[Graeme]

Erich, Thanks very much for your response! Dr Lehmann's technique for making biochar and biofuel certainly is impressive. Do you know if any trials have been done? I vaguely recall at least one American company doing this already. I will try to look for others. What do you think are the barriers that prevent/hinder the global implementation of biochar/biofuel production?

[Graeme]

Biocharsolutions is making biochar in USA. Pacific Pyrolysis will soon be built in Australia. Perhaps the best hope for large-scale biochar production lies with farming.

[erich]

Research:

NASA’s Space Archaeology; $364K Terra Preta Program
http://archaeologyexcavations.blogspot. ... llite.html

This is the finest explanation I have read on the process of biochar testing. Hugh lays it out like medical triage to extract the data most needed for soil carbon sequestration. A triage for all levels of competence, the Para-Medic Gardener to the Surgeon Chem-Engineer.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/Ch ... g_Biochars

The Ozzie's for 5 years now in field studies
The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features ... 20142.html

Phosphorous Solution;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/nishio

The Japanese have been at it decades:
Japan Biochar Association ;
http://www.geocities.jp/yasizato/pioneer.htm

UK Biochar Research Centre
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/sccs/biochar/

ICHAR, the Italian Biochar Association
http://www.ichar.org/

Field Trial Data Base; The new version of BiocharDB has been released! To see it, please visit http://biocharbazaar.org.

Virginia Tech is in their 5 th year with the Carbon Char Group's "CharGrow" formulated bagged product. An idea whose time has come | Carbon Char Group
The 2008 trials at Virginia Tech showed a 46% increase in yield of tomato transplants grown with just 2 - 5 cups (2 - 5%) "CharGrow" per cubic foot of growing medium. http://www.carbonchar.com/plant-performance

Nikolaus has been at it 4 years. Nikolaus Foidl,
His current work with aspirin is Amazing in Maize, 250% yield gains, 15 cobs per plant;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/co ... d-charcoal

My 09 field trials with the Rodale Institute & JMU ;
Alterna Biocarbon and Cowboy Charcoal Virginia field trials '09
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/node/1408

Imperial College test,
This work in temperate soils gives data from which one can calculate savings on fertilizer use, which is expected to be ongoing with no additional soil amending.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1755-1315 ... e7e2f3ce1b

The BlueLeaf Inc./ Dynamotive study are exciting results given how far north the site is at 45 degrees, and the low application rates. I suspect, as we saw with the Imperial College test, the yield benefits seem to decrease the cooler the climate. In 2008, a 20% increase in grain yield was shown and for a forage mixture in 2009 a 100% increase in fresh biomass was obtained. Other parameters showing increases with CQuest Biochar included earthworm, nematode and mycorrhizal root colonization, supporting the hypothesis that biochar may serve as a refuge for soil microbes. Surface soil water infiltration was also greater in biochar amended soil.
http://www.biofuelsjournal.com/articles ... 90009.html

Reports:

For those looking for an overview of biochar and its benefits, These authors have done a very nice job of distilling a great deal of information about biochar and applying it to the US context:

US Focused Biochar report: Assessment of Biochar's Benefits for the USA

http://www.biochar-us.org/pdf%20files/b ... lowres.pdf

This PNAS report (by a Nobel lariat) should cause the Royal Society to rethink their report that criticized Biochar systems sequestration potential;
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Reducing abrupt climate change risk using
the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory
actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/ ... l.pdf+html

[Graeme]

Erich, Thank you very much for providing these excellent links. It certainly helps to have someone like you who is already a biochar researcher, and who is willing to share this information. It is of particular interest to me to see this:

The International Biochar Initiative estimates that biochar
production has the potential to provide 1 Gt carbon per year in
climate mitigation by 2040, or 3.67 Gt CO2 per year, using only
waste biomass (66). Hansen et al. (5) estimate that if slash-andchar
agriculture replaced slash-and-burn practices, and if agricultural
and forestry wastes were used for biochar production, it
would be possible to drawdown CO2 concentrations by approximately
8 ppm or more within half a century, or 62.5 Gt CO2.
According to Sohi et al. (61), the global potential for annual
sequestration of CO2 may be ‘‘at the billion-ton scale’’ within 30
years, although they note that the published evidence is largely
from small-scale studies and cannot be generalized to all locations
and types of biochar. Under an aggressive scenario, where
all projected demand for renewable biomass fuel is met through
pyrolysis, Lehmann et al. (62) estimate that biochar may be able
to sequester 5.5–9.5 Gt C per year, or 20–35 Gt CO2, per year
by 2100.

