[Terrapreta] Soil Tilth and Biochar

[William Carr]

On Jan 14, 2008, at 11:53 AM, Tom Miles wrote:

> I recently tried to arrange a truckload of charcoal for a field  
> trial and
> was told by various suppliers that there was no "excess" available,  
> which
> means the prime household market is probably good.

There's an article I came across by accident recently.

http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/080109/0346418.html


"Agreement to Locate a Biodiesel Refinery in Coolidge, Arizona
Wednesday January 9, 8:30 am ET


SCOTTSDALE, AZ--(MARKET WIRE)--Jan 9, 2008 -- PetroSun, Inc. (Other  
OTC:PSUD.PK -News) announced today that its subsidiary, PetroSun  
BioFuels Refining, has entered into a joint venture to construct and  
operate a biodiesel refinery near Coolidge, Arizona. The feedstock for  
the refinery will be algal oil produced by PetroSun BioFuels at  
company owned and operated algae farms to be located in Arizona."





First, this is wonderful.   They must have finally found their perfect  
candidate for Algae Oil.   Last I read, there was only about a  
tablespoon of it in existence.

But if they're ready to forge ahead, then they've got a species that  
will produce by the gallon rather than by the eyedropper.

And the OTHER interesting thing?



Second, after they press for the oil, they could just burn the algae  
cake.   Or compost it, or sell it as cattle feed.

They'll have metric tonnes of it being harvested regularly.

But why not make biochar out of it and sell it as fertilizer + carbon  
sequestration credits?

THEN there'd be tons of biochar on the market at EXACTLY the right time.

And biochar will be lots lighter to ship than cattle feed pellets or  
compost.    Plus they won't get criticized for burning it and re- 
releasing that carbon.

I would like about 500 pounds of it.  To start.

William Carr




















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