[Terrapreta] A few popular press cuttings from Australia

[Michael Bailes]

Charred farm waste could gobble up carbon  Anna Salleh
ABC Science Online

 Friday, 8 June 2007

 [image: soils]  Soil emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. But adding burnt agricultural waste may help to lock in the
carbon *(Image: iStockphoto)*
 Burning agricultural waste without oxygen could provide a way to lock up
massive amounts of greenhouse gas, stimulate plant growth and produce
renewable energy all at the same time, a new Australian trial suggests.

Recent glasshouse trials found soils mixed with the charred waste, called
agrichar or biochar, were more attractive to worms and helpful microbes.

Soils also needed less fertiliser and in some cases had a better capacity to
hold water, the researchers say.

"When applied at 10 tonnes per hectare, the biomass of wheat was tripled and
soybeans was more than doubled," says Dr Lukas Van Zwieten from the New
South Wales Department of Primary Industries
<http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/>(NSW DPI) at Wollongbar.

A 2005 study in the journal *Nature* <http://www.nature.com/> found that
carbon levels in UK soils had fallen steadily since the 1970s, and the soils
were now releasing some 13 million tonnes of carbon each year.

Since last year a number of researchers around the world have been
interested in reducing CO2 emissions from soil using agrichar.

This charred product is the result of burning biomass without oxygen, a
process called pyrolysis.

The NSW DPI trial, which is the first Australian trial of agrichar, found
pots of soil treated with the product emitted significantly less CO2 and
nitrous oxide than control pots.

Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2.

*Ancient Amazonian soils inspire new product*

The original idea of using char in the soil comes from the observation of
rich black soils in the Amazonian Basin known as 'terra preta' soils,
produced by pre-Columbian agricultural burning.

"These soils are a couple of thousand years old and the people using them
are still reaping the [soil fertility] benefits," says NSW DPI team member
Stephen Kimber.

[image: agchar]Agchar: this may be able to lock up carbon in the soil for
millennia *(Image: Image: NSW Department of Primary Industries and Best
Energies)*
A commentary in *Nature* last month, by US soil expert Dr Johannes Lehmann
of Cornell University <http://www.cornell.edu/>, argued in favour of using
agrichar to sequester carbon in soils, saying it would be less likely than
trees to release carbon into the atmosphere.

Kimber says agrichar is a form of carbon that's very stable in the soil and
doesn't break down like mulch and other organic matter.

He says carbon can stay locked up in agrichar for hundreds of years,
although some suggest it could do the job for millennia.

Agrichars trialled by NSW DPI include those from poultry litter, cattle
feedlot waste as well as municipal green waste and paper mill sludge.

Each agrichar has its own characteristics and interacts differently with
different soil types.

Some agrichars raise soil pH at about one-third the rate of lime, raise
calcium and reduce aluminium toxicity.

Kimber says more research needs to be done on working out which agrichars
are best for which soils and on the impact of any contamination in biomass.

He says a small amount of plastic contamination is acceptable but biomass
sources containing heavy metals could be a problem.

*Also an energy source*

Biomass burned by pyrolysis can also be used as a renewable energy source,
but there is a trade-off.

The more oxygen used to burn it, the more energy can be produced but the
less agrichar, says Kimber.

"It's a compromise," he says.

NSW DPI currently uses a pilot plant at BEST Energies Australia in Somersby
to produce research quantities of agrichar.

The company recently won top honours at the 2007 UN Association of
Australia<http://www.unaa.org.au/>'s
World Environment Day Awards for its pyrolysis technology.



Related Stories CSIRO support for organics questioned, News in Science 23
Mar 2007 <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1879045.htm>
Soil may belch out CO2 to warm planet, News in Science 8 Sep
2005<http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1455886.htm>
Cheap soil test helps farmers plan fields, News in Science 19 Sep
2001<http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s370330.htm>

Can we live with zero emissions?

[image: Matthew Wright]
*Matthew Wright* <http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2186605.htm>

On February 21, the interim Garnaut Climate Change
Review<http://www.garnautreview.org.au/domino/Web_Notes/Garnaut/garnautweb.nsf>was
released. It states: "It is in Australia's interest for the world to
adopt a strong and effective position on climate change mitigation."

Professor Garnaut also mentioned scenarios including what it would take if
Australia was to be fair to developing countries and carry its historical
burden to have a 50 per cent chance of meeting the long established EU goal
of keeping warming under two degrees. To do this he suggested we would have
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 90 per cent by 2050 - effectively, it's a
zero emissions target.