Now that we have a better understanding of biochar's potential for reducing atmospheric CO2, the final step is to implement it's production. I'll be looking with considerable interest to see the following happen.

Biosequestration through biochar production may be able to
be deployed rapidly and relatively cheaply on a decadal time
scale (68) using both regulatory and market-based approaches at
national, regional, and global levels. The United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification has proposed including biochar
in the UNFCCC climate negotiations (69).

[Cog]

Coal also has some rather nasty elements like lead, arsenic, and is slightly radioactive. Something to keep in mind if you intend to use briquettes as a carbon component.

[Graeme]

Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property

Globally, soil organic matter (SOM) contains more than three times as much carbon as either the atmosphere or terrestrial vegetation. Yet it remains largely unknown why some SOM persists for millennia whereas other SOM decomposes readily—and this limits our ability to predict how soils will respond to climate change. Recent analytical and experimental advances have demonstrated that molecular structure alone does not control SOM stability: in fact, environmental and biological controls predominate. Here we propose ways to include this understanding in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models, thereby improving predictions of the SOM response to global warming.

nature

Editor's summary

Soil carbon stability revisited

The mechanisms underpinning soil carbon stability are complicated. The future response of soil carbon to climate change is uncertain but crucial, given that the carbon pool in soils is three times greater than that of the atmosphere. In a Perspective, Michael Schmidt and an international team of collaborators discuss how our understanding of soil carbon cycling has been changing. Rather than being mostly a function of molecular structure, as has been assumed, soil organic carbon stability is an ecosystem property. This means that it arises from complex interactions among many biotic and abiotic factors that are not fully understood. This fact must be more rigorously addressed in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models, say Schmidt et al., if we are to improve our attempts to understand this vital component of the Earth system.

[Revi]

I have been using the ashes from my woodstove in my garden for 10 years now. It makes a really nice friable soil because the ashes contain lots of charcoal. I use the ashes from our maple syrup evaporator in the woodlot. They are much finer because the evap burns really hot.

[Graeme]

Revi, Thanks for your comment. I just saw this morning that the authors of the Nature paper above actually call into question the stability of biochar. They think it can decompose! I also saw that Erich defends biochar's potential in his response to the following article (see 2nd comment):

What will happen to soil carbon as the climate changes? A team of scientists seeks answers

The ground beneath your feet could hide a sleeping giant. Globally, soils store three times as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere or in living plants.



Scientists don’t know what will happen to this carbon in response to climate change. It could enter the atmosphere as CO2, a greenhouse gas, and further accelerate climate change. But how much — and when — remain a mystery.

An international group of scientists has proposed a new approach to soil carbon research that seeks answers to these questions. Their roadmap is published in the October 6 issue of the journal Nature and is co-authored by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) soil scientist Margaret Torn.


Q: Can this research also help scientists develop climate change mitigation strategies?

A: As scientists, we’re driven by the idea that a more accurate understanding of the earth system will help us do a better job of being stewards. And that applies here.

Our research could help evaluate carbon emissions-reducing technologies such as biofuels and biological carbon sequestration. Michael Schmidt, a co-author of the Nature paper from the University of Zurich, has already found that biochar, which is charred material from wildfires or a kiln, is not stable as previously believed. It also readily decomposes. Some scientists had believed that biochar could be used to sequester carbon, but this may not be the case.

physorg

[Graeme]

Winning the Prize, Saving the Planet -- Winner of the 2011 ConocoPhillips Energy Prize Announce

The 2011 ConocoPhillips Energy Prize, a joint initiative between ConocoPhillips and Penn State, concluded today with its fourth annual mission to provoke and catalyze the 21st century energy revolution by awarding this year's prize to Ben Glass and Adam Rein for their innovation, "Aerostat Platform for Rapid Deployment Airborne Wind Turbine," a plan to make wind power literally leap out from the box by taking advantage of stronger and more-consistent winds higher in the air, seeking to hoist a wind-turbine up to 2,000 feet aloft.

The first runner up was Jason Aramburu, founder and CEO of re:char, and team for their entry, "Biochar Production for Climate Change Mitigation." This concept seeks to roll biochar out to the masses, with cheap recycled kilns that can churn out up to five tonnes of biochar each year.

marketwatch

[Graeme]

Could Biomass Technology Help Commercialize Biochar?

A nascent biochar industry is emerging in connection with biomass power technologies that coproduce electricity and char via gasification and pyrolysis.



