[Terrapreta] Adding charcoal to a biodigester:

[Roy Lent]

Adding charcoal to a biodigester:

I had always thought of doing something like this. Not only is the charcoal
part of the sludge/effluent thus simplifying application to the soil, but
there would be the possibility that the presence of char in the biodigester
would, as it does in soil, aid the biological processes within the digester.
Now Greg suggests that we could infuse the char with the "wrong"
microorganisms. He has no evidence either way but it is a valid point and
calls for some research. Of course if there is such a thing as saturating
with the wrong microorganisms then it also points to possible benefits of
saturating with the "right" microorganisms before applying char to the soil.

Just to show how much we can learn, there is a fellow here (Costa Rica) that
grows lettuce hydropondically. I know little about his operation (yet) but
he is selling lettuce plants in pots rooted in their rooting medium which
appears to be charcoal made from rice hulls. Is he getting some TP benefit
from doing this? Or does he know about TP or not? Or is it that rice hull
char just happens to be available? I'm going to have to find out.

Roy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080606/368a7f45/attachment.html