So what would life be like with zero emissions? Is it even possible?

Yes it is, and here's how it looks...

*It all starts at home*

If your house was built after 2014, then you don't require any space heating
or cooling as your house has been engineered to include passive solar
design, as well as with enough thermal mass storage like concrete or rammed
earth to get you warmly through many days of continuous cloud cover.

Your water is heated purely by an evacuated tube solar system in the summer
months and boosted by an electric heat pump in the winter months. Lighting
is vivid and dimmable, using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), which use five
per cent of the electricity consumed by today's lighting.

There is no more gas in use, so if your house is of pre-2014 vintage it has
been retrofitted to 8-star. The gas cooktop is gone, replaced by the
European style induction cooktop, which cooks faster and gives better
responsiveness than gas.

Our electric ovens are triple glazed - you can put your hand on the front
while the thermostat is up and not get burnt.

Our televisions are Organic LED (OLED) display based. Sony has already
released one and they use 10 per cent of the power of today's LCD flat-panel
televisions.

Computers use the technology of the latest laptops with OLED displays and
consume around 80 per cent less power than today's desktops.

Water collected from our roofs provides 100 per cent of our water.

* Getting energised*

Brown coal use ended in Victoria in 2014 and black coal was phased out in
2016 in the rest of the country.

By now, wind power already contributes 40 per cent of total power generation
and we see rapid growth in concentrating solar thermal plants (these boil
water to drive steam turbines to make electricity). Gas was used to repower
coal plants during the transition to a zero emissions energy sector, but by
2020 gas has been phased out totally.

For energy security, reliable baseload and peak power demand, we use pumped
hydro, compressed air storage, high temperature solar hydrogen storage,
ammonia thermochemical storage and Phase Change Salt thermal batteries as
well as flywheels and super-capacitors.

In 2020, geothermal technology takes off, allowing Australia to continue
exporting energy based products such as aluminium.

*Travelling and eating*

We get around by traditional bicycle, fully enclosed electric assist
bicycles, public transport and private cars.

Fast and frequent light and heavy rail account for 70 per cent of travel.
Just like in the 1930s, trams and trains are now within 500 metres of most
homes in cities like Melbourne and Sydney. By 2020, a massive rail network
using the latest engineering is rolled out across our cities and major urban
centres.

The streets are clean and there is no local air pollution in our cities.

Asthma rates and air quality related mortality fall dramatically as a
consequence.

The vehicle fleet is a combination of electric vehicles (60 per cent) and
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (40 per cent). Congestion charges and road
taxes motivate most people to use public transport. Intercapital trips are
on the $100 billion 400km/h fast rail system, which links Perth, Melbourne,
Cairns and Darwin.

International air flights are costly and are used to get from Darwin to
Singapore. For trips to Europe or Africa, you take the Trans Asian Fast
Train which links to the African Fast Rail. To get to the US, you take the
Fast Train to Haerbin in China, then fly to Anchorage in Alaska eliminating
all long haul flights. The only other flights are to small remote islands
such as New Zealand and Iceland.

Shopping centres have been upgraded for energy performance; slashing their
power consumption by 80 per cent. As you enter any commercial centres you'll
notice the addition of air-locks (two sets of doors) to keep the heat out or
in.

Energy used for production is listed on all foods, which are taxed based on
their total life cycle energy input. Thus, vegetarian dishes are more
popular, with the average family eating meat less than once or twice a week.
Freight is almost exclusively done by rail, with shipping containers racing
around the city on the tram network.

Waste is expensive and we all have a compost bin. Community food-producing
gardening has become a popular pursuit and means our cities import 50 per
cent less food from rural areas.

Entertainment is of course zero carbon, with the lights at the MCG being
replaced by an array of thousands of high power LEDs.

Farming is predominately organic. Soil carbon is also big business.

Carbon dioxide is actually pulled out of the atmosphere by a process
developed by the ancient South American Mayans called Bio Char. This
involves cooking crop waste in the absence of oxygen and then using the
synthetic gas to make biofuels for our plug-in hybrids and farm machinery.
The by-product is the char, which takes carbon out of the atmosphere and
even increases soil fertility. Farmers are paid for this, with the aim to
return our atmospheric carbon to the pre industrial level of 270ppm.

Forests stewardship is rewarded. Reforestation with indigenous species
becomes a new land use, which corresponds with the reduced farming footprint
of a more vegetable based diet.

