[Terrapreta] The economics of biochar

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Rick,

I'm not sure, but I think carbon is trading at maybe $10-$30/ton (I'm guessing, but it can be found out).  We have bandied about a price of $200/ton for Terra Preta grade charcoal.  With low cost (cost of harvesting and processing only, no transportation) feedstock, producing $200/ton (£100/tonne) I think is possible (maybe even cheaper).

The are many important issues, considering how and what kind of device makes $200/ton charcoal.  Will the $200/ton production of charcoal be with renewable biomass (annual growth)?  Will the carbonization reactor operate cleanly, without releasing Methane-CH4 or copious amounts of soot and or exhaust CO2?  Will the yield of "fixed carbon" from the reactor be high (>25-30% efficient production)?  Will the other energetic products of the pyrolysis reaction (combustible gaseous fuels and sensible heat) be harvested during production and converted to work or other more usable energy carriers (site heating, electric generation, liquid fuels)?

These alternate co-products with charcoal from a pyrolysis reaction are value added.  They can make the charcoal production process less expensive per ton of carbon produced.  Making charcoal with annual growth agricultural residue and placing that back into the field it came from will return the vast bulk of the nutrients, in a more stable form.  Eliminating the costs of transporting bulk biomass or carbon will surely reduce the cost per ton of charcoal.

There are many ways to look at this problem of how to produce charcoal for amendments into soil.  There is lots of opportunity for new creative development work in this arena.

Would $US300 (£150) for 1.5 tonnes of carbon be unrealistic as the price to pay for your carbon offset (with its longest sequestration term)?

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Duane Pendergast<mailto:still.thinking at computare.org> 
  To: 'Rick Davies'<mailto:rick.davies at gmail.com> ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 10:27 AM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] The economics of biochar


              Rick,



  It seems you would get something for your investment if you bought some charcoal and buried it or mixed in with some soil. The evidence on this site strongly indicates you would have removed some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and kept it out for a long time. Are you confident that ClimateCare will yield any results at all in terms of actually reducing atmospheric greenhouse gases?



  Duane



  -----Original Message-----
  From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Rick Davies
  Sent: December 29, 2007 2:46 AM
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
  Subject: [Terrapreta] The economics of biochar



  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/<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<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 <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!



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