[Terrapreta] Cost of charcoal amendment to soil.

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Everyone,

Those are good observations, Peter.  It seems logical that if charcoal made from some biomass source has a lot of silica in it, then the plant took up at least Silicon (Si) ions, if not Silicon Dioxide (SiO2 = Silica = Quartz = Sand) into it's plant structures.  So, rice and bamboo at least use silica as a nutrient of a sort, I'd guess.

But, I like the view that silica (sand) pretty much just improves drainage in otherwise "water-tight" soils.  A nice thing about charcoal "chunks" in soil is that they do not dissolve.  Their porous structure retains itself over a very long time.  I've read from the work of other "charcoal in soil" researchers, that charcoal improves the tilth of soil.  If you alow the plow to move through it better, you can reduce the amount of fuel used to run the plow.  You can also bet that plants can grow in it more easily and that the soil can probably be plowed less often.  "No till" and "low-till" are the things that the Federal Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Sustainable Farming Associations all over this country have been beating the drum about, in order to improve "soil organic carbon" (SOC) and "soil organic matter" (SOM) content for years.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if plowing charcoal into soil would help the soil retain its "tilth"!?  Then the silly corn farmers who claim that "no-till" and "low-till" reduces their crop yields because the corn seedlings are too weak to break up the soil and they can't grow in a single growing season to record setting bumper crop yields can shut up and actually participate in a proven more ecologically sensitive farming practice improvement; a.k.a. "no-till" and "low-till" (chisel plow).

The recipe for "Terra Preta" could include charcoal, sand, other composted biomass material, earthworms, and microbial inoculants, like Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi.  A good "Terra Preta Farmer" would know the ratios.  So, when do we start practicing this stuff.

Just to let you others know, I have designed a charcoal making pyrolysis reactor and I am currently working on building the prototype.  I will be making, characterizing (source biomass, process temperature, proximate analysis, density, etc.), and bagging charcoal for sale as soon as I can this spring.  Keep in touch about if and when you would like me to make some for experimentation.  I do not have a price yet.  As soon as I can make a bunch of it, I will set a fair one.  If we work together and get a workable recipe, I will scale up the process to be able to make industrial quantities.  I am shooting to make a device that can be put onto a farm and make charcoal from farm wastes for use on the farm that it comes from, too.

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: PurNrg at aol.com<mailto:PurNrg at aol.com> 
  To: sean.barry at juno.com<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> ; michaelangelica at gmail.com<mailto:michaelangelica at gmail.com> 
  Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 8:17 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Cost of charcoal amendment to soil.



  In a message dated 3/28/07 12:33:42 AM, sean.barry at juno.com<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> writes:



    Silica is fertilizer?  Isn't it insoluble?  Maybe silica (sand) is more useful for breaking up clay soils, to let more water in.



  Hi All,

  No, I don't think one would characterize silica as a fertilizer, though interestingly enough, it is silica in the cell walls of bamboo that makes it so hard, so at least bamboo is able to take it up and use it, but I don't think much else is.

  Sand does help as an amendment to lighten heavy clay soil, but with one serious caution. Sand and clay alone equal concrete. It must be used along with some coarser items, both biodegradable and non-biodegradable like compost or PermaTill <http://www.permatill.com/>. This is where a coarse, chunky charcoal might well come in. As many of us know from experience, if you amend heavy clay with lots and lots of organic material it will fluff up quite nicely and look delicious, which of course it is. It rings the dinner bell for all the soil microbes and worms, and they come streaming in to devour the goodies. Go back to the same site three or four seasons later and it's pretty much gone back to the clay you started with, only it's a nicer, richer color. All the marvelous tilth and good drainage you might have had right after the job is gone.

  With the addition of lots of PermaTill, charcoal or other material which is not consumed by the soil (pre-Columbian pottery shards), you achieve a much more lasting enhancement.

  Peter :-)>

  Peter J. Schenk, Jr.
  Green Door Gardening Service
  42 Mount Vernon Avenue
  Alexandria, VA 22301

  Home -703 683 3260
  Cell - 703 304 2269



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