[Terrapreta] Charcoal properties II

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi All,

Kingsford can and does produce charcoal by the "truckload".  The cost of rolling trucks to where the charcoal is wanted is the problem.  Michael Antal has designed a device which can carbonize several sorts of biomass; oak slabs, oak board, leucaena wood, coconut shells, corncob, corn stover, macadamia nut shell, pine wood, rice hulls, etc.  I think making charcoal with local agricultural waste sources is a better way than shipping it in, to get more charcoal put into soil in agricultural growing areas.  I also think even garden growers, organic growers, and turf growers would like to have a way to "make" charcoal from the waste biomass they have available locally, so they can control the inputs and outcomes their own way, rather than have to truck it in to where they want to use it.  Nurseries have biomass waste and could make charcoal and compost it themselves, rather than have it trucked in by the tons, only to have to truck it out.  In Brazil, 'Terra Preta De Indio" is a product today, not just charcoal.

Maybe we should consider the whole process of making the Terra Preta onsite; char local biomass wastes, compost the charcoal in with locally used fertilizer regimens, grow local plants in it for a year, and till the plant matter in, etc.  Its entirely possible that cooking grade charcoal might be darn near poisonous to crops.  We don't want to just focus on charcoal and then have some farmers use it widespread (by the truckload), unsuspecting, and then have a bad result.  The whole set of mechanisms of how to make charcoal and how to get it into the soil for the best agricultural benefit demands much more study.  I think we need ways to change the charcoal recipe in distributed places, used by varied researchers and people in this group, before and instead of finding ways to get at "truckloads" of charcoal. 


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: Shengar at aol.com<mailto:Shengar at aol.com> 
  To: tmiles at trmiles.com<mailto:tmiles at trmiles.com> ; mantal at hawaii.edu<mailto:mantal at hawaii.edu> ; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 12:38 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal properties II


  Hi all,
  Just got this email from Thomas Beer;



  "Truckload quantities of consistent quality wood char (before it is turned into briquettes) is available for purchase from Kingsford. Volatiles, ash, fixed carbon, moisture, ignition temperature all known. Let me know what you need and I'll get your name to the right people in our organization. 

  Thomas Beer
  Manufacturing Technology
  Clorox Services Company
  3900 Kennesaw 75 Parkway, Suite 100
  Kennesaw, GA   30144
  770-426-2419
  770-426-2428- FAX
  770-364-1079- Cell "




  Erich J. Knight 
  Shenandoah Gardens
  E-mail: shengar at aol.com
  (540) 289-9750





------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom>. 
  _______________________________________________
  Terrapreta mailing list
  Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070307/67834277/attachment.html