erich

Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw, "Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes "Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !". Free Carbon Condominiums, build it and they will come.
As one microbologist said on the list; "Microbes like to sit down when they eat". By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders of life.

Nice Crop Pictures;
Biochar Overview

Education
Here, you can freely register your biochar soil amendment trials in a standard format, CharML (Charcoal Markup Language), browse the registered trials and reuse parts of them to create new protocols.
CharDB: the biochar trials database

I thought these updates and endorsements may interest you,

Senator / Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar has done the most to nurse this biofuels system in his Biochar provisions in the 07 & 08 farm bill,
The International Biochar Initiative (IBI)

Below are my current news & Links to major developments;


Cheers,
Erich J. Knight
540 289 9750



Biochar, the modern version of an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice called Terra Preta (black earth), is gaining widespread credibility as a way to address world hunger, climate change, rural poverty, deforestation, and energy shortages… SIMULTANEOUSLY!

The IBI Announces Success in Having Biochar Considered as a Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Tool;

POZNAN, Poland, December 10, 2008 - The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) announces that the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has submitted a proposal to include biochar as a mitigation and adaptation technology to be considered in the post-2012-Copenhagen agenda of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A copy of the proposal is posted on the IBI website at
The International Biochar Initiative (IBI).

Modern Pyrolysis of biomass is a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration, Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.

Charles Mann ("1491") in the Sept. National Geographic has a wonderful soils article which places Terra Preta / Biochar soils center stage.

Please put this (soil) bug in your colleague's ears. These issues need to gain traction among all the various disciplines who have an iron in this fire.
Our Good Earth - National Geographic Magazine


I also have been corresponding with Michael Pollan ( NYT Food Columnist, Author ) to do a follow up story.

Since the NGM cover reads "WHERE FOOD BEGINS" , I thought this would be right down his alley and focus more attention on Mann's work.
It's what Mann hasn't covered that I thought should interest any writer as a follow up article;

Biochar data base;
BioEnergy Lists: Terra Preta (Biochar) | Information on the intentional use of Biochar (charcoal) to improve soils.

NASA's Dr. James Hansen Global warming solutions paper and letter to the G-8 conference, placing Biochar / Land management the central technology for carbon negative energy systems.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf

The many new university programs & field studies, in temperate soils; Cornell, ISU, U of H, U of GA, Virginia Tech, JMU, New Zealand and Australia.

Glomalin's role in soil tilth, fertility & basis for the soil food web in Terra Preta soils.

Given the current "Crisis" atmosphere concerning energy, soil sustainability, food vs. Biofuels, and Climate Change what other subject addresses them all?

This is a Nano technology for the soil that represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.

Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.

In a recent National Public Radio interview, Michael Pollan talks about how he was approached by a Democratic party staffer about his New York Times article, The "Farmer & Chief", an open letter to the next president concerning U.S. agriculture/energy policy. The staffer wanted Pollan to summarize the article into a page or two to get it into the hands of Barack Obama. Pollan declined, saying that if he could have said everything that needed to be said in two pages, he wouldn't have written 8000 words.

Michael Pollan is well briefed about Biochar technology, but did not include it in his "Farmer & Chief" article to President Obama, (Which he did read & cited in a speech) but I'm sure Biochar will be his 8001th word to him.

Erich
540 289 9750




Total CO2 Equivalence:
Once a commercial bagged soil amendment product, every suburban household can do it,
The label can tell them of their contribution, a 40# bag = 150# CO2 = 160 bags / year to cover my personal CO2 emissions. ( 20,000 #/yr , 1/2 Average )
Individual Emissions - Household Emissions Calculator | Climate Change - Greenhouse Gas Emissions | U.S. EPA

But that is just the Carbon!
I have yet to find a total CO2 equivalent number taking consideration against some average field N2O & CH4 emissions. The New Zealand work shows 10X reductions.If biochar proves to be effective at reducing nutrient run-off from agricultural soils, then there will accordingly be a reduction in downstream N2O emissions.

