[Terrapreta] manure biochar N-P-K question

[Ron Larson]

Jon:

    You have described something that is approaching true commercial scale.  Could you ask this "customer" at what price he would be willing to buy similar char?  Need to ask with various assumptions on what happens to productivity in out-years - including the option that there would be no diminution in production. 

     Any way of estimating how much the value of the land has increased?

    I wonder also whether he has a way of measuring the soil carbon content - whether he can see any new growth of bacteria and fungus.  Does the soil look and feel a good bit different?

    Thanks for a very helpful report.

Ron
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jon C. Frank 
  To: Terrapreta 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 1:19 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] manure biochar N-P-K question


  One additional point.  We have a customer who has access to large quantities of charcoal powder that was used by industry as a filtration product for syrup.  This product has pyrogenic characteristics so is difficult to market.

  To prove a point at how effective it is in soil restoration he bought an extremely sandy field on the river bottom of the Mississippi River.  He applied 15-20 tons of this product per acre and plowed it into the soil.  He saw tremendous visual difference in the plants and in the root growth as compared to his neighbor with whom he shared part of the pivot for irrigation.  When looking at roots that encountered chunks of this charcoal powder the roots would explode with massive growth inside the chunk of charcoal powder.

  The conclusion of this farmer was that adding large quantities of charcoal powder increased the need for nitrogen on corn.  I suspect this might also be the case with biochar, at least in the first year after application.  I wonder if biochar made from manure would significantly slow the release of NPK as compared to using the manure fresh.  I believe so but have no data to back up my beliefs.  Kind of hard to get bio charred manure around our area. :)

  Jon C. Frank
  www.aglabs.com

    -----Original Message-----
    From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org]On Behalf Of Adriana Downie
    Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 5:55 PM
    To: 'James Oliver'; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
    Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] manure biochar N-P-K question


    Hi James,

     

    It very much depends on the temperature and processing conditions. Generally the P and K will stay with the char, you will loose some nitrogen but if you keep the temperature below 400C you will keep a significant amount of it. The availability of the NPK in the char also changes significantly with process conditions. 

     

    Regards,

     

    Adriana Downie

    BEST Energies Australia

     

    -----Original Message-----
    From: James Oliver [mailto:jwogdn at yahoo.com] 
    Sent: Monday, 10 September 2007 11:16 PM
    To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
    Subject: [Terrapreta] manure biochar N-P-K question

     

    I have seen discussion of turning manure into biochar.  Is the N-P-K retained in the biochar if manure is used as feed stock?  

     

    JW

     


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