[Terrapreta] Durability of charcoal as carbon sink?

[Duane Pendergast]

          Thanks very much for this Edward,

 

You've indicated that charcoal lasts at least two hundred years in the soil
and I think you could cite solid evidence to support your opinion. As I
pointed out in the originating message two hundred years is as good as
forever in our economic systems. Sequestration by charcoal thus greatly
simplifies the design of an accounting system as there is no need for
complex formulae to account for sink degradation.

 

Duane  

 

-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Edward Someus
Sent: June 2, 2007 11:04 PM
To: Christoph Steiner; Sean K. Barry
Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Durability of charcoal as carbon sink?

 


Dear All, 

 

I am new member in the TERR PRETA network. 

 

INTRODUCTION: My name is Edward Someus, a Swedish environmental engineer.
WEB:   www.terrenum.net <http://www.terrenum.net/>   My organization is one
of the leading carbonization technology international development  and
engineering organization, is short COAL & CARBON for clean coal energy and
biological available carbons. Past years I had several large EU projects in
this subject. Beyond the carbonization thermal treatment an other applied
research thematic I work on is carbon/mineral/microorganism/plant
interrelations is agricultural soils, where I biologically - plant available
mobilize minerals and reformulate organic materials by an innovative solid
state fermentation and formulation technology, for which results I have
ongoing tests in Italy, Israel, The Netherlands, Germany and Hungary. 

 

RE I am assuming, by hypothesis, that the "fixed carbon in charcoal" is NOT
DECOMPOSED by microbes ................

 

YES FIX CARBON IN CHARCOAL WILL BE DECOMPOSED sooner or later, from nature
point of view rapidly, but from human point of view slowly. Carbonized
organic matter, as charcoal, consists mainly of elemental carbon and
inorganic compounds, and is generally thought to be immune to short term
biochemical decay and natural recycling. While some forms of organic
carbon,such as fresh organic matter,are quickly recycled,other more
resistant forms,such as charcoal, are recycled at a much slower rate.This
recycling follows a linear progression though time when considered within
the site-specific context,and includes the factors that influence
biochemical degradation of organic carbon. Charcoal once thought to be
inert, is biologically recycled at a slow but measurable rate. Therefore,
the decomposition rates are (approx. Estimated) somewhere between 10,000 and
a couple of 100s of years, more or less, all depending on the soil
condition.  However, some geological conditions may conserve carbon for very
long time. The effect of the biochemical degradation of charcoal and soil
humic material is measured by a ratio of the total organic carbon to the
readily oxidizable carbon in the soil sample.  In general, as the total
amount of organic carbon decreases though time due to recycling, the
relative percentage of readily oxidizable carbon increases.  This ratio is
the Oxidizable Carbon Ratio.  The rate of biochemical degradation will vary
within the specific physical and environmental contexts of the sample.  An
age estimate of the organic carbon is determined through a systems formula
that accounts for the biological influences of oxygen, moisture,
temperature, carbon concentration, and the soil reactivity. 

 

 

 


Sincerely yours: Edward Someus (environmental engineer)
Terra Humana Clean Technology Engineering Ltd. 
(ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified organization for scientific research,
technical development and industrial performance engineering design of
agro-biotechnological and pyrolysis methods, apparatus and applications) 

ADDRESS: H-1222 Budapest, Szechenyi 59, Hungary
TEL handy:  +(36-20) 201 7557
TEL / FAX:   +(36-1) 424 0224
TEL SKYPE phone via computer:  Edward Someus
WEB:   www.terrenum.net  <http://www.terrenum.net/> 

-------Original Message-------

 

 



 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070603/6a1e62e7/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1458 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070603/6a1e62e7/attachment.jpe