[Terrapreta] Fwd: Google Alert - terra preta Number 2 + Erich

[Michael Bailes]

Google Blogs Alert for: *terra preta*

 A Carbon-Negative
Fuel?<http://nouslife.blogspot.com/2007/10/carbon-negative-fuel.html>
 By Andii(Andii)
And it is now being hypothesized that it could be a carbon negative thing:
"I can't promise that using gasification for energy and using the resulting
char as *terra preta* fertilizer will be a carbon negative fuel, because I
haven't seen *...*
 Nouslife - http://nouslife.blogspot.com/ <http://nouslife.blogspot.com/>

------------------------------
  The blog is pretty boring and tame but eric' reply is great
you might be able to use it to "win friends and Influence People"
(he says he can't write and is atwo finger typist-like me)
  1 Comment Close this window Jump to comment
form<https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6307430&postID=373760535448304982&isPopup=true#form>
 erich <http://www.blogger.com/profile/17087852377037029513> said...

This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive
approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.Terra Preta Soils a
process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3
Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X FertilityToo

Thanks,
Erich

Other TP News;

SCIAM Article May 15 07;

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40

After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming
(AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest
collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just
needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.

Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra
Preta Carbon Soil Technology.

The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC
that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a
massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first
concrete steps in that direction;

S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007

A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:

Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative

for the 2007 Farm Bill

http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegislation.html

(...PLEASE!!..........Contact your Senators & Repps in Support of
S.1884........NOW!!...)

Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.

Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Biomass by 2030by Ralph P.
Overend, Ph.D. and Anelia Milbrandt
National Renewable Energy Laboratory

http://www.ases.org/climatechange/toc/07_biomass.pdf

The organization 25x25 (see 25x'25 - Home) released it's (first-ever,
55-page )"Action Plan" ; see;
http://www.25x25.org/storage/25x25/documents/IP%20Documents/ActionPlanFinalWEB_04-19-07.pdf
On page 29 , as one of four foci for recommended RD&D, the plan lists: "The
development of biochar, animal agriculture residues and other non-fossil
fuel based fertilizers, toward the end of integrating energy production with
enhanced soil quality and carbon sequestration."
and on p 32, recommended as part of an expanded database aspect of
infrastructure: "Information on the application of carbon as fertilizer and
existing carbon credit trading systems."

I feel 25x25 is now the premier US advocacy organization for all forms of
renewable energy, but way out in front on biomass topics.



There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture and
waste stream, all that farm & cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or
digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG
should be returned to the Soil.

Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like
Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as the
Democrats/Enviromentalist try to influence how carbon management is
legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and
the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a
massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular
value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.

If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP
web site I've been drafted to co-administer.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node

It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail
list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the
M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr.
Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who's back
round I don't know have joined.



Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;

The Honolulu Advertiser: "The nation's leading manufacturer of charcoal has
licensed a University of Hawai'i process for turning green waste into
barbecue briquets."

About a year ago I got Clorox interested in TP soils and Dr. Antal's Plasma
Carbonazation process.

See:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707280348

ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State
04/10/07

Glomalin, the recently discovered soil protein, may be the secret to TP
soils productivity http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm


Here is my current Terra Preta posting which condenses the most important
stories and links;

Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle

Man has been controlling the carbon cycle , and there for the weather, since
the invention of agriculture, all be it was as unintentional, as our current
airliner contrails are in affecting global dimming. This unintentional warm
stability in climate has over 10,000 years, allowed us to develop to the
point that now we know what we did,............ and that now......... we are
over doing it.

The prehistoric and historic records gives a logical thrust for soil carbon
sequestration.
I wonder what the soil biome carbon concentration was REALLY like before the
cutting and burning of the world's forest, my guess is that now we see a
severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like
no-till and reforestation have started to help rebuild it. It makes
implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, a
returning of the misplaced carbon to where it belongs.

On the Scale of CO2 remediation:

It is my understanding that atmospheric CO2 stands at 379 PPM, to stabilize
the climate we need to reduce it to 350 PPM by the removal of 230 Billion
tons of carbon.

The best estimates I've found are that the total loss of forest and soil
carbon (combined
pre-industrial and industrial) has been about 200-240 billion tons. Of
that, the soils are estimated to account for about 1/3, and the vegetation
the other 2/3.

Since man controls 24 billion tons in his agriculture then it seems we have
plenty to work with in sequestering our fossil fuel CO2 emissions as stable
charcoal in the soil.

As Dr. Lehmann at Cornell points out, "Closed-Loop Pyrolysis systems such as
Dr. Danny Day's are the only way to make a fuel that is actually carbon
negative". and that " a strategy combining biochar with biofuels could
ultimately offset 9.5 billion tons of carbon per year-an amount equal to the
total current fossil fuel emissions! "

Terra Preta Soils Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,
1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X FertilityToo


This some what orphaned new soil technology speaks to so many different
interests and disciplines that it has not been embraced fully by any. I'm
sure you will see both the potential of this system and the convergence
needed for it's implementation.

The integrated energy strategy offered by Charcoal based Terra Preta Soil
technology may
provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, other than nuclear power.

The economics look good, and truly great if we had CO2 cap & trade or a
Carbon tax in place.


