[Terrapreta] Terra Preta and the Global Carbon Cycle
Sean K. Barry
sean.barry at juno.com
Fri Jun 1 00:23:46 CDT 2007
Hi Joe,
You are seeing things as I do on this subject ... and you are seeing more, too. Thanks for your insightful input.
Regards,
SKB
----- Original Message -----
From: joe ferguson<mailto:jferguson at nc.rr.com>
To: adkarve<mailto:adkarve at pn2.vsnl.net.in>
Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terra Preta and the Global Carbon Cycle
Even should the farmer reduce crop area for this hypothetical crop, increasing yields per unit area is a net advantage. Less of other inputs (labor, fertilizer, etc.) will be required. For a given level of industriousness of the farmer, he could devote the balance of the inputs to other crops, soil improvements, etc. He might even make more char in his spare time!
Joe
adkarve wrote:
Increasing the yield per acre of an economically important plant species may not necessarily mean that the total yield of that commodity in the world would be increased. Because agriculture is linked to the price of the concerned commodity, there is a tendency among farmers to reduce the cropped area to avoid overproduction and crashing of prices. In fact, the U.S. Government used to pay farmers money for not planting a part of their field. There is even a joke about it. A farmer wanted to know from the U.S. Department of Agriculture the name of the breed of hogs for which he would get the maximum amount of money by not raising them.
Yours
A.D.Karve
----- Original Message -----
From: Sean K. Barry<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>
To: still.thinking at computare.org<mailto:still.thinking at computare.org> ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> ; 'joe ferguson'<mailto:jferguson at nc.rr.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Terra Preta and the Global Carbon Cycle
Hi Duane and All,
Thanks, I will review those papers. My intent on writing this analysis was to counter something Joe Ferguson said (no offense intended, Joe),
"The scope of the CO2 problem is mind-boggling. My back-of-the-envelope
calculations show that we couldn't keep up with CO2 released by fossil
fuels even if the product of all cultivated land were sequestered in
some manner as locked-up carbon or CO2."
It is interesting, Duane, that you say humans already control 24 Gt of agricultural biomass. I wonder how much of that is crop and how much of that is waste?
Another thing I forgot to mention last night, too, was that carbon in soil has been shown to increase plant growth (yield) for plants grown in that soil. So, increasing the area of carbon amended soil at ~ 1 billion acres per year would presumably increase uptake of CO2 by these higher growth (yield) plants. This is another one of those "virtuous" circles (positive feedback).
Altogether, I think there are several "virtuous" circles involved in using charcoal in soil; CO2 sequestration via charcoal in soil will lead to 1) more fertile and productive agricultural soils, 2) greater use of a very clean energy source that can reduce our use of fossil fuels, 3) increased CO2 uptake by plants, 4) a potential revenue stream for poor rural economies from increased crop yields and "carbon credits", 5) cleaner water systems, 6) less industrial fertilizer use (means lower use of fossil fuel natural gas used to make nitrate fertilizers), and etc. There could be more?!
Regards,
SKB
----- Original Message -----
From: Duane Pendergast<mailto:still.thinking at computare.org>
To: 'Sean K. Barry'<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> ; 'joe ferguson'<mailto:jferguson at nc.rr.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 10:43 AM
Subject: Terra Preta and the Global Carbon Cycle
Sean
That's a very comprehensive paper and I think your calculations are credible. There is a link to a peer-reviewed paper I wrote in 2006 somewhere on the terra preta website which I think you will find will also support your estimates.
Perhaps better, although not peer reviewed, is an earlier paper presented to an American Nuclear Society hosted meeting in 2004. It uses illustrations and data from the 2001 IPCC Science report to establish the point that humans already control some 24 billion tonnes of carbon annually through agricultural activities in comparison with some 6 billion tonnes of carbon per annum released from fossil fuel burning. My paper also touches on the possibility of terra preta development as a means of carbon control. As you can imagine, the nuclear industry audience may not have appreciated the concept. The industry tends to see itself just as a near emission free energy alternative rather than a very bounteous energy source to be integrated into the energy flows which support life on earth.
My 2004 paper is available from my website at;
http://www.computare.org/publications.htm<http://www.computare.org/publications.htm> a bit down the page under the sub-title ; October 2004 - Science and Technology Development to Integrate Energy Production and Greenhouse Gas Management. It is extensively linked to references.
The paper is also posted at the link below as a public document without copyright restrictions. This one, in .pdf format, loses a few links to other information
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=839324<http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=839324>
Sincerely,
Duane Pendergast
-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org> [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org>] On Behalf Of Sean K. Barry
Sent: May 30, 2007 11:01 PM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>; joe ferguson
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Large-scale experiment opportunities
Hi Joe and All,
I read in a paper written in 2004 for the Encyclopedia of Energy and the Biomass Energy Research Association which had an estimate for annual carbon yield from worldwide terrestrial plant growth. The numbers presented in this paper were taken from 2002-2004 data developed by the International Energy Agency.
