Biochar - a type of charcoal produced by burning biological material under low-oxygen conditions, stores carbon for decades, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere.
Credit: BEST Energies
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BRISBANE: Who thought a little charcoal could be a solution to climate change?
For one, climate activist and 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery who has been singing its praises for a while.
According to Flannery, a type of charcoal called Biochar not only sequesters carbon, but it also provides energy and improves the agricultural output of poor soils.
Too good to be true? Not according to Evelyn Krull, a biogeochemist at CSIRO in Adelaide, Australia, who is looking into the environmental and agricultural benefits of this simple carbon sink.
"Biochar can be produced in a carbon negative way, which means it has a carbon sequestration potential," says Krull. "Applied to soil, it can result in enhanced nutrient retention, and due to its high absorptive capacity, [it] can also decrease the uptake of soil toxins."
Biochar is the solid remains of biomass (biological material) burned in an enclosed space under low-oxygen conditions, a process called pyrolysis. By keeping the oxygen levels low, more carbon remains in the char, which lasts at least 100 years.
"It has a chemical structure that makes it very difficult to break down by any physical, biological or chemical processes," says Krull.
That stability is the secret to biochar's carbon-sequestration potential. While the biomass feedstock would quickly break down, releasing its carbon back to the atmosphere, converting them into biochar locks much of their carbon into a solid form.
The rest of the biomass's carbon becomes a gas, which can be collected and used as a fuel for heat or electricity, replacing fossil fuels such as coal.
The feedstock for biochar production can be any kind of biomass, Krull says - manure collected from a feedlot, cane trash left over from sugar cane production, woodchips from a sawmill, or a dedicated biofuel crop.
Preventing the decay of the feedstock and sequestering its carbon is the main climate mitigation action of biochar, but its benefits don't stop there, says Annette Cowie, a forest scientist for New South Wales's Department of Primary Industries in Sydney, Australia.
Applying the biochar to soil improves the soil's structure, Cowie says, helping it to retain water and nutrients and reducing the amount of nitrogen fertiliser required, especially for fertiliser-intensive crops like vegetables.
Biochar also reduces emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas produced by soil microbes that's 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, by up to 80 per cent, according to the International Biochar Initiative. The reduction isn't just the effect of applying less fertiliser, says Cowie.
"It seems that when you apply the biochar, that nitrogen transformation process is inhibited," she says.
Comments
The world is a great place, but it is falling apart and we all are responsable for this. Be responsable now and try to make it better.
Biochar, one of the newest option can contribuate to atmospheric CO2 reduction. Find out more:
http://www.biochar-books.com
The Biochar Revolution is exactly what it says !
Biochar - a solution to climate change
Yes, obviously it change the climate and good for energy source.
Its an interesting concept and would be a quick fix to remove CO2 and help tackle climate change, but shouldnt we really be focusing on ways of cutting down our emission rather than coming up with elaborate processes to remove the CO2 that we are pumping out.
It may only be 2% but every little bit counts and according to the authors of Climate Code Red, David Spratt and Philip Sutton, we need to not only reduce our emissions drastically but also sequester carbon and possibly even artificially cool the atmosphere.
James Tilbury
Director
Carbon Counters
Biochar Soil Technology.....Husbandry of whole new orders of life
Biotic Carbon, the carbon transformed by life, should never be combusted, oxidized and destroyed. It deserves more respect, reverence even, and understanding to use it back to the soil where 2/3 of excess atmospheric carbon originally came from.
We all know we are carbon-centered life, we seldom think about the complex web of recycled bio-carbon which is the true center of life. A cradle to cradle, mutually co-evolved biosphere reaching into every crack and crevice on Earth.
It's hard for most to revere microbes and fungus, but from our toes to our gums (onward), their balanced ecology is our health. The greater earth and soils are just as dependent, at much longer time scales. Our farming for over 10,000 years has been responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to carbon dioxide, Methane & Nitrous oxide began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel.
Wise Land management; Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,
Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, ( living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.
Biochar, the modern version of an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice called Terra Preta (black earth, TP), is gaining widespread credibility as a way to address world hunger, climate change, rural poverty, deforestation, and energy shortages… SIMULTANEOUSLY!
Modern Pyrolysis of biomass is a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration, Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.
Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw, "Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes "Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !". Free Carbon Condominiums, build it and they will come.
As one microbologist said on the TP list; "Microbes like to sit down when they eat". By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders of life.
Senator / Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar has done the most to nurse this biofuels system in his Biochar provisions in the 07 & 08 farm bill,
Charles Mann ("1491") in the Sept. National Geographic has a wonderful soils article which places Terra Preta / Biochar soils center stage.
NASA's Dr. James Hansen Global warming solutions paper and letter to the G-8 conference, placing Biochar / Land management the central technology for carbon negative energy systems.
The many new university programs & field studies, in temperate soils; Cornell, ISU, U of H, U of GA, Virginia Tech, JMU, New Zealand and Australia.
Glomalin's role in soil tilth, fertility & basis for the soil food web in Terra Preta soils.
UNCCD Submission to Climate Change/UNFCCC AWG-LCA 5
"Account carbon contained in soils and the importance of biochar (charcoal) in replenishing soil carbon pools, restoring soil fertility and enhancing the sequestration of CO2."
This new Congressional Research Service report (by analyst Kelsi Bracmort) is the best short summary I have seen so far - both technical and policy oriented.
Given the current "Crisis" atmosphere concerning energy, soil sustainability, food vs. Biofuels, and Climate Change what other subject addresses them all?
This is a Nano technology for the soil that represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.
Biochar Studies at ACS Huston meeting;
Most all this work corroborates char soil dynamics we have seen so far . The soil GHG emissions work showing increased CO2 , also speculates that this CO2 has to get through the hungry plants above before becoming a GHG.
The SOM, MYC& Microbes, N2O (soil structure), CH4 , nutrient holding , Nitrogen shock, humic compound conditioning, absorbing of herbicides all pretty much what we expected to hear.
Also: EcoTechnologies is planning for many collaborations ; NC State, U. of Leeds, Cardiff U. Rice U. JMU, U.of H. and at USDA with Dr.Jeffrey Novak who is coordinating ARS Biochar research. This Coordinated effort will speed implementation by avoiding unneeded repetition and building established work in a wide variety of soils and climates.
Hopefully all the Biochar companies will coordinate with Dr. Jeff Novak's soils work
I spoke with Jon Nilsson of the CarbonChar Group, in their third year of field trials. He said the 2008 trials at Virginia Tech showed a 46% increase in yield of tomato transplants grown with just 2 - 5 cups (2 - 5%) "Biochar+" per cubic foot of growing medium.
Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
540 289 9750