[Terrapreta] alkaline soils
Sean K. Barry
sean.barry at juno.com
Wed May 23 00:48:05 CDT 2007
Hi AD,
As I understand it, "bio-oils" from pyrolysis are the liquid fraction of the volatile matter coming from pyrolysis or destructive distillation reactions of biomass. Others have called these "wood vinegars", "wood tars", "terpenes" and/or "liquid smoke". Some of the things identified in this "bio-oil" are things like pyroligneous acid, acetic acid, methanol, terpentine, poly-nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and etc. Many of them are considered toxic to animals and even as carcinogenic to humans.
It's a lot of black goo. It is apparently not entirely well understood what it all contains. It conatins a fair amount of some sorts of enrgetic molecules (fuels). It can usually be reformed into fuel gases, like synthesis gas, with the addition of some heat and steam, then that can be further procesed to make more useful liquid hydrocarbon fuels, like methanol, di-methyl ether, synthetic diesel, and I think, even gasoline (We should ask Fischer and Tropsch, if we could? ... they're dead).
I hope this helps.
Regards,
SKB
----- Original Message -----
From: adkarve<mailto:adkarve at pn2.vsnl.net.in>
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] alkaline soils
would somebody explain to me what bio-oil is? What is it chemically? Is is a tri-glyceride, or is it called oil only because of its viscosity?
Yours
A.D.Karve
----- Original Message -----
From: John G. Flottvik<mailto:jovick at shaw.ca>
To: Michael Bailes<mailto:michaelangelica at gmail.com> ; Randy Black<mailto:rblack at hillcity.k12.sd.us>
Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] alkaline soils
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<mailto:michaelangelica at gmail.com>
To: Randy Black<mailto:rblack at hillcity.k12.sd.us>
Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto: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<mailto: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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