There is ~53 Gt (billion tons) of carbon fixed into ~132 Gt of terrestrial biomass every year. If the average yield from carbonization of biomass were only 25% on a weight/weight basis carbon/biomass, then it would only require ~27 Gt of biomass to be converted into charcoal to offset the ~6.6 Gt flux of carbon into the atmosphere from human activity (due mostly to burning of fossil fuels). It was interesting to note, too, that 0.46 Gt carbon equivalent of that ~6.6 Gt is from human respiration of carbon dioxide.
So, we need only convert ~20% of annual terrestrial biomass growth into charcoal each year to neutralize the crbon inputs to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels at current levels. There is 829 Gt of standing carbon in terrestrial biomass (27 Gt is only ~3% of that).
This computation does not take into account the amount of energy which could be harvested for use, while pyrolizing/carbonizing 27 Gt of biomass, either. This could reduce the amount of fossil fuel being used by a substantial amount.
Currently, only ~10.5% (= ~45.1 EJ, exajoule, 10E18, one quintillion joules) of all worldwide energy consumption is supplied from biomass sources. The average enrgy content in biomass is somewhere around ~19 MJ/kg or ~19 GJ/t, giga-Joules per metric ton. So, ~45.1 EJ / 19 GJ/t = ~2.4 Gt. We already convert (by complete combustion) 2.4 Gt of biomass into energy (and, again, this is ~10.5% of all the energy we use).
We start by carbonizing 27 Gt of biomass into charcoal, heat, and energetic gases (H2, CO, CH4). If we left 60% of the energy in the charcoal, and harvested only half of the other energy in the heat and gases, then we would harvest about ~5.4 Gt worth of biomass as energy (100% - 60% = 40%, 40%/2 = 20%, 20% of 27 Gt = ~5.4 Gt). This would amount to something like 5.4 Gt * 19 GJ/t = ~103 EJ. That is another 25% of all the energy we consume worldwide!
So, energy harvested from ~27 Gt of biomass, which was being converted to charcoal, could supply another 25% of our current world consumption of energy. This would reduce the use of fossil fuels for the supply of energy by at least 25%, if not more (we only get a fraction of our worldwide total energy consumption, a large one albeit, from fossil fuel energy sources).
I think my analysis above is fairly correct. If anyone would like to discuss any of it, I surely would enjoy the rapport. The paper I referred to mostly, I've attached.
Regards,
Sean K. Barry
Principal Engineer/Owner
Troposphere Energy, LLC
11170 142nd St. N.
Stillwater, MN 55082
(651) 351-0711 (Home/Fax)
(651) 285-0904 (Cell)
sean.barry at juno.com<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>
----- Original Message -----
From: joe ferguson<mailto:jferguson at nc.rr.com>
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 2:48 PM
Subject: [Terrapreta] Large-scale experiment opportunities
Here are some ramblings on the topic.
The recent wildfires in New Jersey (US) and still raging fires in the
southeast US (Georgia and Florida) might serve as good sites to
experiment on the nearby soils to see what an abundant local source of
char would enable. I visualize some of the large machines that I have
seen at work grinding up storm debris going to work on charred snags and
making hundreds of tons of char chips. Perhaps the local agriculture
officials and academic researchers could get involved, liberate
necessary funding, and start getting answers to some of these questions.
What level of charring is needed to get an impact?
What level of application of char/unit area?
What depth of mixing into the soil?
What kinds of soil are improved by char treatment?
Is the burned clay a critical element?
What mineral mixture of said clay is required?
I believe that the problem of CO2 accumulation is severe enough to have
every avenue explored that might lead to reducing or even reversing the
trend. But it's necessary to get started, to obtain real data, and to
have knowledgeable experts from many disciplines analyze the data. I
visualize participation by a full gamut of agricultural scientists,
biologists, geologists, mining engineers, economists, etc. (and you name
your own lists.)
The scope of the CO2 problem is mind-boggling. My back-of-the-envelope
calculations show that we couldn't keep up with CO2 released by fossil
fuels even if the product of all cultivated land were sequestered in
some manner as locked-up carbon or CO2. But until humanity gets a
handle on economically attractive sources of non-fossil energy, we have
to do the best we can. And the least we can do is to get started.
Perhaps the carbon credits being discussed would provide a source of
funding to defray some of the investment needed to create some
large-scale demonstration projects. We have certainly seen how some of
the US energy programs can create some UNeconomic projects, like the
"synfuels" programs that would collapse without tax credits and the
ethanol-from-corn nonsense that can't unequivocally be shown to break
even on an energy basis. And speaking of the ethanol programs, at least
those operating the fermentation facilities should be required to
capture the CO2 for sequestering.
Joe Ferguson
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