This ACS study implicates soil structure as main connection to N2O soil emissions;
Paper: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Soils as Affected by Addition of Biochar.


Biochar Studies at ACS Huston meeting;

578-I: Session: Symposium --Black Carbon in Soils and Sediments: I. Classification, Formation, and Occurrence

579-II Session: Symposium --Black Carbon in Soils and Sediments: II. Identification and Characteristics

665 - III. Session: Symposium --Black Carbon in Soils and Sediments: III. Environmental Function

666-IV Session: Symposium --Black Carbon in Soils and Sediments: IV. Stability and Carbon Sequestration Potential

Most all this work corroborates char soil dynamics we have seen so far . The soil GHG emissions work showing increased CO2 , also speculates that this CO2 has to get through the hungry plants above before becoming a GHG.
The SOM, MYC& Microbes, N2O (soil structure), CH4 , nutrient holding , Nitrogen shock, humic compound conditioning, absorbing of herbicides all pretty much what we expected to hear.



Company News & EU Certification

Below is an important hurtle that 3R AGROCARBON has overcome in certification in the EU. Given that their standards are set much higher than even organic certification in the US, this work should smooth any bureaucratic hurtles we may face.

EU Permit Authority - 4 years tests
Subject: Fwd: [biochar] Re: GOOD NEWS: EU Permit Authority - 4 years tests successfully completed


Doses: 400 kg / ha – 1000 kg / ha at different horticultural cultivars

Plant height Increase 141 % versus control
Picking yield Increase 630 % versus control
Picking fruit Increase 650 % versus control
Total yield Increase 202 % versus control
Total piece of fruit Increase 171 % versus control
Fruit weight Increase 118 % versus control

There is list of the additional beneficial effects of the 3R FORMULATED BIOCHAREU DOSSIER for permit administration and summary of the results from 4 different Authorities who executed different test programme is under construction
I suggest these independent and accredited EU relevant Authority permit field tests results will support the further development of the biochar application systems on international level, and providing case evidence, that properly made and formulated (plant and/or animal biomass based) biochars can meet the modern environmental - agricultural - human health inspection standards and norm, while supporting the knowledge based economical development.

We work further on to expand not only in the EU but in the USA as well. My Cincinnati large scale carbonization project is progressing, hopefully the first industrial scale 3R clean coal - carbon plant will be ready in 2009.

Sincerely yours: Edward Someus (environmental engineer)
HOMEPAGE 3R AGROCARBON: 3R AGROCARBON

TERRA HUMANA
EMAIL 1: edward@terrenum.net
EMAIL 2: edward.someus@gmail.com



Also:
EcoTechnologies is planning for many collaborations ; NC State, U. of Leeds, Cardiff U. Rice U. ,JMU, U.of H. and at USDA with Dr.Jeffrey Novak who is coordinating ARS Biochar research. This Coordinated effort will speed implementation by avoiding unneeded repetition and building established work in a wide variety of soils and climates.
Eco Technologies

Hopefully all the Biochar companies will coordinate with Dr. Jeff Novak's soils work at ARS;

ARS : Jeffrey M Novak




October 28, 2008

U.S. Department of Agriculture to Evaluate CQuest™ Biochar

Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement Signed

The objective of the biochar research is to quantify the effects of amending soils with CQuest™ Biochar on crop productivity, soil quality, carbon sequestration and water quality. Field trials will involve incorporation of biochar in replicated field plots and on-farm strip trials with monitoring of crop yields, soil quality, water quality, emissions of greenhouse gasses, and soil carbon sequestration. Laboratory studies will involve amending soils with biochar and quantifying changes in soil quality and microbial activity during incubations.

Biochar will be shipped from Dynamotive's West Lorne facility to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) locations in Iowa, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, and other ARS locations. Initial results are expected during the 2009 growing season.

Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy

Michael_Andrew

Ok dude I'm cooking!

organicprojim

It looks like a good way to sequesture organic carbon back into the soil. I would have to look what else it is adding to the soil to make comment on how good it is.
I am presently work with a totally natural humate product produced by TurfPro USA. (Turf Pro USA - Home) that is all natural and contains all the trace elements I look far and has a real storehouse of soil biology in it. I like it because I am getting humates, trace elements and soil biolgy in a single 100% organic package.
I ran into it at an orchid society meeting several years ago and have had great success with it on everything I have tried it on. The thing that sold me on it was I like most was having a real problem with scale on many of may bromeliads and had tried everything to control them. I started using this stuff on them when I would feed the orchids and within a couple months the scale was gone and has not come back. Also, I do not have to worry about the health effect of it on my dogs and wild life in the area.

__________________
Organic Jim

JoeReal

I got this from an article posted by by erichknight April 6, 2009 9:07 PM PDT over at CNET.NEWS

This is by far, the simplest method, perhaps, the easiest to build with high efficiency.

The simplest of the simple a two-barrel charcoal retort

Simple method of charcoal production

JoeReal

I got this from an article posted by by erichknight April 6, 2009 9:07 PM PDT over at CNET.NEWS

This is by far, the simplest method, perhaps, the easiest to build with high efficiency.

The simplest of the simple a two-barrel charcoal retort

http://holon.se/folke/carbon/simplec...mplechar.shtml

Richard

I'm all for husbandry of the soil -- as one inspector put it: my soils have undergone an amazing transformation. At the same time, I find consumers too often believe that this is the one-and-only care needed for the health of their fruiting plants. The fact remains that microbes cannot catalyze nitrogen and potash from compounds that do not contain either!

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

JoeReal

Nitrogen-fixing microorganisms fixes nitrogen from the air and not from minerals. More than several decades old scientific fact that is still true to this very hour. You will have to revise a wrong generalization about established scientific fact. Air is not a mineral but it contains about 78% dinitrogen gas.

Richard

True. Now look at microbes which catalyze nitrogen for plants as a whole instead of those which are just fix nitrogen aerobically.

Either that, or you over-reacted. I do agree that "compounds" would be a better choice of words than "minerals". Nonetheless, I was referring to compounds in the soil.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

Caloosamusa

Nitrogen fixing bacteria consume NH4 from air or water. The soil is simply a medium it can attach to and grow. While air is composed of 78 to 79 percent diatomic nitrogen, nitrosomas and other nitrogen fixing bacteria consume ammonia not the N2 (relatively inert form) from air, water and soil. Often ammonia is found in low concentrations in these "mixtures". Nitrogen fixing bacteria convert ammonia into nitrite then nitrate, "organic compounds."

Best wishes, I hope this helps.

Richard

Thanks Caloosamusa. So I think you understand that I am a strong advocate of improving the soil environment and I'm in (sometimes loud) agreement with everyone else on this issue. The point I was trying to make is that some consumers believe -- or have been sold on the idea that soil improvement is the only thing necessary for fruiting plants to reach their full crop potential. This is certainly not the case unless the soil somehow contains 1 lb of available nitrogen and 1.5 lbs of available potash on an annual basis for say, each hardwood fruit tree or banana plant. For subtropicals, the ratios are closer to 2/3 lb potash for each 1 lb of Nitrogen.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

JoeReal

Biochar incorporated into the soil through time improves nutrient use efficiency of the plants. Nutrients could come from the air, water, animals, other plants, decaying matter, has been transported by wind or water, or from upwelling and other mass transport processes, and the easiest most obvious way is introduced intentionally by man from somewhere else. Whatever nutrients there are, they will not easily leach out from soils that have high biochar content, and the retention of those nutrients would be longer, giving it enough time for absorption by plants.

