[Terrapreta] Dams & wetter air (Off topic, or not off topic. That is the question.)

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Duane,

Terra Preta enthusiasts who have come more recently could suggest that those trees should have been harvested and turned into charcoal for terra preta soil above the waterline before the reservoir was flooded.

Now that's just excellent thinking!

Nuclear power and even salt water could be harnessed to make Hydrogen gas-H2 by electrolysis and then the H2 could be combined with Nitrogen gas-N2 from the air to make Ammonia-NH3 (Haber Bosch process), again using nuclear power.  Finally, CO2, NOx, and SOx emissions from coal fired power plants could be combined with the Ammonia to scrub those emissions and make fertilizers; ammonium bicarbonate-NH4HCO3, ammonium carbonate-(NH4)2CO3, ammonium nitrate-(NH4)NO3 (except not for terrorist folk, guys like Timothy McVeigh or Terry Nichols), and ammonium sulfate (NH42)SO4.  This is how industrial fertilizer is made now!  The only big difference is that we get the H2 gas from cracking Methane-CH4.

NREL and I think Eprida has a patent to do this, but they were considering getting the H2 from biomass.  The problem is that harvesting H2 from biomass might release more CO2 than you could ever put into making ammonium bicarbonate-NH4HCO3 out of.

Solar or wind energy might even be a better choice for this kind of a project.  I really think that ADM, Cargill, and Xcel Energy and Stuart Energy ought to put their heads together and figure out how to do this.  All the technologies exists now.  They could even grow fast growing coppiced Willow plantations and make charcoal to sell to their fertilizer customers as well.  The industrial giants need some incentives to do this.  Would telling them these kinds of ideas do it?  Would they do things to improve the environment, the lot of farmers and consumers, and their bottom lines?!  Do they need to be educated as to how to do this?  I'm a Terra Preta enthusiast and I think you bcan bring most any environmental of energy discussion to the topic

We are never going to grow out needing high nitrogen fertilizers, unless we shrink food consumption (not likely).  This is true even if we cover all agricultural fields in charcoal.  Doing that would only reduce the application rate to closer to the rate at which we remove nutrients in the crops.  Now, we lose probably more than half the fertilizers through run-off and leaching.

I'm a Terra Preta enthusiast and I think you can bring most any environmental of energy discussion to the topic of TP.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Duane Pendergast<mailto:still.thinking at computare.org> 
  To: 'Michael Bailes'<mailto:michaelangelica at gmail.com> 
  Cc: 'Sean K. Barry'<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> ; 'Terrapreta'<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 10:06 PM
  Subject: RE: [Terrapreta] Dams & wetter air (Off topic,or not off topic. That is the question.)


              Michael,



  River lovers have been campaigning against dams for decades. Almost as soon as the greenhouse gas issue came up heavily in the nineties, the issue of decaying trees in dams was raised as a means of discrediting hydro as a greenhouse gas free energy source. Terra Preta enthusiasts who have come more recently could suggest that those trees should have been harvested and turned into charcoal for terra preta soil above the waterline before the reservoir was flooded. 



  By the way, I once read a paper generated in Canada - with greenhouse gas study funding - which evaluated the generation of greenhouse gases by beaver dams. I wondered if the researchers had a good sense of humor and were spoofing the funders - or maybe I was taken by an April Fools joke.



  Fresh water supply is seen by some as a bigger issue that global warming by some, and I doubt the long established practice of controlling river flows for irrigation and other uses is going to stop.



  I once  looked at using nuclear energy to establish a carbon sink here in Alberta back in 2002. The idea contemplated was to pump fresh water from the north up to the south to supplement our meager rainfall and grow CO2 absorbing crops. I suggested at the time that the crops grown could be turned into charcoal and buried to make a sink. The sink was estimated to be on order of that needed to meet Canada's commitment to Kyoto. At that time I had no knowledge of terra preta but had an inkling repeated forest fires over many centuries probably generated significant long lasting charcoal.



  A few details are available from my presentation at http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Fora%20Input/CIE/Computare%20Web_CNA%20CIE%20Presentation_files/frame.htm<http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Fora%20Input/CIE/Computare%20Web_CNA%20CIE%20Presentation_files/frame.htm>



  See Slides 21, 22, 23 and associated notes pages.



  Duane



  P.S. - I think I may have posted the link above before and apologize to those who might have read it for the repetition. Still repetition is somewhat of a virtue here.
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