Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Monday, August 16, 2010

Biochar Could Offset Up to 12% of Greenhouse Gases, Says Study

inhabitat.com
by Jasmin Malik Chua, 08/13/10

When it comes to solving our climate-change pickle, it might be time for deus ex machina-type proposals to take a back seat to something a little more homegrown: biochar. While the charcoal-like substance has often been pooh-poohed as a crackpot hippy idea — burning organic matter to capture carbon dioxide, really? — a new study in the August issue of Nature Communications concludes that the black stuff could sustainably offset as much as 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon emissions annually, or up to 12 percent of global greenhouse-gas production.

When left to its own devices, biomass (such as plants, wood, and livestock manure) breaks down and releases its carbon into the atmosphere within a decade or so. Subjecting that same biomass to high temperatures and creating biochar, however, locks the carbon in a stable state for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Biochar’s amazing properties don’t stop there. It’s also great for soil fertility and agricultural productivity, as ancient civilizations have long known. About 2,500 years ago, farmers in the Amazon improved their soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients by tilling it with charcoal. (Portuguese settlers later dubbed this terra preta, or “black earth.”) Plus, the addition of biochar can also reduce the amount of methane and nitrous oxide released by decaying plant matter in the soil.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not talked about in this otherwise comprehensive study are the climate and whole ecological implications of new , higher value, applications of chars.

First, the insitu remediation of a vast variety of toxic agents in soils and sediments.
Biochar Sorption of Contaminants; http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010/conference-agenda/agenda-overview/breakout-session-5/agriculture-forestry-soil-science-and-environment.html
Dr. Lima's work; Specialized Characterization Methods for Biochar http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010/conference-agenda/agenda-overview/breakout-session-4/production-and-characterization.html
And at USDA; The Ultimate Trash To Treasure: *ARS Research Turns Poultry Waste into Toxin-grabbing Char http://www.ars.usda.gov/IS/AR/archive/jul05/char0705.htm

Second, the uses as a feed ration for livestock to reduce GHG emissions and increase disease resistance.

Third, Recent work by C. Steiner showing a 52% reduction of NH3 loss when char is used as a composting accelerator. This will have profound value added consequences for the commercial composting industry by reduction of their GHG emissions and the sale of compost as a nitrogen fertilizer.

NASA?s Space Archaeology terra preta Program;
http://archaeologyexcavations.blogspot.com/2010/08/time-traveling-via-satellite.html

WorldStoves in Haiti ; http://www.charcoalproject.org/2010/05/a-man-a-stove-a-mission/ and The Biochar Fund http://biocharfund.org/ deserves your attention and support. Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon

NSF Awards $600K to BREAD: Biochar Inoculants for Enabling Smallholder Agriculture http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0965336

For those looking for an overview of biochar and its benefits, These authors have done a very nice job of distilling a great deal of information about biochar and applying it to the US context: US -Focused Biochar report: Assessment of Biochar's Benefits for theUSA

http://www.biochar-us.org/pdf%20files/biochar_report_lowres.pdf