[Terrapreta] Char made made under pressurized conditions?

[Gerald Van Koeverden]

On the contrary, I think charcoal has a very good chance of absosbing  
ammonia produced in a compost pile, but it has nothing to do with hot  
or cool charcoal.  After all, charcoal is used to filter out the  
ammonia in fish tanks -  months after the charcoal has already  
cooled.  Charcoal doesn't work like a paper filter in a coffee  
machine that merely stops particles bigger than the holes in the  
paper.   It works more like a sponge, or a clay particle.  The static  
negative electrical charges within its pore structure attracts  
cations (positively-charged ions) and holds them electrically like a  
magnet.

Check out the following abstract.  It turns out that char produced by  
low temperature (400) pyrolysis absorbed more ammonia than that  
produced at higher temperatures.

http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110004809613/en/

I proposed this idea some time ago on this list.  If we could get a  
researcher to test it successfully with compost making in general, we  
would be able to change the prejudice against using charcoal in  
making compost.

Gerrit


On 29-Mar-08, at 5:21 PM, Jeff Davis wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I was thinking more on the lines of capturing the lost ammonia gas  
> (etc)
> from the composting pile. If it would be possible to absorb this in  
> the
> cooling period of the charcoal. I know it's a close to zero chance.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
>
>> Either case, I still doubt that N2 as a reasonably inert gas will do
>> anything - either as a fertilizer or be absorbed into the char.
>
>
> -- 
> Jeff Davis
>
> Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA
>
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