Biochar Notes: Links and pointers
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Here’s the question: If the maximum “safe” level of CO2 in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million, but today’s level is ALREADY 387 ppm, is it “good enough” to simply reduce the rate at which we are adding CO2 to the atmosphere? Simply put, is any policy option limited to a ‘reduction in the rate of increase’ merely a re-arranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Or, as seems logical, must we reverse direction and start REMOVING CO2 from the atmosphere as rapidly as possible? Can we reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by at least 10% fast enough to prevent serious global climate disruption? Can we get back to at least 350 parts per million before it is really too late? Attempting anything less would seem to be akin to voting for a disastrous future.
In 2007, we were already at at CO2 level of 383 ppm. So we have known of this overshoot for at least two years. We have, however, yet to hear any serious talk of changing direction. Nor is there any action to remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a global scale in order to attempt to preserve a semblance of life as we have know it. History shows that overshooting limits and carrying capacities inevitably has dire results: die offs and collapses. Is this what we want for our future?
Is biochar, the subject of this note, one way to reverse direction, make the soils healthier and more productive, as well as make a profit with increased crop yields? A profit driven approach to removing CO2 from the atmosphere seems the most likely to succeed. How would we engineer this on a global scale to achieve the results we desire in the required time frame?
If you are unfamiliar with Biochar / Biocarbon / Terra Preta, you can start learning about it in the Biochar Notes by clicking on the link below:
Biochar Notes: An Introduction to Biochar
Another excellent resource on Biochar, Hawai’i Agriculture Notes: Biochar, is maintained by Ben Discoe.
See Elizabeth Kolber’s essay on James Hansen in the June 29th issue of The New Yorker magazine. [This is not a link as a paid subscription is required.]
And Bill McKibben’s article in the Dec. 28th, 2007 Washington Post:
7 comments Jock Gill | Climate Change, Energy, Technology
If you follow the research done by James Hansen, it is pretty clear that 350 ppm is not a “safe” level of CO2 at all – when the atmosphere rises above 300 ppm, we lose the ice caps. So we need more drastic and immediate measures than people think.
thanks, gwendolyn, for pointing out that living at the edge of catastrophe — 350ppm — is hardly “safe.” we need to go lower then the edge of the red zone. if we really can figure this climate thing out, and how to throttle down our CO2 emissions with carbon-negative strategy and technology, maybe we will also become wise stewards of more of earth’s bounty and beauty.
regarding how to make biochar profitable, it is absolutely critical to remember that the whole point of this strategy as first devised in the ancient amazon rainforest is to grow food. abundant food. tasty food. healthy food. nutritious food.
the foundation of any community economy is feeding people. every day everyone must eat. if we harness this daily appetite of humanity to technology change and ecology restoration, this will generate lots of money, incentive and abundance.
this is very simple: offer consumers a choice to buy food grown by methods & materials that remove carbon from the atmosphere. why sell carbon on securities exchange or cap & trade auction when food is more real, personal and universal?
you want farmers to buy and use biochar? show them a market for food, feed & fiber grown with it. offer consumers a clear choice by identifying such biochar-grown foods in the marketplace. if consumers buy such food, farmers will grow it, which means farmers will buy and use biochar, too.
Eco-charcoal soil-to-fuel revolution
Section: FOOD — by Alexbenady @ 15 Jul 2009
The world’s largest “biochar” eco-charcoal plant opens for business next month in Sequatchie County, Tennessee.
It is possible to make biochar in your own garden by simply digging a trench. Pile brush, wood, corn husks and other biomass into the trench and then light it. The fire needs to be hot at first but then has to be cooled down by reducing the oxygen supply.
Supporters say when dug into the soil it also enhances plant growth, increases water permeability, nutrient retention, fertility and improves root development. Although Sequatchie was for decades a coal town, on August 1 it will become a charcoal town, when Mantria Industries and partner company Carbon Diversion Inc, open a new bio-refinery that will transform organic plant waste into biochar, a form of charcoal credited with near miraculous environmental properties.
The company says the plant will be capable of producing almost 40,000 tons of biochar a year –or 8,000 pounds an hour. It will transform wood waste and other biomass into charcoal pellets by a process know as ‘pyrolysis’ which involves burning wood at temperatures between 400c and 1000c with little oxygen.
Within days of the plant’s opening opening, the potential of biochar will be endorsed by the US government. The first major biochar conference in the US will open at University of Colaorado (Boulder) on August 9 with Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture as the keynote speaker.
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http://www.off-grid.net/2009/07/15/eco-charcoal-ignites-us-soil-revolution/
Excellent resource on biochar:
Hawai’i Agriculture Notes: Biochar
These notes are maintained by Ben Discoe
Popular Science covered biochar in New York:
Home-Brewing Biochar in Brooklyn
A New York startup is sequestering carbon and making fuel in an artists’ warehouse.
By Brooke Borel
Posted 06.30.2009 at 9:10 am
40,000 tons yr-1 * 2E3 lbs ton-1 = 8E7 lbs yr-1
365 days yr-1 * 24 hrs day-1 = 8760 hrs yr-1
8E7 lbs yr-1 / 8760 hrs yr-1 = 9132 lbs /hr
So, the Mantria plant in Sequatchie County, Tennessee operating at an UNBELIEVABLE 100% capacity, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, producing 9132 pounds per hour would make 40,000 tons of charcoal per year.
Even with three 8 hour shifts, and a 90% operating duty cycle, at 8000 lbs hr-1, the Mantria plant will only produce about ~31,500 tons yr-1
I would really like to see what there first year number turns out to be for tons produced in their first year.
Are there any quality tests of this charcoal? What will make this charcoal more useful as biochar than other kinds of charcoal? Will all of the charcoal produced be sold only as charcoal intended for amendment into soil (as biochar) ?