[Terrapreta] Earthen Kilns Conjecture

[Robert Klein]

Hi Sean

I do not know where you get your information from, but it would behoove you toread the various postings that I have made on this subject here and on my blogwhere I tackle every sub issue that I can.

I cannot think of anything more important than understanding how it waspossible for the Indios with a stone age tool kit to produce biochar in theform of powdered carbon no less!  They clearly produced millions of tonswhile we so far have produced a few hundred pounds or so using drums and thelike.  Obviously we are idiots.

And they did not do it by using much wood.  The little they used is stillthere to see and it is not much.  Charcoal does not powder itself withoutmechanical intervention.

You also continue to rant about methane production from such a kiln. Firstly, if you attended your grade eleven chemistry class, you would havediscovered that methane heads straight to the troposphere and is consumed theresomewhat like tossing salt in the ocean.  In any event, most will be consumedby the chimney and if any actually escaped, one merely lights a match.

By the way, methane atmospheric signatures are not maintained over the oceansconfirming the rapid removal of the methane to the troposphere.  Get offthis hobby horse.

You also ask about sourcing corn stover.  You obviously know nothing aboutcorn production.  Each acre of corn field will produce most of ten tons ofcorn stalks that must be pulled out and burned regardless releasing all thematerial as co2 back into the atmosphere.  Reducing these ten tons of cornstover to biochar is a small increase in the actual workload alreadynecessary.  In fact one would expect the oldest man who no longer has thestrength to pull stalks all day to do the packing meaning almost no diversionof labor.

This simple process sequesters at least a ton of carbon per acre eachseason  that it is used.  A mere fifteen seasons and you have overfifteen tons per acre.

Much more interesting however is the fact that this earthen kiln design willalso tend to capture a lot of the heavier volatiles in the earthen shell sothat we actually have a blend of combustion products mixed into the soil. This is not as specific as producing pure activated charcoal but I think thathaving a wide range of such molecules maximizes the possibility of results.

And we need to properly study such a product, not an artificial one blendedwith only one type of carbon.

An industrial kiln design such as also described in my blog will typically destroyall the volatiles and leave only the carbon.

Have a good day

bob


----- Original Message ----
From: Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com>
To: terra pretta group <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>; RobertKlein <arclein at yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 2:22:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture

 
Hi Robert,
 
Again with this post.  Whatever the Indios did to makecharcoal out of whatever they used DOES NOT MATTER TODAY!  When are yougoing to grasp this?  Recommending to make charcoal in earthen kilns (inthe open air) made from corn stalks is a bad idea.  There is no way to dothis without massive releases of Methane-CH4, which has been discussedad-nauseum with you as a significant potential problem with this plan. Also, just like there isn't enough corn grown in the world to make enoughethanol to supply the world's thirst for transportation fuel, there IS NOTENOUGH CORN STALKS IN THE WORLD to make the amount of charcoal we need to formenough Terra Preta and/or make any kind of difference on agricultural food productionor global climate mitigation.
 
Move on.  Your past one idea (Earthen Kiln Conjecture)is too limited and problematic to be a solution or of any value to us,Robert.  That's my opinion and widely held in this group, I think.
 
Best Regards,
 
SKB
 
 
-----Original Message ----- 
From: Robert Klein 
To: terra pretta group 
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 1:14 PM
Subject: [Terrapreta] Earthen KilnConjecture
 
I have reposted an article by David Bennet with Lehmann on
Terra Preta published in 2005.  This outlines the most critical information
as well as describing the original scope of the Indian civilization itself. It
is at:
 
http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2008/04/earthen-terra-preta-kilns-and-pollen.html
 
Again this lays out the limiting factors and fully supportsmy earthen kilnconjecture, particularly the following quotation.“There has beensome pollen analysis. It suggests manioc and maize were being grown 2,000 to3,000 years ago. In the pollen bank, these crops didn’t pop up sporadically butin large numbers.”
 




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