And for aggressive crop production, nutrients should be applied to balance out what has been taken. The more you harvest, the more you put in, until one or more factors become a limiting factor.

Nothing comes from nothing, and biochar has nothing directly to do with it, I think that this is the point that Richard is trying to make.

Caloosamusa

All of us are trying to acomplish the same thing, and soils that are high in active carbon greatly improve the effient uptake of nutrients. I'm impressed that no one said anything about the "organic molecules" of my previous post. Especially since ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate have no carbon molecules in them. Under the traditional definition of an organic molecule, they are not organic compounds, but I think you've demonstrated that there is more to ecological processes than just adding fertilizer, effective biocatalyst are important factors in the life processes, especially when they effect banana growth!

Best wishes! Healthy disscussions like this are part of (or should be) part of the scientific process.

JoeReal

Water is by far the most required nutrient of all, in terms of quantity and how it is used to deliver other nutrients and how water is incorporated into the tissues of the plants including the fruits, followed only by carbon dioxide, then the macronutrients, then micronutrients and trace elements.

Soils with higher biochar content have also better water holding capacities, improving the plant's water use efficiency.

Is water organic?

If I reform water from oxygen and hydrogen to produce electricity in a fuel cell, is the resulting water considered organic?

JoeReal

Organic Water sold at SafeWay:

Slightly off topic, sorry can't resist the opportunity. They may have filtered this through biochar column so that it magically becomes organic!


Organic. Bottled. Water. Because nothing says regular tap water like "antibiotics, growth hormones, synthetic pesticides and genetic modification."

Abuses of the word organic like this gives a black-eye to the meaning of organic foods. The above gimmick is really designed to part money from people who are into the organic fad.

BY GOLLY EVEN USDA HAVE ENDORSED THIS ONE!

Richard

Definitely!

Now consider the standard operations research problem in nutrition of fruit crops. From prior research, we know that the primary constraint is to maintain up to 1 lb of available nitrogen per tree per year in soil inputs along with 2/3 lb to 1.5 pounds of available potash per tree per year depending upon the fruit species. Considering the Nitrogen alone:
Suppose the growing media is a nearly ideal, biologically active soil.
The nitrogen that can be obtained from the air is a function of soil surface area per tree to a depth of about 18 inches (in terms of significant input). The density of air in this nearly ideal soil is about 8%, and hence the aerobic nitrogen volume is about 5% of the soil volume. In terms of total nitrogen, you have mils of a pound in any particular soil respiration cycle.
The soil respiration cycle is driven by the watering or rain frequency but limited by the rate of bio-activity to about once per week during the growing season. This by the way is another good reason to water most trees on a weekly cycle.
Integrating the mass of aerobic nitrogen in the soil over respiration cycles leads to about a 1/10 of a pound of available nitrogen per year. In fact, the tree will consume more nitrogen through leaf respiration than in the soil. And hence, in terms of orders of magnitude the grower is still short a pound of nitrogen per year in terms of soil input. The good news is that this nearly ideal soil permits inputs (of suitable materials and frequency) to be completely utilized by the plant.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

damaclese

Wow and i thought my thread covered the subject at hand you guys are nuts LOL j/k Ones again I'm learning more than i thought i ever would. but could i Introduce this thought on the subject of Biochar.? i understand the need for the scientific community to explore all the ins and out as it were of the topic at hand. however thees kinds of threads do tend to over whelm the average person just looking for some answers to how he or she could be a better steward of the earth. this is not a put down on any ones comments just being piratical I HOPE! LOL

__________________
Helping to foster understanding for the learning disabled

erich

Recent NATURE STUDY, ;
This very conservative, waste only feedstock, review, only hints at the climate potential of additional Agroforest and Biomass crops.
Sustainable bio char to mitigate global climate change
Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group

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

First,
the in situ remediation of a vast variety of toxic agents in soils and sediments.
Biochar Sorption of Contaminants;
Agriculture, Forestry, Soil Science and Environment

