[Terrapreta] FW: [Gasification] soil and plant nutrition off topic comments

[Tom Miles]

Tom Taylor sent the following message to the Gasification discussion list in
response to a post about terra preta.   
 
> Dear Tom Miles,
>      For 35 years, we supplied a naturally occurring organic mineral
> which has more chemical benefits than charring, or organic materials such
as
> composts or manures. Some idea of chemical activity can be gained from the
> cation exchange capacity of a carbon compound, similar to that of the
> absorption area of charcoal. This mined product has a cation exchange of
900-1200 meq/100
> gms (milliequivalents/100 grams), composts may be 35, normal soils 12-20,
> clay solid 20-25. The deposit was from a freshwater swamp formed millions
of years
> ago and contained various microbes which included white rot fungi which
can eat
> lignin, long chain hydrocarbon molecules, and kept our mining equipment
> worn out before it's time.
>      The microbes would eat the paper bags in about 60 days, and
> polyethylene bags even in stretch wrapped pallets in about 3-4 months.
Tires would
> be blue after a rain from the digestion of the rubber.
>      This product when used with the right nutritional program produced
> spectacular results. We shipped it to Greece and doubled the sugar beet
> production, Guatemala and set the world's blueberry, raspberry and
strawberry
> prices that year from the volume that the 10 truckloads shipped to the
single
> grower produced. Various crops including cotton, alfalfa, corn, wheat,
milo,
> lots of various trees, including citrus, mangos (Brazil, Costa Rica) and
so,
> freeze resistance in pineapple, citrus, apple, apricot, peach, and other
crops
> was significantly increased. I was pretty proud of getting a 5.3 bale
> cotton crop in Arizona and 96 bushels/acre of soybeans in Wisconsin.
>      When it comes to raising crops for biomass energy programs, the
> norms can easily be broken and completely different economics apply. This
is
> the single biggest limiting factor to biomass energy projects.
>      This all crashed down when the US Gov't failed to follow court
> orders from a US District Judge in Albuquerque, and the State of New
Mexico
> likewise didn't follow his orders although they were not specifically
required
> to, and the mine was closed. A contempt of court order was issued against
the
> Bureau of Land Management for not following the judge's order but he
didn't have
> jurisdiction against the State and it was not able to operate the mine
> any longer.
> All of the equipment still sits there.


> Sincerely,
> Leland T. Taylor
> Leland T."Tom" Taylor
> President
> Thermogenics Inc.
> 7100-F 2nd St. NW Albuquerque, NM 87107
> Phone:505-463-8422 Fax:505-268-9206 (call first)
> Web:thermogenics.com