[Terrapreta] Biochar Packing Strategies

[Sean K. Barry]

Dear 'terrapreta' list members,

Robert Klein has posted (again) his assertion that corn stalks were used as the primary feedstock by the ancient Amazon people to make the original Terra Preta soils.  This is entirely conjecture.  For anyone to say "... as proven by pollen analysis" is just baloney.
There was certainly lots of other potential biomass in the Amazon rainforest.  The existence of corn pollen there now says nothing about the feedstock used circa 2500 to 500 years ago.  Making a point out of saying it was corn really doesn't even matter.

Robert then extrapolates this to claim to say that all we need to do is just start piling up corn stalks in "packed" mounds on fields, light them afire with hot coals dropped through the top of the pile, and start making charcoal as fast as we can.  He has some idea that the root ball and soil disks at the bottom of the stalks can just be yanked out of the ground and piled up, dirt clods to the outside, enclosing the stalks inside a dirt mound.

Open air burning in a dirt pile, with no flames is absolutely the worst way to make charcoal from any biomass.  Without flame, the pile will conservatively exhaust 3% of the carbon from the biomass as Methane-CH4 gas.  Robert does not listen to this.  I think, this is because he is unwilling to acknowledge the chemistry of pyrolysis, and/or the problem with Methane-CH4 as a potent green house gas in the Earth's atmosphere.

Releasing 3% Methane-CH4 during biochar production will definitely be more of a detriment to the atmosphere, than the benefit if even all of the rest of the biomass carbon was left in the charcoal.  That would not occur, either, because a dirt wall kiln will still allow in enough air that much of the biomass carbon will burn completely into CO2.  Smoldering, it will release copious amounts of toxic gases like Carbon Monoxide - CO and Methane-CH4.  It could easily disable or even kill anyone standing to close.

The worst part of Robert's postings is that he does not listen, read, or try to learn anything.  He ignores what I an others have said about Methane-CH4.  He'd rather spout off about how everyone agrees with his grand plan and his analysis and then go write on his blog that we here on the 'terrapreta' list are ALL in agreement with him?  Well, I don't agree!  Lots or people on this 'terrpreta' list don't agree with him, either.  He is still saying we do on his blog.  He says so again in his most recent posting ...

>In my last post, 
>
>http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2007/09/developing-biochar-protocols.html<http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2007/09/developing-biochar-protocols.html>
>
>we arrived at the conclusion that the one key crop
>that can make biochar production feasible for
>agriculture is corn. It is also apparent that a
>naturally built stack without much work will produce
>some biochar, ...

This is total LIE!  AGAIN!  I wish he would quit doing that!

Look here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane<about:blank> ... It says (and this is not the only source which says this):

"Methane in the Earth's atmosphere is an important greenhouse gas with a global warming potential of 25 over a 100 year period. This means that a 1 tonne methane emission will have 25 times the impact on temperature of a 1 tonne carbon dioxide emission during the following 100 years."

What Robert proposes is a seriously bad idea.  I guarantee you, that if this was ever tried, the the Environmental Pollution Control Agency (EPA) would immediately show up and levy some heavy fines.  It is illegal in every state in the USA to knowingly release Methane-CH4 gas.  Lots of dirt-mound, root ball, walled in kilns will be a ecological disaster, if enacted on any large scale.
He CANNOT do this.  He should stop promoting this idea.  It is senseless and would be dangerously bad for the environment.

At 'terrepreta', I think we do want to develop clean ways to make charcoal from the biomass of agricultural waste in agricultural fields.  I think this is a reasonable objective.  This plan of Robert's does not accomplish that objective.  He needs to cease promoting this and he should join us in developing some other viably workable methods.  At the very least, Robert, you need to quit writing that we all agree with you about this.

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: code suidae<mailto:codesuidae at gmail.com> 
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 4:06 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Biochar Packing Strategies


  On 9/26/07, Robert Klein <arclein at yahoo.com<mailto:arclein at yahoo.com>> wrote:
  > But I think that we can all agree that a stalk of
  > biomass with a brick attached is a great start. As
  > good as a box of Leggo.

  Interesting idea. However, in all the harvested corn fields I've ever
  seen the part of the stalk still attached to the roots is perhaps a
  foot long and many are broken off near ground level. I suspect that in
  order to get material suitable for this method you would have to
  either harvest by hand or invent something gentler than a combine.

  Thinking out loud:
  After harvesting you'd have to collect the stalks and carry them to
  the burn location. For a 1/5th acre plot that's on the order of 6000
  plants to move. With a couple of pounds of dirt attached to each one a
  worker would be limited to moving perhaps 2 or 3 dozen plants at a
  time for around 200 trips. Assuming reasonably quick workers you're
  looking at 1 day per acre for a 5 man crew (4 gathering, 1 stacking).

  Presumably this would be one-time or very rare activity which could be
  accomplished over many years. Each year you could set aside some
  number of acres to be harvested by hand (or special machine) to allow
  this sort of processing. It wouldn't even be necessary to wait until
  after harvest, you could pull them, allow them to dry, then char the
  whole plant.

  > I see two strategies. One in which a windrow is build
  > with one side forming an earthen wall. [...] A second
  > windrow can then be build against the first
  > windrow on the non walled side.
  > The second strategy is to lay out a 12X12 square [...]

  I wonder if it would be practical to do a dome? It seems like the sort
  of thing you'd really have to be out in the field working on to see
  how the stalks behave.

  Rather than packing dirt over the top of anything it seems like it
  would be much more efficient, in terms of labor cost, to have large
  reusable covers. You'd stack up the stalks then drop a lightweight
  nonflammable plate on top. You could perhaps adjust vents in the cover
  to control the burn rate.

  I'm picturing companies that hire seasonal labor to do the work and
  that move from area to area contracting with land owners as they go. A
  crew could be kept busy for most of the growing season.

  > Observe that we have minimized the labor input
  > throughout.

  Well, I don't know about that, compared to any mechanized harvesting
  it is a huge amount of labor, but amortized over the period when the
  char is effective it is small.

  > From the perspective of sequestering carbon, we want
  > this done twenty to fifty times. From the perspective
  > of building a viable soil base, several times should
  > be more than ample.

  I haven't the slightest idea how much char you could expect to get
  from an acre of corn in a year. I'd suppose that you could do the same
  acre at least twice and maybe three times a year (no need to wait for
  mature ears, just give it 6 weeks or so to get big enough to provide
  the most char per season).

  But 50 times? Surely at some point there is a concentration of char at
  which agricultural performance begins to drop off or some other
  undesirable effect comes into play? Beyond that point you'd have to
  leave the char in a pit or disturb the topsoil to incorporate it
  deeply.

  Dave K
  -- 
  "Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know." -
  M. King Hubbert

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