what is BIOCHAR?
Biochar is a new word for an old idea: producing charcoal and adding it to the soil to make it more productive. I have a separate pinboard "Wood Gasification" which is related; volatile compounds in biomass may be gasified for energy, but you only get biochar if combustion air is closed off. All these images lead to well produced web pages and articles worth reading. Click through!
Paper mill byproducts made into biochar serve in 'totes' as filtration media for heavy metals in roof and storm water runoff. Efficiency is greater than expected: 99% of zinc and 95% of copper removed.
Paper mill 'biochar' may help filter Port water
Bob Cirino is "Biochar Bob". In a visit to the Via Organica Ranch near San Miguel, Mexico, he interviews Rachel Kastner and local farmers who are learning and applying ideas of regenerative agriculture, growing lots of healthy food in small spaces, and incorporating biochar in innovative ways like under turkey bedding where it controls ammonia and produces a rich composted product.
Biochar Bob Goes to Mexico - Via Organica
By making biochar from brush and other hard to compost organic material, you can improve soil — it enhances nutrient availability and also enables soil to retain nutrients longer.
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Making Biochar to Improve Soil - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS
Garden burning - Biochar revived to help retain nutrients in soil
Making Biochar for improved garden soil
Biochar Illustration
Making Biochar to Improve Soil
Dolph Cooke demonstrates biochar making for farm scale with the Moxham open barrel kiln. The "pyrolysis front" of flame consumes any unburned gases coming from the charring biomass at the bottom.
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Craig Sams' company Green & Black's makes chocolate from cacao grown in organic agroforestry in Belize, and biochar made from farm-scale retorts enhances the soil sustainably.
Organic Agroforestry, Craig Sam, Farms Scal Retort, Cacao Farmers, Cacao Grown, Carbon Gold, Belize Cacao, Green Living, Company Green
Biochar is 'carbon gold' for Belize's cacao farmers - Green Living - The Ecologist
Biochar is 'carbon gold' for Belize's cacao farmers
Solar-Powered Toilet Unveiled - the product of a grant from the Gates Foundation, this equipment produces safe natural fertilizer from human waste, using biochar and solar heat. This addresses critical sanitation problems in many parts of the world which lack conventional sewage systems, and recycles the valuable nutrients that sewers waste.
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Solar Powered Toilet Makes Biochar from Human Waste
Plumbonline - Google+ Solar Thermal Toilets Are Carbon-Sequestering Charcoal Factories!
Solar toilets compost waste into coal. « Your Solar Link Blog
Solar-Powered Toilet Turns Human Waste Into Biochar
Solar-Powered Toilet Unveiled
With landfill space evaporating, this disposal firm in Edmonton, Alberta sees growth potential in biochar.
Disposal Firm, Growth Potential, Spaces Evaporated, Landfill Spaces, Dispo Firm
Biochar: a new weapon in the war against greenhouse gases - from climatesolutions.org
Greenhouses Gases
Organic by-product derived biochar, a greener option | Organic Farming | Scoop.it
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Adding biochar to soil during crop production both aids in soil carbon sequestration, and also improves the fertility, carbon content, and structure of the soil, improving crop yields.
Pro-Natura’s Biochar “Super Vegetable Gardens”
Organic by-product derived biochar, a greener o...
VermaChar is a biochar product inoculated with a material called Ambrosia which is enriched worm castings. It is produced and sold in the Los Angeles area.
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Startup Meets Los Angeles' Demand for Worm Castings
From Forbes Magazine, mainstream business attention: "Cool Planet: A Company That Makes Biochar And Gasoline"
Renewals Energy, Mainstream Business, Business Attention, Mothers Nature, Soil Amendment, Forbes Magazines, Mother Nature
Cool Planet: A Company That Makes Biochar And Gasoline. Investors include GE, Exelon, NRG, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Google. They take any non-food biomass, grind it up and then use pressure and heat like mother nature does, and we do it in minutes versus years, to drive all the reactive gases out of the biomass. Then take it through a catalytic column, and then out of that get fuel – floating on water – and biochar.
