[Terrapreta] Charcoal: Economics of carbon sequestration (Blog)

[Michael Bailes]

 *Charcoal*: Economics of carbon
sequestration<http://sustainingfuture.blogspot.com/2008/05/charcoal-economics-of-carbon.html>
 By Administrator: Albert Ip(Administrator: Albert Ip)
from Carbon Commentary Besides all the benefit of improvement to soil, the
carbon sequestration itself already worth the effort:. A tonne of good
quality biochar has an energy value of about 28 gigajoules (GJ), slightly
less than the *...*
 Sustaining Future -
http://sustainingfuture.blogspot.com/<http://sustainingfuture.blogspot.com/>
from Carbon Commentary <http://www.carboncommentary.com/2007/11/11/52>

Besides all the benefit of improvement to soil, the carbon sequestration
itself already worth the effort:


A tonne of good quality biochar has an energy value of about 28 gigajoules
(GJ), slightly less than the best quality coal. (Pure black carbon is about
32 GJ/tonne.) Standard coal costs about £1.50 per GJ. If a power station
operator is prepared to pay the coal-equivalent price, biochar is worth
about £42 per tonne in the UK.

Burning a tonne of biochar will produce about three and a half tonnes of
CO2. (Pure carbon would generate 3.667 tonnes.) The current price of CO2 in
the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is about £16, meaning that
sequestering 3.5 tonnes ought to be worth approximately £56. Since £56 is
greater than £42, the economic logic suggests that we should hold the carbon
in the soil rather than burning it. This is before considering the secondary
climate change benefits of reduced fertiliser use and lowered nitrous oxide
emissions. [my emphasis]



-- 
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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