Recycling is about closing the loop. Usually 95 per cent of any product that
comes to the end of its life after reuse is recycled.

Mining and construction now predominately use electric vehicles and tools.
Consequently, according to the unions, life expectancy of blue collar
workers now exceeds that of the white collar work force. The Unions are also
happy about how quickly the renewable energy industry has grown to over
100,000 workers.

Materials are taxed according to their total life cycle, which means if
management plans are not in place for mine tailings and industrial wastes,
the costs are prohibitive, thereby promoting alternative materials.

*And the best bit?*

All the technology and know-how that was used to achieve this was
commercially available at scale in 2007. I think we must make this change
much sooner than 2050.

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 James :

01 May 2008 6:01:20pm
Fact Sheet: Pete's Patch [image: Peter Cundall]

Pete's back in the patch experimenting with charcoal fertiliser
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Presenter: Peter Cundall, 27/10/2007 Gardening is nothing more than a series
of experiments - we have successes and the occasional failures and that's
how we learn. I'm going to experiment with an ancient method of retaining
and increasing soil fertility using charcoal that's been impregnated with
organic fertilisers and micronutrients.

Charcoal or any kind of charred organic matter is a highly absorbent form of
carbon. It does not decompose in the soil.

The recipe:
Use one third of a standard bucket of pulverised wood charcoal

Half a cup of fish emulsion, half a cup of seaweed concentrate and 4
teaspoons of mixed, soluble trace elements all dissolved into 2-3 litres of
water in a separate bucket to make a strong, nutrient concentrate.

Method:
1 Place the charcoal safely in a strong bag. Moisten a little for safety
reasons. Use a hammer or similar implement to crush and pulverise it into a
fine dust. Then place the dust into an extra-large bucket. Avoid inhaling
the dust – you might wear a protective face mask or respirator.
2 Pour the fertiliser-based nutrient concentrate into the charcoal dust.
Leave to soak for 3 days.
3 Then add one third of a bucketful each of dry river (pit) sand and
ordinary soil (not clay). Mix together thoroughly.
4 Don't use a stronger mixture than suggested.

To use with tomatoes: Place a double handful of the impregnated charcoal,
soil and sand mixture at each planting point and mix widely and deeply into
the surrounding soil. Plant a seedling in the centre and water in.

To use with sweet corn: Make a 50mm deep drill or groove and widely dribble
the charcoal mixture in and alongside it at the rate of a double handful per
metre. Mix with surrounding soil. Sow sweet corn seeds into this and water.
(When seedlings emerge they must be thinned so those remaining are spaced
half a metre apart).

To use with seedlings of cabbages, cauliflowers, broccolis, kales,
silverbeet and lettuces, add a good handful of the charcoal mix to each
planting point and mix into the surrounding soil.

In order to make the experiment more reliable, plant or sow some vegetables
into soil that has not received any charcoal treatment. Also try adding
pulverised charcoal alone (without any fertilisers), to the soil around
similar plants to help in arriving at more balanced results. The aim is to
compare plant health, growth rate, yields and flavour.

Don't use the enriched charcoal when growing carrots or parsnips as it may
cause wasteful root-forking.

This is purely an experiment. It is roughly based on ancient techniques used
by the people of the Amazon Basin over a thousand years ago.

We are asking interested Gardening Australia viewers and readers to try out
this method and to let us know of any beneficial or other results.

Burnie considering waste options

Posted Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:03pm AEST

   -  *Map: *Burnie
7320<http://www.abc.net.au/news/maps/map.htm?lat=-41.0573&long=145.9033&caption=Burnie%207320>

 In Tasmania's north-west, the Burnie City Council is investigating the
potential for a biowaste recycling plant.

The centre would heat biological and organic waste from places like sewerage
plants and abattoirs - turning it into biofuel and fertiliser.

The council has asked the Cradle Coast Authority to study the idea,
including the cost and benefits for carbon emissions.

The Alderman who moved the motion, Malcolm Ryan, says there is one similar
Australian plant already operating in New South Wales.

"The bi-product is bio-char, which them stores the carbon in that organic
matter in a charcoal-based product, which is then used as an agricultural
fertiliser, it stores that carbon.

"And field tests to date show a better yield from bio-char than from
conventional fertilisers."


-- 
Michael the Archangel
"Politicians will never solve The Problem;
because they don't realise they are The Problem.".
-Robert ( Bob ) Parsons 1995
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