.Nature article, Aug 06: Putting the carbon back Black is the new green:
http://bestenergies.com/downloads/naturemag_200604.pdf

Here's the Cornell page for an over view:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/biochar/Biochar_home.htm

University of Beyreuth TP Program, Germany
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=taxonomy/term/118

This Earth Science Forum thread on these soils contains further links, and
has been viewed by 19,000 self-selected folks. ( I post everything I find on
Amazon Dark Soils, ADS here):
http://forums.hypography.com/earth-science/3451-terra-preta.html



There is an ecology going on in these soils that is not completely
understood, and if replicated and applied at scale would have multiple
benefits for farmers and environmentalist.

Terra Preta creates a terrestrial carbon reef at a microscopic level. These
nanoscale structures provide safe haven to the microbes and fungus that
facilitate fertile soil creation, while sequestering carbon for many hundred
if not thousands of years. The combination of these two forms of
sequestration would also increase the growth rate and natural sequestration
effort of growing plants.


The reason TP has elicited such interest on the Agricultural/horticultural
side of it's benefits is this one static:

One gram of charcoal cooked to 650 C Has a surface area of 400 m2 (for soil
microbes & fungus to live on), now for conversion fun:

One ton of charcoal has a surface area of 400,000 Acres!! which is equal to
625 square miles!! Rockingham Co. VA. , where I live, is only 851 Sq. miles

Now at a middle of the road application rate of 2 lbs/sq ft (which equals
1000 sqft/ton) or 43 tons/acre yields 26,000 Sq miles of surface area per
Acre. VA is 39,594 Sq miles.

What this suggest to me is a potential of sequestering virgin forest amounts
of carbon just in the soil alone, without counting the forest on top.

To take just one fairly representative example, in the classic Rothampstead
experiments in England where arable land was allowed to revert to deciduous
temperate woodland, soil organic carbon increased 300-400% from around 20
t/ha to 60-80 t/ha (or about 20-40 tons per acre) in less than a century
(Jenkinson & Rayner 1977). The rapidity with which organic carbon can build
up in soils is also indicated by examples of buried steppe soils formed
during short-lived interstadial phases in Russia and Ukraine. Even though
such warm, relatively moist phases usually lasted only a few hundred years,
and started out from the skeletal loess desert/semi-desert soils of glacial
conditions (with which they are inter-leaved), these buried steppe soils
have all the rich organic content of a present-day chernozem soil that has
had many thousands of years to build up its carbon (E. Zelikson, Russian
Academy of Sciences, pers. comm., May 1994).
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/carbon1.html




All the Bio-Char Companies and equipment manufactures I've found:

Carbon Diversion
http://www.carbondiversion.com/


Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4

BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis - Biomass - Clean Energy - Renewable
Ene
http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/bestpyrolysis.html


Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy
http://www.dynamotive.com/

Ensyn - Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals
http://www.ensyn.com/who/ensyn.htm

Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
http://www.agri-therm.com/

Advanced BioRefinery Inc.
http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/

Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17298/


The International Agrichar Initiative (IAI) conference held at Terrigal,
NSW, Australia in 2007. ( http://iaiconference.org/home.html ) ( The papers
from this conference are now being posted at their home page)
.

If pre-Columbian Kayopo Indians could produce these soils up to 6 feet deep
over 15% of the Amazon basin using "Slash & CHAR" verses "Slash & Burn", it
seems that our energy and agricultural industries could also product them at
scale.

Harnessing the work of this vast number of microbes and fungi changes the
whole equation of energy return over energy input (EROEI) for food and Bio
fuels. I see this as the only sustainable agricultural strategy if we no
longer have cheap fossil fuels for fertilizer.

We need this super community of wee beasties to work in concert with us by
populating them into their proper Soil horizon Carbon Condos.




Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar at aol.com

21/10/07 23:24
 Intriguing: I mentioned terra preta a while
back<http://thegreening.blogspot.com/2006/08/terra-preta-black-is-new-green.html>.
And it is now being hypothesized that it could be a carbon negative thing:
"I can't promise that using gasification for energy and using the resulting
char as terra preta fertilizer will be a carbon negative fuel, because I
haven't seen a credible lifecycle analysis of it. (If anyone has, please
post it to the comments.) But it's quite plausible. Consider that it takes a
certain amount of CO2 to grow a crop, such as corn. You harvest the crop and
sell the food part, which leaves you with all the agricultural waste.
Instead of burning it in the open air, or landfilling it (which is what's
done today -- basically topsoil mining), you gasify it. You then burn the
fuel gas you get from gasification, putting some fraction of that CO2 into
the air; the agri-char (terra preta) that you're left with contains the rest
of the embodied CO2 which the crops sucked up while growing. There's more
carbon here than there was in the fuel gas. You spread the terra preta on
the fields as fertilizer to grow more crops, and repeat the cycle -- and
with each repeat, you pull more carbon back into the soil than you burn,
resulting in a carbon negative fuel as well as crops fertilized with fewer
petrochemicals. It's a double win. "
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: A
Carbon-Negative Fuel <http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007427.html>:

*posted by Andii at 3:32
PM<http://nouslife.blogspot.com/2007/10/carbon-negative-fuel.html>on
Oct 21, 2007
*
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-- 
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"You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
Most people don't know that"
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