[Terrapreta] Charcoal Specification

[Tom Miles]

Jon,

 

Soil biology and root development are two objectives I have heard most from
growers.

 

Thanks for the run down on fertilizers.  It sounds like it will be important
to distinguish between farming regimes. I've heard from Midwestern farmers
that they believe that the earthworms of their youth disappeared with
extensive use of anhydrous ammonia. 

 

Tom

 

 

 

   

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Jon C. Frank
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 10:30 AM
To: Terrapreta
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Charcoal Specification

 

Two specifications to look at would be more at its affect in soil.  These
would be:

 

Charcoal/biochars impact on stimulating soil biology

 

Charcoal/biochars impact on building humus

 

And a 3rd one:

 

Charcoa/biochars impact on stimulating root development

 

Just a few ideas,

 

Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org]On Behalf Of ch braun
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 4:35 AM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Terrapreta] Charcoal Specification

Hello,

I have been trying to get an overview on the current stand of the research
on biochar in the world and have been following the TP list discussions for
a little while now. 

My feeling is that a lot of work/discussions/questions could be spared if
all the various experiments performed by biochar adepts all around the world
could be registered in some central repository which could be publicly
consulted anytime by people who would like to have quick answers to
questions as "easy" as e.g.: has already somebody made charcoal with
feedstock X ? Where ? How ? What were the results ? Any publication/project
about that ? and so on...

All these pieces of information should actually not only be collected
together, but also in a uniformed format, a kind of "biochar standard" which
would, on one hand, simplify the description of the experiments and their
results for people who perform them and, on the other hand, improve the
efficiency of the search for infos concerning a precise trial. 

Storing these infos in the form of a "formal specification" has also the
advantage of allowing the use of tools for data processing in order, for
instance, to retrieve statistical analysis or to find interesting
correlations between parameters. 

I have started a list of the different parameters I could find in the
literature or discussions about charcoal, which could be part of such a
"charcoal specification". I also tried to classify them, but since my
knowledge in chemistry and experience in the field are quite limited, there
are probably inconsistencies, errors or redundancies. And a lot is still
missing. So I would really appreciate help for developing this
specification! 

I have no idea how many people would be, like me, interested in such a
project... I principally see 2 steps before it can be really useful:
1. Formalization: completion/correction of the draft, to get a proper model
(possibly as soon as possible, with maybe additional changes later on) 
2. Instantiation: registration of experiments according to this model (of
course not limited in time!)

The best method for step 2 is probably to set up a database whose schema
corresponds to 1 and that people can easily populate with their data online.


So I put the current draft here:
http://bionecho.org/terrapreta/charcoalspec.txt

Anyone is welcome to contribute! Maybe the easiest way to proceed is to
discuss the changes and additions here and I merge them and update the draft
gradually? 

I am really curious to know what you all think of this idea...

Sincerely yours,
Christelle 

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