[Terrapreta] The economics of biochar

[Rick Davies]

Hi Christelle

Re your posting below, I dont want to get into charcoal production, I
already have a livelihood of my own. But my livelihood produces C02 and I
want to offset these emissions by buying charcoal from others (who would
bury it). And I want to encourage others in my area of work to do the same,
this creating economic incentives for charcoal producers to explore its
potential means of improving soil fertility

So your technology may be relevant if it can enable charcoal producers to
produce their charcoal more cheaply, and thus enable me, and others, to buy
it at a lower cost than if produced by other means.

regards, rick davies

On Dec 29, 2007 2:22 PM, chris braun <brauncch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Rick,
>
> I am a French PhD student working as volunteer for Pro-Natura
> International in Paris.
> http://www.pronatura.org/en/index.html
>
> Pro-Natura is currently developing small-scale pyrolyzers (e.g.
> "Pyro-7", see the attached document) which, once pre-heated with a
> small external amount of energy, operate continuously in an autonomous
> manner and without emitting any GHG, since the methane from the
> pyrolysis, instead of being released in the atmosphere, is burnt to
> give the energy required for the process to go on.
>
> This clean process produces "green charcoal" which can be used in
> place of traditional wood charcoal, but may be obtained from
> practically any kind of dry renewable biomass used as feedstock for
> the pyrolyzer (agricultural residues such as rice or coffee husks,
> invasive weeds etc.) So besides being clean and autonomous, this
> technology also avoids deforestation, one of the key issues in the
> African regions where the Pyros are currently mostly being
> implemented.
>
> This new technology won the 1st prize of the ALTRAN technological
> contest in 2002.
>
> Now reading your posting I thought that maybe it could be an
> interesting option for you, instead of buying or, worse, importing
> directly charcoal from abroad, to use a Pyro near your place and
> produce very cheaply green charcoal from biomass wastes. This would
> namely at the same time avoid the costs for the transport of charcoal
> and the costs for the feedstock...And it would not generate any
> additional emissions.
>
> For now green charcoal has only been used as cooking fuel, but there
> is currently a lot of discussions about starting to use it as biochar
> (I am actually the "biochar activist" there, currently trying to
> organize biochar trials in Senegal !).
>
> So you can find more details about the Pyro in the attached pdf (I am
> currently working on an updated version, should be available next
> week) and of course I would be glad to answer any of your questions!
>
> Sincerely yours,
> Christelle Braun
>
>
> On Dec 29, 2007 10:45 AM, Rick Davies <rick.davies at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> >
> > I have started to look into how I could buy carbon offsets that would
> > compensate for the CO2 generated by my international airflights each
> year.
> > One of those is a London-Melbourne return trip.  According to
> ClimateCare in
> > the UK (http://www.climatecare.org/) the total mileage of this flight is
> > 20,994 Miles and the resulting emissions are: 5.57 Tonnes of CO2 (Put
> aside
> > for the time being the question of how accurate this estimate is). The
> cost
> > to offset this CO2 will be £41.76, if I use Climate Care's services.
> >
> > I searched the web to find out how much carbon there is in a tonne of
> C02.
> > One source says "Carbon comprises 12/44 of the mass of carbon dioxide"
> > (http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/state_energyco2inv.html) So, my
> 5.57
> > tonnes of CO2 would be equal to 1.51 tonnes of carbon.
> >
> > I was then interested to see what it would cost me to buy that carbon,
> > literally, in the form of charcoal that is already being produced, and
> > preferably from renewable sources. I found a UK company called
> Bioregional
> > Charcoal Company, which sells charcoal to garden centres and
> supermarkets on
> > behalf of 25 local charcoal producers around the country, who produce
> > charcoal from long established coppiced woodlands. See
> >
> http://www.bioregional.com/programme_projects/forestry_prog/charcoal/char_hmpg.htm
> > for more information.
> >
> > Their charcoal sells for around £5.00 a bag of 3kgs, in the
> supermarkets.
> > Assuming at least a 100% markup by the supermarkets, this suggests the
> > charcoal makers could be selling charcoal at about £0.83 pence per kilo.
> If
> > I bought charcoal from them, and asked them simply to bury in one way or
> > another (so long as it was visibly beyond use as a fuel) it would cost
> me
> > £1,253 to offset my flight to Australia. Not realistic at all!
> >
> >
> > I then found an interesting paper on charcoal exports from Ghana, at
> >
> http://www.gepcghana.com/content/File/profiles/Product%20Profile-Charcoal.pdf
> >
> > Ghana exports charcoal to the UK and about 90% of charcoal used in the
> UK is
> > imported. On page 3 they estimate that coal producers must be selling
> > charcoal for export at around £0.06 per kilo (£2.18 per 40 kg bag). If
> this
> > was the price I paid I could afford my carbon offset, it would cost me
> about
> > £91.00, though it is still about twice what Climate care are offering.
> The
> > downside is greater uncertainty about the sustainable sourcing of the
> > charcoal from Ghana, though the paper does say that some suppliers are
> using
> > sustainable sources. The upside is that my pounds might be going to
> people
> > more in need than those in the UK
> >
> > My next step is to contact Bioregional and ask them about their
> wholesale
> > charcoal process, and also to contact a local charcoal producer a friend
> of
> > a friend knows about, to see what prices they could offer me if I wanted
> to
> > buy their charcoal, and then ask them to bury what I buy. I know
> Bioregional
> > know about biochar /terrapreta, but at present there is no economic
> > incentive for them to do much in this area yet. But If I and others
> (whose
> > demand I could aggregate) could buy charcoal from them, then they would
> be
> > able to afford to experiment with different forms of charcoal "burial",
> both
> > in farmland, saleable compost, and on the same ground as their coppiced
> > trees. Similarly perhaps in Ghana.
> >
> > If you have any thoughts on this line of thinking please let me know.
> > Basically, how can we create economic incentives for people to
> experiment
> > with using charcoal for soil improvement by paying for its carbon
> > sequestration uses? regards, rick davies
> >
> > --
> > Rick Davies (Dr),
> > Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
> > Mobile:  (44) 07855 766 354, Skype: rickjdavies,
> > Email: rick.davies at gmail.com
> > Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS at http://www.mande.co.uk
> > Rick on the Road at http://www.mandenews.blogspot.com
> > Homepage at http://www.shimbir.demon.co.uk
> > _______________________________________________
> > Terrapreta mailing list
> > Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
> > http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> > http://info.bioenergylists.org
> >
>



-- 
Rick Davies (Dr),
Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Mobile:  (44) 07855 766 354, Skype: rickjdavies,
Email: rick.davies at gmail.com
Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS at http://www.mande.co.uk
Rick on the Road at http://www.mandenews.blogspot.com
Homepage at http://www.shimbir.demon.co.uk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20071229/8a67aa9b/attachment.html