Dr. Lima's work; Specialized Characterization Methods for Biochar Production and Characterization
And at USDA;
The Ultimate Trash To Treasure: *ARS Research Turns Poultry Waste into Toxin-grabbing Char
The Ultimate Trash To Treasure: ARS Research Turns Poultry Waste into Toxin-grabbing Char

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. ,

Conservation Agricultural + Biochar = 100% CO2e Emissions
"In general, soil carbon sequestration during the first decade of adoption of best conservation agricultural practices is 1.8 tons CO2 per hectare per year. On 5 billion hectares of agricultural land, this could represent one-third of the current annual global emission of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels (i.e., 27 Pg CO2 per year)."

http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/doc/CA_SSC_Overview.pdf

Add just 1 Ton more of char and you cover 100% Current Annual Fossil CO2 Emissions.


Since we have filled the air , filling the seas to full, Soil is the Only Beneficial place left.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.

Thanks for your efforts.
Erich

Erich J. Knight
Chairman; Markets and Business Review Committee
US BiocharConference, at Iowa State University, June 27-30
Detailed Agenda

EcoTechnologies Group Technical Adviser
EcoTechnologies Group
Shenandoah Gardens (Owner)
1047 Dave Barry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
540 289 9750
Co-Administrator, Biochar Data base & Discussion list TP-REPP
BioEnergy Lists: BioChar (or Terra Preta) | Information on the intentional use of BioChar (charcoal from biomass) to improve soils.




Biochar current Developments in Research, Reports, Legislation & Data Base :



Biochar Soils.....Husbandry of whole new Orders & Kingdoms of life

Biotic Carbon, the carbon transformed by life, should never be combusted, oxidized and destroyed. It deserves more respect, reverence even, and understanding to use it back to the soil where 2/3 of excess atmospheric carbon originally came from.

We all know we are carbon-centered life, we seldom think about the complex web of recycled bio-carbon which is the true center of life. A cradle to cradle, mutually co-evolved biosphere reaching into every crack and crevice on Earth.

It's hard for most to revere microbes and fungus, but from our toes to our gums (onward), their balanced ecology is our health. The greater earth and soils are just as dependent, at much longer time scales. Our farming for over 10,000 years has been responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to carbon dioxide, Methane & Nitrous oxide began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel. Agriculture allowed our cultural accent and Agriculture will now prevent our descent.

Wise Land management; Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,

Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, ( living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.

Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration (= to 1 Ton CO2e) + Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels = to 1MWh exported electricity, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.

Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw;
"Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes;
"Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !".
Free Carbon Condominiums with carboxyl group fats in the pantry and hydroxyl alcohol in the mini bar.
Build it and the Wee-Beasties will come.
Microbes like to sit down when they eat.
By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders & Kingdoms of life.
( These oxidised surface charges; carbonyl. hydroxyl, carboxylic acids, and lactones or quinones, have as well a role as signaling substances towards bacteria, fungi and plants.)

This is what I try to get across to Farmers, as to how I feel about the act of returning carbon to the soil. An act of penitence and thankfulness for the civilization we have created. Farmers are the Soil Sink Bankers, once carbon has a price, they will be laughing all the way to it.
Unlike CCS which only reduces emissions, biochar systems draw down CO2 every energy cycle, closing a circle back to support the soil food web. The photosynthetic "capture" collectors are up and running, the "storage" sink is in operation just under our feet. Pyrolysis conversion plants are the only infrastructure we need to build out.

To me, in the long run, the final arbiter / accountancy / measure of sustainability will be
soil carbon content. Once this royal road is constructed, traffic cops ( Carbon Board ) in place, the truth of land-management and Biochar systems will be self-evident.

