[Terrapreta] Where to get the right charcoal?

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi 'terrapreta' list,

Our topical subject is: Where to get the right charcoal?

Right now, nobody knows for sure what the "best" (or right) kind of charcoal is or where to get it.  Some have proposed that higher VM content results from lower temperature processing in the making of charcoal and that this is "better" char to use for a soil amendment to help plants.  This makes a good variable to test, I think.  If we can find a source for different temperature chars, then we can test these and compare.

I heard Robert  Flanagan mention some time way back, that he was able to make temperature specific chars or knew of some group who could.  I hope to be able to make temperature specific chars when I have my reactor running with the bugs worked out (fairly soon, I hope).

VM content and the associated temperature is not necessarily the only thing that differentiates quality of charcoal.  I think feedstock selection may also make a difference.  Michael J. Antal at UH had descriptions in his papers that they had tried several different feed
stocks.  Maybe he could shed more light on how this effects char properties for us?  I am willing to try different feed stocks and will be able to get characterizations made on all of charcoal I can produce.

Porosity of the charcoal may also impart qualities to the charcoal.

Availability of charcoal which has been "characterized" is rare, admittedly.  Many of us are just interested enough in the idea of just putting charcoal of any type, from any source, into soil, just to see what it can do.  I don't see this as a problem.  More attempts at finding a working recipe are welcome I think.  It may just give us more clarity about what really does make the "right" char, if in hindsight a good field example can be traced back to specific properties or source of the char used in the trial.

Making charcoal can be a source of charcoal to put into soil, too.  Although it is true that it can be made inefficiently and not so cleanly with some very simplistic methods, there still may be validity in just making it any old way just to get at some.  Again, if a trial can be documented as successful (compared to an appropriate control), then however the char was got at, or whatever it has as properties can be discovered in a post-facto study of the charcoal itself.  We could correct the problems with its production at that time.  Hopefully, the "right" char is not the stuff that is made the most inefficiently and with the highest amount of detrimental emissions.

So, in summary, I say that for right now, the place to get the "right" charcoal is wherever or however you can get it.  We can make determinations together about the respective quality or "rightness" of the charcoal after we have some more experimental data showing us significant trends.  Christelle Braun has offered to help organize experimental data for our review.

I await any further contributions to this line of discussion.


Regards,

SKB



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