[Terrapreta] Farm Produced Biochar

[Ron Larson]

Gerald, Tom etl

1.  Thanks for forwarding this new (to me) short summary article you cite 
below.  We had a bit of discussion on this topic a few months back.  For 
instance, see: 
/2007-April/000503.html 
and 
/2007-May/000861.html 
(and there are others)

2.  I personally find this report fascinating and credible.  Credible 
because Professor Antonietti is clearly a very accomplished scientist and 
the Max Planck Institute is well respected as well.  He has nothing to gain 
and a lot to lose by reporting a non-starter.

3.  A good friend (Ron West - retired ChE professor) and I have tried to 
communicate with this group - and have had some success in getting 
additional research results.  But your forwarded article is better than 
anything else we have found.  Unfotunately, it still doesn't say what we 
really need.  That is - more about the catalyst that is being used, and its 
form - and details on pressure and temperature.  The article you cite 
doesn't say what others have said on the catalyst - "iron" (and maybe "iron 
oxide").  Presumably there are patent issues.  But we need others to be 
duplicating their results - and I am not aware of any.

4.  The other articles we have seen have not reported on the big potential 
for liquid fuels with these nanoparticles as a starting point - so "terra 
preta" may be hard pressed to compete.  It was good to see Professor 
Antonietti emphasizing the soil amendment aspects of his invention.  I 
include several from the MP Institute in this response, hoping to bring them 
closer to the soil testing side that Tom Miles keeps emphasizing and so many 
on this list want to participate in.

5.  This week's dialog on where to do processing is directly pertinent 
here - as this reputedly is a simple (low cost?) process that could be 
farm-based.  I don't see the word "solar" here, but think the needed 
starting energy could be from that source.

Again - thanks for bringing us to this topic once more.

Ron

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerald Van Koeverden" <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>
To: "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com>
Cc: "'terra preta'" <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 7:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Farm Produced Biochar


> Tom,
>
> Do you think that hydrothermal carbonization has any future??
>
>
> "http://www.mpg.de/english/illustrationsDocumentation/multimedia/
> mpResearch/2006/heft03/3_06MPR_20_25.pdf"
>
>
> Gerrit
>
> _______________________________________________
> Terrapreta mailing list
> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
> http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org