A single source of biomass could ostensibly create multiple revenue streams, with systems calibrated to produce more electricity, biochar or bio-oil when one is more profitable than the other.

Research shows biochar improves soil fertility, decreases water pollution and even mitigates heavy metals. The charcoal-like substance has enthusiastic support from researchers and the sustainability movement, but it has been slow to commercialize.

“This is a brand new industry with a chicken-and-egg problem,” says Kelpie Wilson, project development director of the International Biochar Initiative. “You have lots of research but not a lot of supplies.”

For now, however, large biomass power producers are neither equipped to create biochar nor are they interested in making it. The creation of biochar leaves less energy for power production. Also, there is no established market for biochar in industrial agriculture.

Supporters say biomass operators will soon see more revenue from biochar since organic farmers and garden centers are starting to demand it for soil blending. EPA clean water regulations could open nutrient credit exchanges to biochar, setting the stage for a biochar boom in agriculture and environmental mitigation.


A 2010 study in Nature Communications says biochar is 20% more effective at mitigating climate change than bioenergy because it slows the rate carbon returns to the atmosphere while increasing agricultural productivity.

Biochar comes with inherent competing interests between biomass power and agriculture, but research and outreach efforts are starting to close the gap in understanding. Farmers say they will express greater interest in biochar coproduced with electricity if it is rooted in agriculture science.

“You don’t want to create a negative legacy by applying the wrong char to the wrong soil,” says Jeff Novak, a USDA soil scientist.

His research shows char produced at temperatures of 300 to 400 C have good qualities, but chars produced at temperatures exceeding 600 C can become alkaline. Chars that improve southern soil can also lead to nutrient imbalances in other regions.

Recognizing these concerns, the International Biochar Initiative has begun an effort to standardize and certify char products.

“Electricity production isn’t our focus, although we are very interested in energy capture when biochar is produced,” says Wilson, the group’s project development director. “The ultimate goal is to have an impact on climate change.”

renewableenergyworld

[Graeme]

ISU engineers create panel to advance a carbon negative economy

http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles ... ve-economy

[Graeme]

Branson picks Carbondale biochar company as finalist for $25M prize

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/150133

[erich]

The three main popular books on Biochar;
1) The hands down Best, most engaging book, a total page turner! and I'm not just saying this because of my help in content and editing, ($10 on ebay);

"The Biochar Solution" : http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/4078

2) Encyclopedic companion book, hands-on testimonials from across the industry and I'm not just saying this because of my help in content and editing;

"The Biochar Revolution" ; http://biochar-books.com/TBRDetails

3) three years old, not nearly as expansive, "The Biochar Debate" and I'm not just saying this because I didn't help in content or editing.

IBI Biochar Standards efforts;
Developing a Characterization Standard for Biochar
http://www.biochar-international.org/ch ... onstandard

My current best summery for thermal conversion you can review here;
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bioc ... ssage/3233
What we can do now with "off the shelf" technology, what I proposed in a 5 minute talk at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, to the EPA chiefs of North America, titled;
The Establishment of Soil Carbon as the Universal Measure of Sustainability
The most cited soil scientist in the world (some say the universe ), Dr. Rattan Lal at OSU, was impressed with this talk, commending me on conceptualizing & articulating the concept.

[Graeme]

Findings on biochar, greenhouse gas emissions and ethylene

Adding a charred biomass material called biochar to glacial soils can help reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.

Studies by scientists with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are providing valuable information about how biochar-the charred biomass created from wood, plant material, and manure-interacts with soil and crops. As part of this effort, ARS scientists in St. Paul, Minn., are studying biochar activity in soils formed from glacial deposits.


After the researchers amended the soils with biochar at levels ranging from 2 to 60 percent, emission levels for the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide were suppressed at all amendment levels. But the suppression in nitrous oxide emission was notable only in soils amended with 20, 40 or 60 percent biochar.

The amended soils also had lower microbial production of carbon dioxide and lower volatilization rates for the pesticides atrazine and acetochlor. The scientists plan to follow these findings with new investigations on how volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in biochar affect soil microbe activity. As part of this work, they have already identified 200 different VOCs on some biochars.

Spokas and Baker also conducted the first study that documented the formation of ethylene, a key plant hormone that helps regulate growth, from biochar and soils amended with biochar. They found that ethylene production in biochar-amended, non-sterile soil was twice as high as ethylene production observed in sterile, biochar-amended soil.

