[Terrapreta] char & vascular systems

[Mark Ludlow]

Hello Richard,

 

MSW is municipal solid waste (often referred to as "poo" on this List).
Michael Antal reports that it makes good biochar and I believe that it
represents an amorphous substance without a defined circulatory structure as
found in plants (http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/93).

 

When you ask about sites of biological activity, I'm assuming that you are
referring to sites at least large enough (if it is a pore we are referring
to) to host a single bacterium. In general, this implies a physical feature
that is quite large, say 200nm, or it implies that the activity must occur
on an exterior surface. The more the distribution of pore sizes and
interstitial voids tends toward physical dimensions that support
bio-habitation, the less total surface area is available per unit of mass. I
presume that this implies that valuable characteristics attributed to
biochar that require large surface areas-adsorption based on van der Waals
forces, for instance-will be affected but I can only think of this as an
engineer, not as a biologist or pedologist. And I confess that I have not
read Ogawa's work although I would be enormously grateful for any reprints
that would increase my understanding of all of this. {;>)

 

Maybe I'm the only Lister that "doesn't get it" but it seems to me that once
we get past agreeing that biochar is black, there's not much agreement about
structural-functional relationships. We all want it to work, somehow, but is
this just the simple end result of forming the stuff at a particular
temperature? I'm starving for some deeper understandings.

 

Best regards,

Mark

 

 

From: Richard Haard [mailto:richrd at nas.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 2:07 PM
To: mark at ludlow.com
Cc: 'Roy Lent'; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] char & vascular systems

 

Good catch Roy. Mark can you tell me what MSW is? and Also can you give me
some references about sites of biological activity in charcoal? I tend to
dwell on Ogawa's work which just makes sense to me.

 

So far as algae and vascular systems these plants do not have  have these
specialized cellular structures for conduction of liquid. They are however
cellular organisms  and have structures of varying from single cell to very
large complex plants as long as 100 feet. 

 

Rich

On Jun 7, 2008, at 11:40 AM, Mark Ludlow wrote:





If the utility of biochar requires a xylem-rich original structure to
provide demonstrable benefits, then this does not bode well for the
conversion of such things as MSW, which at least some investigators believe
makes perfectly adequate biochar.

 

Mark

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Roy Lent
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 10:24 AM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Terrapreta] char & vascular systems

 

When I asked about lignite as TP I was told that lignite does not work since
it contains no real vascular system. At least one list member was of this
opinion. Now I see the discussion on the list about making TP char from
algae, May I point out that no algae has a vascular system. Is there
something I'm missing here?

Roy

 

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