[Terrapreta] Biochar/Gassification Experimentation Kit

[Bear Kaufmann]

Hi all,

I've been assisting Jim Mason on the Gasifier Experimenters Kit 
described in the original link.

The questions from Cameron have largely been answered by Lloyd Helferty, 
but I'll try to add a little additional information.
> Cameron wrote: As I read it, biochar is like coke. It takes carbon out of circulation for a long period of time.
It is useful to distinguish between two major stocks of carbon: 
atmospheric carbon and carbon retained in soil.

Coke is produced from coal in a process similar to the production of 
charcoal from wood. Coal contains "fossil carbon" which has been 
sequestrated below ground for millions of years.

Production of coke from coal will inherently release some of this fossil 
carbon into the atmosphere. The remaining coke, if not combusted will 
likely remain as fixed carbon for a long period afterwards.

Producing charcoal from biomass releases carbon (~50% of biomass C) that 
was recently removed (age of plant, eg years to decades+) from the 
atmosphere via photosynthesis. The remaining carbon (charcoal), if not 
combusted will remain as fixed carbon for a long period afterwards 
(100-1000's of years in soil).

Thus, while coke production is carbon-positive (leads to a net increase 
of atmospheric CO2), producing charcoal from biomass and sequestering it 
in soil is carbon-negative (leads to a net decrease of atmospheric CO2).
> Cameron wrote: What would it [carbon] have been doing in the specific environment in question if it had been dealt with in other ways?
Here I'll take "it" to refer to biomass carbon. In terms of soil 
processes, if composted/allowed to decay the biomass would turn humic 
substances: a heterogeneous suite of complex molecules that give most 
soils their dark color. Humic substances have some of the a same 
functional properties ascribed to charcoal in soils (eg. nutrient 
retention). However, this process of decay leads to only a small 
percentage of the carbon from biomass remaining in the soil for the long 
term. Charcoal can sequester upwards of 50% of the biomass carbon (25% 
of the biomass dry weight) in soils with very slow decay rates. Humic 
substances are still a valuable component of soils.
> Lloyd wrote: Biochar doesn't just "fix nitrogen"
To clarify the term, biochar can adsorb nitrogen and prevent it from 
leaching out of soils. The process of nitrogen fixation (turning 
atmospheric N2 into plant available ions) only occurs via a few types of 
microorganisms and industrially in the Haber-Bosch process that produces 
chemical fertilizers.

Cheers,
Bear Kaufmann

> From: Jeff Berg [mailto:jeffberg at rogers.com] 
> Sent: June 17, 2008 9:07 PM
> To: Bruce Darrell; Douglas Prest; Lloyd Helferty
> Cc: Cameron Smith
> Subject: re Cameron Smith has some questions 
> Importance: High
>
>
>
> Gentleman I present to you Mr. Cameron Smith, Mr. Smith meet what I call the
> burgeoning biochar brain trust.
>  
> Lloyd Helferty: GPO Research and Innovation Candidate and an energy
> technologist.
> Douglas Prest: (if I remember correctly) Is a professionally trained
> engineer and working with Lloyd on a business model for biochar.  
> Bruce Darrel: Is a trained architect and FEASTA researcher where he has
> worked with Richard Douthewaite for the last couple of years.
>  
> Cameron as most of you will probably already know is a writer and thinker of
> some renown, writes articles for the Toronto Star, and is a man who has been
> on the right side of the ecological ledger for many decades now.  
>  
> Gentlemen below you will find a few questions by Senor Cameron on biochar.
> (Or what I like to call 'The Mother of All Wedges":-)
>  
> ton confrere,
>  
> J.F. Berg
> www.postcarbontoronto.org
> www.pledgeTOgreen.ca 
>    
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Cameron  <mailto:camsmith at kingston.net> Smith 
> To: Jeff Berg <mailto:jeffberg at rogers.com>  
> Cc: Wayne  <mailto:getalife at web.ca> Roberts ; Tyler Hamilton
> <mailto:thamilt at thestar.ca>  ; Adria  <mailto:adriav at nowtoronto.com> Vasil 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:56 PM
> Subject: Re: Biochar/Gassification Experimentation Kit
>
>
> Jeff,  
>
>
> Thanks for sending me this material on the experimenter's kit.
>
>
> I have a concern that I haven't yet been able to resolve. As I read it,
> biochar is like coke. It takes carbon out of circulation for a long period
> of time. I've been searching, so far without success, for a life cycle
> analysis of the carbon that is being sequestered. What would it have been
> doing in the specific environment in question if it had been dealt with in
> other ways? For instance, the compost you get from biodigesters can be
> returned to the soil in ways that allow carbon to ensure the availability of
> minerals and nutrients. As we know, carbon operates in a zillion way to
> create a healthy soil, and good and abundant food comes only from healthy
> soils. I keep seeing assertions that biochar is a good fertilizer, because
> it fixes nitrogen. But carbon's role in ecosystems goes way beyond that.
>
>
> Globally, we've lost 20 per cent of topsoil within the past 50 years. I
> don't have an equivalent figure for soil degradation, but it also is a major
> concern. Taking carbon out of circulation may not be a good idea. I keep
> running into technological proposals all the time where there hasn't been a
> thorough examination of ecological effects, and so I keep trying to go back
> to basic ecological principles. 
>
>
> Can you help with this?
>
>
> Cameron
>
>
> On 11-Jun-08, at 1:27 AM, Jeff Berg wrote:
>  
> Gasification Experimenter's Kit 
>
>  <http://www.worldchanging.com/jeremy_bio.html> Jeremy Faludi
> May 29, 2008 10:27 PM
>
>
> Want to make your own carbon-negative fuel at home? You may soon be able to.
> We wrote last fall about
> <http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007427.html> gasification and biochar
> being a way to burn agricultural waste or other organic matter in a special
> way that (theoretically) sequesters more carbon in the resulting charcoal
> than it emits into the atmosphere while burning... 
>
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