This strongly suggests that soil microbes are active in this biochar-induced ethylene production. The scientists also believe ethylene might be involved in plants' reaction to biochar additions, since even low ethylene concentrations produce various plant responses.

physorg

[Shaved Monkey]

This is a good youtube for making your own if you have access to wood chips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqkWYM7rYpU

[Graeme]

Cooking Better Biochar: Study Improves Recipe for Soil Additive

Backyard gardeners who make their own charcoal soil additives, or biochar, should take care to heat their charcoal to at least 450 degrees Celsius to ensure that water and nutrients get to their plants, according to a new study by Rice University scientists.

The study, published this week in the Journal of Biomass and Bioenergy, is timely because biochar is attracting thousands of amateur and professional gardeners, and some companies are also scaling up industrial biochar production.

"When it's done right, adding biochar to soil can improve hydrology and make more nutrients available to plants," said Rice biogeochemist Caroline Masiello, the lead researcher on the new study.


The charcoal, or biochar, that is used to create such soil can be made from wood or agricultural byproducts. The key is to heat the material to a high temperature in an oxygen-starved environment. Native Americans did that by burying the material in pits, where it burned for days. Today, industrial-scale biochar production is beginning to occur, and dozens of do-it-yourself videos online show how to make biochar in just a few hours using steel drums.

The agricultural benefits of biochar are just one reason there's a groundswell of interest in biochar production. Some enthusiasts are drawn by a desire to fight global warming. That's because about half of the carbon from wood chips, corn stalks and other biomass -- carbon that typically gets recycled into the atmosphere -- can be locked away inside biochar for thousands of years.

sciencedaily

[Graeme]

A carbon-negative economy: A practical prospect or a pipe dream?

“Let’s not simply reduce the CO2 emissions going up into the atmosphere. Let’s draw them down.”
So says Robert Brown, a professor of engineering at Iowa State University and a leader of the university’s Initiative for a Carbon Negative Economy and its Bioeconomy Institute. Those are interdisciplinary campus efforts to develop ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by growing plants or algae, making them into fuels and burying their carbon residues in soil -- and make money doing it.
The notion that we can generate wealth and remove CO2 from the air is obviously appealing. As atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rise and climate risks grow, so does the need for carbon-negative technologies that pull CO2 from the air, as plants do, and then store it underground or deep in the ocean.
But is this practical or a pipe dream? That’s what Brown and his colleagues at Iowa State and its Bioeconomy Institute want to find out, as they explained this week at a two-day workshop on biochar -- that’s the term used for the charcoal created when biomass is decomposed at high heat, in a process called pyrolysis. The workshop was part of the Carbon War Room‘s Creating Climate Wealth Summit in Washington, D.C..
The Carbon War Room, as you may know, is a nonprofit created by Richard Branson of Virgin fame to unlock gigaton-scale, market-driven solutions to climate change. Its new president will be Jose Maria Figueres, the former president of Costa Rica. The group is also tackling projects around energy efficiency, renewable jet fuel, low-carbon ocean shipping and sustainable livestock.

greenbiz

[Subjectivist]

Biochar crop boost "found only in the tropics"
3 May 2017, by Gavin McEwan

A new international study has cast doubt on biochar's ability to boost crop yields in temperate areas.

The research, by Dr Simon Jeffery of Harper Adams University along with colleagues in the Netherlands, Portugal, the USA and Canada, analysed data from more than a thousand trials conducted around the world, each measuring the effect of biochar on crop yield.

This found that biochar only improves crop growth in the tropics, with no yield benefit at all in the temperate zone.

"Location, location, location: it really matters for biochar," said Jeffery. "Biochar had a huge benefit in the tropics - a 25% increase in yield. But in the temperate zone, there was just no effect at all. We were really surprised."

The idea of biochar was inspired by the terra preta – Portuguese for "black earth" – a soil rich in black carbon, the partially burned remains of old plants, which is more fertile, and with a more favourable pH, than typical tropical soils.

"Our study was the first to test whether geography matters, and we were able to do this because of the very large dataset we assembled," said Professor Jan Willem van Groenigen of Wageningen University & Research.

"Our findings confirm that biochar can benefit farms in low-nutrient, acidic soils such as in the tropics, but in more fertile soils, such as those in the temperate zone, obtaining yield increases through biochar application is much less certain."

The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, did not evaluate other potential benefits from biochar such as managing waste or locking up carbon in the soil.

http://www.hortweek.com/biochar-crop-bo ... le/1432396