[Terrapreta] (no subject)

[Richard Haard]

Larry - some comments and questions from this recent posting

  I have no idea what dielectric relation of water means and the  
significance of the images other than the first one shows root hairs  
among some charcoal. Frankly, Ogawa's images of charcoal are totally  
intuitive

'This is already clear evidence that the presence of [OR?] absence of  
volatile material has a dramatic influence on PBC properties wrt to  
reactivity and cation exchange capacity. While feedstock will have a  
fundamental influence on relative amounts and nature of volatiles,  
temperature and pressure are other key linked factors that determine  
the concentration, and I suspect location. The appearance of  
microcrystalline graphite in biocarbons pyrolysed above at 475C  
appears to be associated with the development of numerous nm sized  
pores (see attached pdf). The effects of these on the functional  
properties of PBCs is even more poorly understood than the influence  
of volatiles on cation exchange capacity.'

I suppose that the volatile material needs to be cooked into the  
charcoal during formation rather than adding water soluble condensate  
ie wood vinegar as we have been discussing. Is it true then that  
there is a new product formed  when charcoal is made under these  
ideal conditions ?

Is this a correct assumption?

What is clear to me in this communication between 'agrichar'  
scientists is

'that agri or biochar has a hill billy connotation when what we  
should be promoting is that fact the pyrolysed biocarbons (PBCs) are  
THE energy and agricultural biotechnologies of the 21st Century, that  
they are of fundamental importance in reducing fossil carbon use in  
agriculture and reducing the use of irrigation water, and will  
contribute to saving the planet by reducing global warming and sea  
level rise.'

Does this mean that the only modern agrichar for valid use in  
agriculture is only produced in a specially managed pyrolyser? Or  
does it mean if we are going to be successful to popularize a process  
we need to produce backyard char a temperatures at or below 475C  
(=887F). I hope the forthcoming proximate analysis of the Larrycoal  
will give us information that we have met this standard or that we  
need to refine our backyard process to meet this standard.

It would also be interesting to communicate with this person and to  
see if he would be interested in examining a fixed char sample from  
our research plot , if we can find some samples of char with root  
involvement like you demonstrated in 2005.

Best Rich
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