[Terrapreta] Pyrolysis-An article you MAY find of interest

[Michael Bailes]

 Towards carbon-negative bioenergy: US Senator introduces biochar
*...*<http://biopact.com/2007/10/towards-carbon-negative-bioenergy-us.html>
 By Biopact team(Biopact team)
The energy produced from the remainder of the biomass is used to heat the *
pyrolysis* unit and/or provide energy for on-farm use, such as heat and
electricity for lighting, fans, refrigerators, milking machines, etc. *...*
 biopact - http://biopact.com/ <http://biopact.com/>

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This week Biopact will zoom in on the latest developments in carbon-negative
biofuels and bioenergy. Over the coming days we will be looking at the
science behind the concept, at results of field experiments, at information
resources and documentaries, and at new educational initiatives. By way of
introduction, we present new legislation recently introduced to promote
biochar research in the United States.

Biofuels and bioenergy are often presented as 'carbon-neutral' because the
carbon dioxide emitted by their use is taken up again as new energy crops
grow. Like wind or solar power, they do not add CO2 to the atmosphere. But
the bioenergy community has long gone beyond this concept and has begun
looking at the production of carbon-negative fuels and energy instead. These
do not merely avoid new emissions from entering the atmosphere, they
effectively take CO2 from the past out of the atmosphere.

Carbon-negative bioenergy can be obtained via two ways: a high-tech and a
low-tech process. The high-tech pathway involves transforming biomass into
energy and fuels, while capturing the CO2 and sequestering it in its gaseous
form into geological sites such as depleted oil and gas fields, unminable
coal seams or saline aquifers. They draw on 'carbon capture and storage'
(CCS) techniques currently being developed by the coal industry.

The low-tech route consists of transforming biomass into useable fuels while
keeping part of the carbon locked into an inert form, called biochar
('agrichar'). This biochar is then simply added to agricultural soils, in
which the carbon can be sequestered safely for hundreds, possibly thousands
of years. The discovery of ancient 'terra preta' soils demonstrates that
carbon effectively remains locked up for a very long period of time.

More and more research shows that soils amended with the char have very
beneficial effects on crop growth. The enhanced nutrient retention capacity
of biochar-amended soil not only reduces the total fertilizer requirements
but also the climate and environmental impact of croplands. Char-amended
soils have shown 50 - 80 percent reductions in nitrous oxide emissions and
reduced runoff of phosphorus into surface waters and leaching of nitrogen
into groundwater. As a soil amendment, biochar significantly increases the
efficiency of and reduces the need for traditional chemical fertilizers,
while greatly enhancing crop yields. Experiments have shown yields for some
crops can be doubled and even tripled (previous
post<http://biopact.com/2007/06/research-confirms-biochar-in-soils.html>
).

Biochar thus offers the promise of carbon-negative biofuel production
sustained by a cycle in which crop production is boosted, emissions lowered,
and reliance on synthetic fertilizers reduced. Moreover, unlike CCS it is a
cost-effective carbon sequestration method: under a basic scenario
sequestering biochar from biofuels produced by pyrolysis would be
competitive when carbon prices reach US$37 (carbon currently fetches €21.55
on the European market, that is $30.5, and prices are expected to increase
strongly in the near future).

The great advantage of biochar is the fact that the technique can be applied
world-wide on agricultual soils, and even by rural communities in the
developing world because it is relatively low tech. It is hoped that at the
upcoming UNFCCC summit in Bali, experts will include biochar as a strategy
to fight climate change that would be eligible for carbon credits under the
Clean Development Mechanism.

The biochar concept has meanwhile received formal political support. In
order to speed up biochar research the U.S., Colorado's Senator Ken Salazar
(D) recently introduced 'The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of
2007'<http://www.biochar-international.org/images/S.1884_Salazar_Harvesting_Energy_Act_of_2007.pdf>[*.pdf],
focused on carbon-negative bioenergy production. The bill (
S.1884) is awaiting discussion in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and
Forestry Committee. The following is a summary of the legislation as it
relates to biochar:
energy <http://technorati.com/tag/energy> ::
sustainability<http://technorati.com/tag/sustainability>:: climate
change <http://technorati.com/tag/climate+change> :: carbon
cycle<http://technorati.com/tag/carbon+cycle>::
biomass <http://technorati.com/tag/biomass> ::
bioenergy<http://technorati.com/tag/bioenergy>::
biofuels <http://technorati.com/tag/biofuels> ::
biochar<http://technorati.com/tag/biochar>:: terra
preta <http://technorati.com/tag/terra+preta> :: carbon
negative<http://technorati.com/tag/carbon-negative>::

Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative for the 2007 Farm
Bill

"You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
Most people don't know that"
FROM
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf
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