[Terrapreta] Abstract on Charcoal in soil

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Randy

Randy Black wrote:
> 
> Kevin, 
> 
> All forms of carbon are the same!

Regrettably, I have to be contrarian again!! ;-) Consider, as three 
extreme examples, diamond, graphite, and lampblack... do you know of any 
"bugs" that can eat them?

Consider two much closer examples... cellulose and starch. They have the 
same chemical formula, yet, as Dr. Karve notes, you get 1/2 the biogas 
from Cellulose as you get from Starch.

The carbon in most biomass is in the carbohydrate or hydrocarbon form, 
and is in a form that various life forms can "sink their teeth" into it. 
It has a nutritive value, and it is worthwhile for them to attack it. I 
don't know of any biological process that can react with diamond, 
graphite, or lampblack, or charcoal, and build its carbon into a biomass 
system. From my limited knowledge, it seems to me that carbon must have 
another element tied to it chemically before biological life forms are 
able to consume it.

Best wishes,

Kevin

  Carbon is an element and if you burn
> off all the impurities in any organic material you get carbon. This is
> why partial biochar is so important to Terra Preta. The partial biochar
> does have many differences based on its parent material. Pine needle
> biochar can actually lower the ph in soil where pine wood biochar
> increases it. This is due to the acidic oils that are present in pine
> needles but not in pine wood. So when you say "It would appear that all
> forms of carbon are considered as equal, when this is not necessarily
> the case. Indeed , it is likely that carbohydrate carbon, cellulostic
> carbon, and charcoal carbon serve very different functions.", it is
> different if you are talking about carbon or talking about partial
> biochar.
> 
> Also the physical structure of the char will be different depending on
> parent material. Wood has a lot of pores due to the cell structure
> inherent in the wood but I have not seen anything on the cell structure
> of say grass, leaves, or any organic material. I have also noticed the
> difference is cell structure of my charcoal when I use dry fresh wood
> versus rotten older wood. The rotten older wood breaks down much easier
> and seems to hare larger pores.
> 
> Randy Black