission line--can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material, disinfect pathogens in both feces and urine, and produce char.

Tests have shown that each of the eight fiber-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 W of energy, meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 W into the reaction chamber, said Linden. In late December, tests at CU-Boulder showed the solar energy directed into the reaction chamber could easily boil water and effectively carbonize solid waste.

laserfocusworld

[Quinny]

Seems easier.

[Graeme]

No mention of worms being used for biochar production is this report.

According to wiki, cost for acquiring biomass suitable for making biochar in developing countries is limiting.

In a recent paper,[65] it was pointed out that so far, relatively high application rates of biochar (between 2.5-20 tonnes/ha) appear to be required to see significant improvements in plant yields. Since the present cost of biochar in developed countries can vary from $300/ to $7000/tonne, at these high application rates, the cost may not lead to a return on investment for the farmer/horticulturalist, and is certainly prohibitive for low input, extensive field crops. They suggest that in developing countries, constraints on biochar used in agricultural applications relate more to the limited availability of biomass residues and to the time needed to manufacture large amounts of biochar. As a result, they suggest that the paradigm will shift towards using small amounts of biochar in various types of biochar-fertilizer complexes that will lead to added agronomic value at no added net cost to the farmer.

[efarmer]

Appropriate technology does not seem to apply here.
I think they made a potty for Luke Skywalker and dukey
from the Wookie!

[rollin]

Ahhh, the sweet smell of burning turds. I just hope the fiber optics don't get misaligned, could make for an exciting rest stop followed by a doctors visit.

[efarmer]

From www.urbandictionary.com

" dukey
to put it simply, poop, whether it be animal or human
I just stepped in dukey"

In this case Pstarr the dukey is from the Wookie.

Can you really imagine deploying such high tech gadgets
as latrines in places where they forage for sticks to cook
the food that would be transformed into biochar thereby?
I think the crapper would get hacked to be the cooker instead.

[Graeme]

Let's recap. Bill Gates has financed out of the goodness of his heart this project. The University of Colorado has made and delivered a working prototype to India. It's now up to a benefactor in India to recognize it's value, finance production of copies and distribute them throughout India. Let's see if this happens.

The CU-Boulder team is now applying for phase two of the Gates Foundation Reinvent the Toilet grant to develop a field-worthy system to deploy in a developing country based on their current design, and assess other technologies that may enhance the toilet system, including the use of high-temperature fluids that can collect, retain, and deliver heat.

Here is the value:

“Biochar is a valuable material,” said Linden. “It has good water holding capacity and it can be used in agricultural areas to hold in nutrients and bring more stability to the soils.” A soil mixture containing 10 percent biochar can hold up to 50 percent more water and increase the availability of plant nutrients, he said. Additionally, the biochar can be burned as charcoal and provides energy comparable to that of commercial charcoal.

[efarmer]

http://www.fullstopindia.com/cow-dung-a ... dia-part-1

Is a link to an article on rural India cooking with cow dung dried into loaves or bricks.
283 million cows. I agree it is good that Mr. Gates is funding such projects and that the University is pushing the technology envelope especially for a cool technology like
biochar. Such work will not go to waste even if the first target application does not
find purchase for it, and of course I have an opinion, and time will provide the truth
regardless of opinions.

[efarmer]

http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/press ... rming.html

The American Chemical Society has the full paper but it costs $35 to get.

In essence, they discovered that Amazonian Indians made terra preta, or dirt mixed
with biochar and compost to beat the short life of jungle soil cleared for agriculture.
Scientists have spent some time doing a rigorous analysis of it and find merit in it,
usually with a bent towards carbon sequestration on a massive scale to reverse
atmospheric carbon build up. The Amazon Indians solved a problem of having
to continuously clear land and then have to move as it depleted from agriculture. I personally see how it solved the Amazon Indian challenge, I am skeptical about the
consensus, scale, and massive energy input required to produce the product,
and so on and so forth with regard to countering Global Warming.
edited to put the right acs.org link

[Graeme]

Pstarr has a point. It needs to be proved that biochar made using this method actually has the desired affect in various soils in India. In general though, according to wiki, it should.

For plants that require high potash and elevated pH,[27] biochar can be used as a soil amendment to improve yield. Biochar can improve water quality, reduce soil emissions of greenhouse gases, reduce nutrient leaching, reduce soil acidity, and reduce irrigation and fertilizer requirements.[28] Biochar was also found under certain circumstances to induce plant systemic responses to foliar fungal diseases and to improve plant responses to diseases caused by soilborne pathogens.[29][30][31]
The various impacts of biochar can be dependent on the properties of the biochar,[32] as well as the amount applied,[31] and there is still a lack of knowledge about the important mechanisms and properties.[33] Biochar impact may depend on regional conditions including soil type, soil condition (depleted or healthy), temperature, and humidity.[34] Modest additions of biochar to soil reduce nitrous oxide N
2O emissions by up to 80% and eliminate methane emissions, which are both more potent greenhouse gases than CO2.[35]
Pollutants such as metals and pesticides seep into soil and contaminate food supplies, reducing the amount of land suitable for agricultural production. Studies have reported positive effects from biochar on crop production in degraded and nutrient–poor soils.[36] Biochar can be designed with specific qualities to target distinct properties of soils.[37] Biochar reduces leaching of critical nutrients, creates a higher crop uptake of nutrients, and provides greater soil availability of nutrients.[38] At 10% levels biochar reduced contaminant levels in plants by up to 80%, while reducing total chlordane and DDX content in the plants by 68 and 79%, respectively.[39] On the other hand, because of its high adsorption capacity, biochar may reduce the efficacy of soil applied pesticides that are needed for weed and pest control.[40][41] High surface area biochars may be particularly problematic in this regard; more research into the long term effects of biochar addition to soil is needed.[40]

[Shaved Monkey]

Making a composting toilet in a wheelie bin sounds easier and a pretty effective way to capture previously lost nutrients to be put back into your soil.
http://milkwood.net/2011/04/18/compost- ... -the-bins/

[efarmer]

Great Aussie Link! And at least some research is being done on a better
system than the present one.

Now on the original solar concentrating system again I followed the link
and saw the contraption and it is very high tech looking.

And then I realized they needed a Chuck Yeager, a fearless test pilot. Someone
with the nerve to ride while the biochar sizzles beneath him and not bat an eye,
someone who would shrug if the tissue ignited and just shift a little to snuff it
back out. I believe my Brother in Law, is indeed that person, but they will have
to let him sit there and text message to calm his nerves during the test flights,
and if rumor is correct, he also likes to eat pizza while he is on a mission.

[Loki]

Making a composting toilet in a wheelie bin sounds easier and a pretty effective way to capture previously lost nutrients to be put back into your soil.
http://milkwood.net/2011/04/18/compost- ... -the-bins/

Yup. You can make a compost toilet out of a bucket and a barrel or two (or just a hole in the ground). Probably costs an order of magnitude less. Compost is used by farmers around the world, has been for generations. Biochar? Not so much.

The OP's high tech shitter seems to be designed to sell poor people in the third world something they can't afford, almost certainly with a well-paid "non-profit" middle man or three in the first world. Not surprising Gates would fund something like this.