[Terrapreta] Economics of biochar

[Tom Miles]

Rick,

 

Who receives the benefit? The biochar consumer (farmer) would receive the CO2 benefit. He sells those benefits to a third party, like Climate Care,  who sells it to you and provides verification that the carbon has been applied to the soil.  With the current price of CO2 at $30/ton (EUR 22.30/tonne http://www.pointcarbon.com ) and 1 ton of C equal to 3.6 ton CO2 then the credit is worth about $100/ton of biochar. The farmer would receive a portion of that (carbon less transaction cost). In the US CO2 is worth only about $1.95/ton which at 3.6 ton CO2/ton C is about $7/ton biochar.  That benefit would be applied to his cost of buying the biochar and putting it into the ground. 

 

As far as I know nobody knows what value to assign to agronomic benefits from the use of biochar such as increased yield, reduced crop loss, or reduced input (water, fertilizer) costs.  

 

The biochar producer receives no carbon benefits from the sale of biochar. If he converts the waste gas (CO, H, etc) to energy then he could sell CO2 credits to the market to offset CO2 from fossil fuels. If he makes 1 ton of biochar from 4 tons of biomass then he probably releases about 1 ton of carbon as CO2 (50% C x 4 tons = 2 tonsC-1 ton C as biochar). So for each ton of biochar he makes if he converts the waste gas to energy (kW) he could sell ( 1tC x 3.6 tCO2/tC) 3.6 tons of CO2 x $1.95 or about $7/ton of biochar.

 

Tom    

 

2. Left out of your calculations, I think, is the interesting and perhaps unique feature of biochar, which is that you can sell the same kg of charcoal twice! Once as a carbon offset, to people like me, then secondly as a soil improver to others (and adding to compost would be a verifiable means of putting charcoal beyond use, as a fuel). 

Could you re-do your calculations taking into account both sources of income that producers of charcoal as biochar could receive? My hope is that it might help make charcoal sold as biochar a more attractive business proposition than selling charcoal as a fuel 

regards, rick davies

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