Cool Planet: A Company That Makes Biochar And Gasoline
Frank Strie says Tasmania needs to develop a carbon economy with biochar at the centre of the state's 'clean energy' mix. "Yes, it is a revolution but a friendly one. It's far more than just looking at biochar as a single entity. It's part of a much bigger process, and it fits into organic farming, with a clean, green and clever image and land restoration."
Bigger Process, Alternative Energy, Frank Strie, Cleaning Energy, Land Restoration, Carbon Economy, Broadcast, Lights Sources, Clever Image
From Carbon Gold: "Biochar has in turn been proven to improve the health and survival rates of living trees, keeping more of our CO2 absorbing trees alive and strong." This article describes demonstration projects with soil enhancements including biochar.
Capture Leaf, Helpful Trees, Carbon Capture, Members Blog, Leaf Counting, Carbon Gold, Absorbing Trees, Living Trees, Demonstrations Projects
Biochar - helping trees stand strong when every carbon capturing leaf counts. - Landscape Hub
Cool Planet’s biochar production process features an extra step that tailors the biochar to best fit a particular application. As a result, field trials have shown Cool Terra can increase crop yields while reducing water and fertilizer inputs by as much as 50 percent.
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New England Biochar's new video on YouTube shows off their new integrated production facility including efficient use of process heat. Surprise ending!
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The future of sustainable livestock production is here, say Cambridge researchers. Not a biochar article, but biochar could contribute to these techniques.
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Agricultural Terms: Part I
What potential agroforestry holds for the future CAP? | CAP Reform
Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogens. In this experiment, E.Coli cultures are tested for microbes' ability to signal each other in the presence of biochar with various characteristics. The goal is to provide a simple guide to tailor production temperatures for intended uses.
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Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogens
Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogens—Synthetic biologists at Rice probe biochar’s impact on microbial signaling
Synthetic biologists probe biochar's impact on microbial signaling
Biochar can interfere with chemical signals that some microbes use to communicate, including those used by plant pathogens to coordinate an attack. Biochar is charcoal that is produced—typically from waste wood, manure, or leaves—for use as a soil additive.
"Working on solutions to some of the world’s threatening environmental challenges and creating the world we want to live in is a thrilling opportunity. At Remineralize the Earth we are doing just that – working on research that has the potential to alleviate many of the environmental and agricultural problems humanity faces today, such as climate change, air pollution, unsustainable agriculture, and poor water quality."
Challenges, Rocks Dust, Soil Quality Projects, Soil Fertilizer, Biochar Soil, Agriculture, Compost, Blog, Climate Change
Biochar and Rock Dust for Nutrient Dense Food, Soil Fertility Restoration, and Carbon Sequestration
Research project with rock dust and biochar at New Harmony Farm in West Newbury, MA. Ground rock powder weathers slowly, adding minerals to the soil over time. Resulting in a healthier and stronger plant. Compost is commonly used as another way of adding nutrients to the soil through degradation of organic materials and breaks down more quickly than rock dust. Biochar is known to have positive effects on soils with low fertility, slowing leaching of nutrients through the soil.
Kelpie Wilson writes about Baron Justus Liebig, who researched the applications of charcoal long before the age of industrial agriculture: "In the 19th century, the issues that biochar could help solve were related to health, disease, poverty, and above all, the recycling of human sewage to replenish the soil."
Dateiyoungjustusliebigjpg
Kiwi Biochar Experiment -- a blogger on his discoveries with biochar
Kiwi Biochar, Biochar Experiments
another video by Bob Cirino, also known as Biochar Bob. on a visit to Haiti where there's been time for the soil improved with biochar to show its productivity. "be cool to the planet!" Carbon Roots International
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Carbon Roots International's biochar pilot project in Haiti, at one year.
Carbon Roots International: The Last 12 Months
Biochar and Prairie Biodiversity - YouTube video with Laurie Biederman of Iowa State University on using 1% and 3% biochar amendments to plantings in prairie soils. Second year of test shows increased biodiversity.
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Biochar used for filtration at dirty energy's Ground Zero, Alberta: "On the tailings water we can remove up to 90 per cent of the organics and that should reduce significantly the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced when those organics in the tailings ponds get chewed up by the bacteria that live in those ponds and create methane gas."