[Terrapreta] Back to black: hydrothermal carbonisation of biomassto clean up CO2 emissions from the past

[Ron Larson]

Hello Drs. Titirici, Thomas, and Andrietta (via Annette Pape)
        (cc Duane,  Michael, terrapreta list members)

   1.  The following exchange about your recently published work ("Back in the black: hydrothermal carbonization of plant material as an efficient chemical process to treat the CO2 problem?", New J. Chem., 8th March 2007, DOI: 10.1039/b616045j)  on HTC (hydrothermal carbonization) shows that your work is of interest to many of us on the "terrapreta" list (http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/).

   2.  It came to our attention through information published today   (http://biopact.com/2007/05/scientists-describe-hydrothermal.html) 
 - which included the full article.  Some months ago we also heard of this briefly - but not with the present level of detail and photographs.

   3.  This is mostly to congratulate you on this development.  It is also to request letting us know of any more recent work and/or past published technical reports on HTC.  This is also to invite all of you at the Max Plank Institute to participate in our discussion group dialog - which has to date mostly concentrated on various pyrolysis approaches to "biochar".  It was heartening to read that you describe the material as "spongy".

   4.  Our list has many members (many soils scientists) who would love to work with you in soils tests - or in any possible way to assist in your further development of HTC.  If you feel that you are adequately protected in terms of patenting and future commercialization, perhaps you can suggest collaborative work with other laboratories or individuals working hard on "terra preta" (many registered on this list).  As you have suggested in your paper, I suggest this because of the urgency of carbon sequestration.

Please let us know of anything we can do to help.  Again congratulations for your good work in this area.

Ron Larson (one of three list assistants to Tom Miles, list originator)


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Duane Pendergast 
  To: 'Michael Bailes' ; 'terrapreta' 
  Cc: pape at mpikg-golm.mpg.de 
  Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 10:21 AM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Back to black: hydrothermal carbonisation of biomassto clean up CO2 emissions from the past


  Good paper.



  Done.



  Duane



  -----Original Message-----
  From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Michael Bailes
  Sent: May 26, 2007 10:01 AM
  To: terrapreta
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Back to black: hydrothermal carbonisation of biomassto clean up CO2 emissions from the past



  Does some one want to tell them that this is not "NEW"?

  http://biopact.com/2007/05/scientists-describe-hydrothermal.html 

  Only biomass can be used for the creation of such carbon-negative energy systems that clean up our emissions from the past. Other renewables are carbon-neutral at best, meaning they can only reduce future CO2 emissions - something many scientists think is not enough to avert dangerous climate change.

  Maria-Magdalena Titirici, Arne Thomas and Markus Antonietti of the Department of Colloid Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, now describe a new, highly efficient though 'low-tech' way to use biomass as a tool to clean up past emissions. Their research appears in an open access article in the New Journal of Chemistry, in which they suggest creating "turbo-rainforests" based on fast-growing energy crops that are grown, turned into bio-coal via a process known as hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), and then stored into 'carbon landfills', while deriving energy from the process. The technique can be practised on an ultra-large scale, and can thus be described as a geo-engineering option - one that is actually technically and economically feasible.




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070526/c88439e0/attachment-0001.html