[Terrapreta] Strong warning against "simple" charcoal kilns

[Greg and April]

So your saying that if we can't afford to buy " highly efficient pyrolysis units " we shouldn't bother?


That's like saying that we shouldn't make our own electricity, because a home instillation is less efficient than what the professionals use to make it.


Frankly that kind of thinking is what lead to mega oil companies that hold energy monopolies on most people


-    Simple charcoal kilns are tools that get people started - it's not like they were ever meant to make large quantities of charcoal at a time, they are for learning what pyrolysis is about and supplying small amounts of char ( some people don't need 3 tons of char a day ).    
-    High efficiency units are in the realm of advanced science, need knowledge beyond that of the average person, and large sums of money to build.


If a journalist wants to connect pyrolysis with char and low efficiency, he/she is going to do it anyway, and nothing in the world going to stop them, as they are masters of finding fault with anything they want - even if you have proof otherwise.


Greg H.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Biopact 
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 8:28
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Strong warning against "simple" charcoal kilns


  It has been repeated here a few times. We should be careful not to ruin the potential of Terra Preta by coupling it to inefficient, GHG emitting charcoal devices.

  Many of these simple devices are 10 to 20% efficient at best. Biochar's only way to make a difference is by using highly efficient pyrolyser units that maximally exploit the energy content in the biomass and that minimize GHG emissions. Syngas, heat, pyrolysis oil - all these he byproducts must be explicitly used to offset fossil fuels. 

  So I urge all of us to limit references to "simple" charcoal kilns, and then only in the context of biochar trials that look at the effects of char in soils. For the rest, I think we should continuously stress that one of the most urgent needs is the development of highly efficient pyrolysis units.

  Else, we could be ruining the entire Terra Preta venture. Remember, there are many people reading these texts, and they may spread amongst journalists. If they get the impression that we are a bunch of people who just pyrolyse our way through this concept, then the initial potency of the very concept may get lost. 

  Cheers, 
  Lorenzo


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