[Terrapreta] alkaline soils

[John G. Flottvik]

Michael.

Do know of anyone having tried bio-oil as a soil amendment?

If no has, and if its of interest to the list, I have the bio-oil made from softwood and the time to put together a new experiment.
Any comments or suggestions on this.

Regards
John. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Bailes 
  To: Randy Black 
  Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 7:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] alkaline soils


  Interesting experiment and observations Randy thanks.
  I think I am now even more confused :)

  There was a Canadian guy at the IAI conference who was just making liquid bio-oils for fuel.(I think it gets cold in Canada) He said this was one of the easiest and cheapest ways of transporting bio-energy as you could use tankers. 
  I suggested to him that he try experimenting with the bio-oil as a soil amendment.
  My suggestion may have fell on deaf ears; but it would be fascinating to see what different concentrations of "pure" bio-oils would have on soil. 
  m



  On 17/05/07, Randy Black <rblack at hillcity.k12.sd.us> wrote:

    For the acid loving plants you may need that or some other source
    material that was acidic to start with. From my research the more
    bio-oil you have in the char the more acidic 

   


    Also the more partial the pine needle char the higher the
    acidic effects.

    Discussion
    The results in Experiment 1 show that the acidic effects of pine needles
    rest mainly in the volatile oil/acids contained in pine needles as seen 
    in the partial char and bio-oil results bringing the ph levels down to
    below 7. However pine needle char will bring the ph level of water down
    to towards the neutral level of ph 7 as seen in Experiments 2 and 3 with 
    longer exposure. 

   


    The difference between the ph affects of bio-oil and 
    charred pine needle may be due to a chemical process versus and
    physical-chemical process as low temperature biochar does contain some
    of the parent materials properties as impurities with the char. More
    investigations are needed to identify what affects the high surface 
    area, adsorption properties, and impurities in low temperature pine
    needle biochar have on modifying ph. Dry ground uncharred pine needles
    also lower the ph of water but take much more processing time and energy 
    and do not have the adsorption properties or increased cation exchange

   


    capacity of char.

    The results of Experiment 4 show that a small amount of pine needle
    bio-oil can significantly reduce the ph of large amounts of water. 


    What affects partial char, char, and bio-oil would have on high ph soils 
    would need to be field tested with a variety of soil under various
    condition and with differing percentages of pine needle biochar/bio-oil.
    Reducing the ph of water and reducing the ph of soils are two different 
    processes and long term field testing is needed. Most likely the
    acidifying affects of the bio-oil and partial pine needle biochar would
    be temporary but due to the recalcitrance of charcoal, its high surface
    area, and adsorption properties, charred pine needles may be able to
    maintain soil at a ph level of 7 for much longer.



    Summary
    The implications of pine needle biochar for Terra Preta research and
    charcoal enhanced soils are tremendous. First, we now have the ability 
    to add char to soil that will reduce the ph level instead of increase it
    but still contribute the benefits of charcoal in soil using a common
    readily available material. This has implications for alkaline soils and 
    to create soils for crops that need acidic conditions. Second, this
    demonstrates that we can tailor one of the chemical properties of
    biochar to match soil conditions based on the chemistry of the parent
    material. This means that Terra Preta science can be applied to a wide 
    variety of soils and has the potential to be individualized to match
    soil ph conditions and crop ph ranges. Third, if we can do this with ph
    levels can Terra Preta science be applied to doing this with trace
    minerals for crop nutrients or for a chemical/mineral balance that may
    be selective in establishing a desirable specific microbial community.
    The physics and chemistry of pine needle biochar's ph affects are
    entirely different from what would be needed to add specific
    minerals/chemicals to soil but demonstrates that Terra Preta technology
    is much more than just adding charcoal to the soil and could
    revolutionize our ideas on soil and crop management. 








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