[Terrapreta] Farm/compost biochar

[Dick Gallien]

Hi Robert,

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 12:49 PM, Robert Klein <arclein at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Dick
>
> You know that you are running into the primary problem of bio char
> production.  It is packing.  You surely need to run all that material
> through a chipper just to achieve fifty percent packing and in view of your
> operation, the bigger the better.
>

I'm not intentionally trying to complicate this challenge, but the key
toward simplifying this process is to bypass any chipping, grinding or "down
sizing".   As I mentioned, the last of 3 times I had a 650 hp tub grinder at
the farm, it cost over $10,000 and they won't do large or block wood, for
fear of hitting rocks or steel and there is zero market for it in this
area.  I'm not sure what you mean about packing.  Brush that has been up in
the air a few years, just crumbles, so a couple stumps on top of the pile
would compact it.


>
> There is a remote prayer that the chips may be salable, but then you have a
> uniform feedstock for biochar or anything else.
>

I had an industrial chipper.  The only way this material could be chipped,
is to chip it as they bring it in, which is physically and time wise
impossible.  It comes in every type of trailer, truck, etc., loaded by hand,
excavator, etc.--a tangled mess, often mixed with dirt, plus wire, rocks and
steel that grow into it.  I have not interest in trying to market it and I'm
sure those tiny micro guys won't discriminate about housing.

>
>
> Does your neighbor burn his corn stover, or is he operating a silage
> operation?  You may be able to blend stover with wood chips and get a viable
> product that can then be used on his soil to restore it.
>

The two long gone neighbors who farmed the adjoining field, were from the
scorched earth background, similar to city people with their perfect weed
and feed lawns.   They heated and cooked with wood, but every brush pile was
torched, not because of a concern for soil, but because it looked neat and
clean.  Herb, the last one, was so obsessed with leaving a clean plowed
field, that he would chop his corn stalk, rake them and then burn them, only
so the stalks would plow down cleanly, leaving not one piece to slow the
gully washers.  Any benefits of char weren't then or now heard of. Retired
city relatives inherited my neighbors place--every twig is torched, neat,
clean and miniature horses are their latest speculation.

Fifty two years ago, when I bought these 175 hilly acres, most small farms
were almost self sufficient, but not sustainable.  At night, lines of fire
roamed through woods that weren't pastured.  Nearly every blade of grass was
pastured.  I had 100 head of beef.  The erosion was was so bad that the
state bought up one entire valley, for a wildlife management area.   My
neighbor said the ditches in my 35 acre field were so bad one couldn't drive
across the field.  Now that brick yard clay (the brickyard from which my
brick house was made, was just across the creek) is smooth, rich and waiting
for any dimension of charcoal, when you guys tell how you would design this
little tank retort, if it was sitting in your backyard.
 Thanks,  Dick
regards

arclein


-- 
Dick Gallien
22501 East Burns Valley Road
Winona MN 55987
dickgallien at gmail.com [507]454-3126
www.thewinonafarm.com
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