CHARCOAL like that created by ancient Amazonians or in a modern process called pyrolysis, could be used as a carbon-negative source of fuel and fertilizer.
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SIDEBAR: The Companies and Organizations Poised to Turn Garbage into Fuel, Fertilizer and a Means of Carbon Sequestration
When Desmond Radlein heard about Richard Branson and Al Gore's Virgin Earth Challenge, a contest in which the first person who can sequester one billion tons of carbon dioxide a year wins $25 million, he got out his pencil and began figuring whether or not his company was up to the task.
Radlein is on the board of directors at Dynamotive Energy Systems, an energy solutions provider based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is one of several companies pioneering the use of pyrolysis, a process in which biomass is burned at a high temperature in the absence of oxygen. The process yields both a charcoal by-product that can be used as a fertilizer, and bio-oil, which is a mix of oxygenated hydrocarbons that can be used to generate heat or electricity.
Because the charcoal by-product, or "agrichar," does not readily break down, it could sequester for thousands of years nearly all the carbon it contains, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Along the way, it would boost agricultural productivity through its ability to retain nutrients and moisture.
"I developed this rough back-of-the-envelope calculation of what it would require if one were to [attempt the Virgin Earth Challenge] with the agrichar concept," Radlein explains. "One would need about 7,000 plants each processing 500 tons of biomass per day, which is a large number, but it's not outside the bounds of possibility." Such facilities would produce four parts bio-oil to one part carbon sequestered, so it would rake in money as well as carbon.
An International Movement
Radlein is not alone in his belief in this technology—last week in Terrigal, New South Wales, Australia, the newly formed International Agrichar Initiative held its first ever conference, which included 135 attendees from every corner of the globe. According to Debbie Reed, an environmental policy expert who organized the conference, keynote speaker Mike Mason of the carbon offset company Climate Care urged attendees to unify in an effort to apply for the Virgin Earth Challenge. He also encouraged them to submit their method to the United Nations's Clean Development Mechanism program, which is designed to transfer clean technology from the developed to the developing world.
Although no officials from the U.S. government attended the conference, there is a nascent stateside movement pushing for adoption of agrichar. "[Democratic Senator] Ken Salazar of Colorado is drafting a stand-alone bill on this, and he may also promote it as part of the Farm Bill," notes Reed. The Farm Bill, whose terms are decided every year, determines what agricultural initiatives can be funded by the U.S. government. Inclusion in the Farm Bill would virtually guarantee subsidies for research and application of the agrichar process.
A Technology with a (Potentially) Huge Upside
In 2100, if pyrolysis met the entire projected demand for renewable fuels, the process would sequester enough carbon (9.5 billion tons a year) to offset current fossil fuel emissions, which stand at 5.4 billion tons a year, and then some. "Even if only a third of the bioenergy in 2100 uses pyrolysis, we still would make a huge splash with this technology," remarks Johannes Lehmann, a soil biogeochemist at Cornell University and one of the organizers of the agrichar conference.
There are other perks: Increasing production of bio-oil could decrease a country's dependence on foreign oil. In the tropics, boosting soil productivity increases the number of growing seasons per year, which could help alleviate the pressure to deforest biodiversity hot spots. The new markets for agricultural crops, which would in effect become sources of fuel, could boost rural economies worldwide, just as the demand for ethanol has bolstered the price of corn.
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9 Comments
Add CommentThe obvious near term solution would be to use the amazonian terra preta to inoculate the agrichar and other ingredients and grow it. I'm sure this has been tried and I'd love to know about results.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInoculation does indeed work in the Amazon, but not elsewhere. But why this is is the subject of much speculation. Unfortunately there is scant little research being done on the subject. It is soil that feeds us, but strangely the science of soil is underfunded throughout the World. For instance, we know very little about soil bacteria etc...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDear Ones
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNew Exclusive Innovative Green Project, that will utilize the agrichar (renewable biomass waste) as a major raw material to produce light weight solid concrete bricks for the building &construction industry in order to substitute the widely used clay brick which should be prohibited since it is made on the account of our fertile land natural resources, mud/clay rich soil which should be conserved for only agriculture to cultivate more crops/food for a starving of food World.
When you have non farmers evaluating terra preta you miss the importance of the other materials present with charcoal, such as bones and fired clay bits (pottery and bricks) and wood ash. All of these buffer the acidic Latrelite soils, stablize the ionic clays and prevent leaching of the plant nutriants from the upper soil horizons. Because of the ionic buffering the water and nutriants in the soil are readily avaliable to the plants. Charcoal and pottery shards will survive for a very long time in latrelite soils that form in warm wet areas. These soils destroy organic humis very quickly and the clays cement up if exposed by tillage. The bones and wood ash balance the ph of the acid of the clay soils.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am developing a project to produce biochar and biofuels from agave. One hectare of our ultra-high-density variety can produce from two hundred to five hundred tonnes of biomass per hectare per year.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are using several agave species, both for semiarid and temperater (Mediterranean) climates. We are developing cold resistant varieties.
Mainly, we will use the biofuels for electricity production -the main source of GHG in Mexico-, to mitigate emissions.
Regards,
Arturo Velez
agaveproject2@gmail.com
The Al Gore offer is for the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2). Has anyone noticed that this removes two parts of oxygen for each single part of carbon? What kind of scientists are working on removing this oxygen from our air? Bio-char is the only corrective carbon removal that I see right now.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat about the char produced from the pyrolysis of rubber and plastic? Can this also be added to soils?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisno. the carbon from rubber produces carbon black and plastic produces coke. Neither healthy for soils, both with already large industries. essentially, they would poison the soil, very quickly making it toxic dirt. Carbon produced from fossil fuels (coal, tar sands, petroleum) contain way to many other toxics in it that would just not be cost effective to remove or filter out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe best source of biochar is woody mass... and at that, wood waste. Biomass across the board can go, but its actually the larger chunks (found in wood chips) that produces the best haven for microbial life and nutrient retention. Though... a mixture is still good..of small and large particles... both of which you find in larger wood chips. Smaller materials (leaves, grass clippings, etc) are better suited for composting... which, when blended with char, makes arguably the best soil this side of the equator (US).
“The Biochar Revolution” with “The Biochar Solution”
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://biochar-books.com/
The Biochar Revolution collects the results and best practical advice that these entrepreneurs have to offer to the biochar community. When practice and theory advance to the point where they meet in the middle, then we will truly see a biochar revolution.