A dream I've had for years is to base the coming carbon economy firmly on the foundation of top soils. My read of the agronomic history of civilization shows that the Kayopo Amazon Indians and the Egyptians were the only ones to maintain fertility for the long haul, millennium scales. Egypt has now forsaken their geologic advantage by building the Aswan dam, and are stuck, with the rest of us, in the soil C mining, NPK rat race to the bottom. The meta-analysis of Syn-N and soil Carbon content show our dilemma;
https://www.agronomy.org/publication...cles/38/6/2295


The Ag Soil Carbon standard is in final review by the AMS branch at USDA. Both Congresional Ag Committees have asked for expansion of Soil Carbon Standard to ISO status.
Read over the work so far;
http://www.novecta.com/documents/Carbon-Standard.pdf

In my efforts to have Biochar's potential included, I have recruited several to join the list, briefed the entire committee about char when issues concerning N2O & CH4 soil GHG emissions were raised, fully briefed a couple of the 100 members when they replied individually to my "Reply all" briefs. The members cover the full spectrum of Ag interest.

With the Obama administration funding an inter-departmental climate effort of NASA, NOAA, USDA, & EPA, and now even the CIA is opening the data coffers, then soil carbon sensors may be less than 5 years away. I'm told by the Jet Propulsion Lab mission specialists responsible for the suite of earth sensing satellites, that they will be reading soil carbon using multiple proxy measurements in 5 years. Reading soil moisture to 3 foot dept in two year with SMAP, Reading GHG emissions and biomass from the tree tops down next year when the Orbital Carbon Observer (OCO, get it is rebooted, to 1 Ha resolution.

Then, any farmer can click "Google Carbon maps" to see the soil carbon accounted to his good work, a level playing field to be a soil sink banker.
The Moon Pie in the sky funding should be served to JPL



Global Clean Stove Initiative:
Another significant aspect of low cost Biomass cook stoves, that produce char, is removal of BC aerosols and no respiratory disease emissions. At Scale, replacing "Three Stone" stoves the health benefits would equal eradication of Malaria & Aids combined.
The Biochar Fund :
The broad smiles of 1500 subsistence farmers say it all ( that, and the size of the Biochar corn root balls )
Biochar Fund - fighting hunger, deforestation, energy insecurity and climate change - Biochar Cameroon pictures
Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon

State Dept. Release;
100 million clean-burning stoves in kitchens around the world.
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: The United States Commitment By the Numbers

WorldStoves in Haiti ; A Man, a Stove, a Mission The Charcoal Project

NSF Awards $1.6 million in grants;
BREAD: Biochar Inoculants for Enabling Smallholder Agriculture
Cornell University wins biochar/stove research grants Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) Updates



Major Endorsements:

Senator / Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar has done the most to nurse this biofuels system in his Biochar provisions in the 07 & 08 farm bill,
http://www.biochar-international.org...gislation.html

NASA's Dr. James Hansen Global warming solutions paper places Biochar / Land management the central technology for carbon negative energy systems.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf

Dr. James Lovelock (Gaia hypothesis) says Biochar is "The only hope for mankind"

Charles Mann ("1491") in the Sept. National Geographic has a wonderful soils article which places Terra Preta / Biochar soils center stage.
Our Good Earth - National Geographic Magazine

Al Gore got the CO2 absorption thing wrong, ( at NABC Vilsack did same), but his focus on Soil Carbon is right on;
Al Gore's Climate-Change Evolution - Newsweek

Tony Blair & Richard Branson in the UK and conservative party opposition leader John Turnbull and Abbott in Oz.




Research:

NASA’s Space Archaeology; $364K Terra Preta Program
archaeology excavations,archaeology excavation,archaeology,archaeologist,Museums,Egyptology Archaeology Excavations: Time Traveling Via Satellite

This is the finest explanation I have read on the process of biochar testing. Hugh lays it out like medical triage to extract the data most needed for soil carbon sequestration. A triage for all levels of competence, the Para-Medic Gardener to the Surgeon Chem-Engineer.
Characterizing Biochars prior to Addition to Soils | BioEnergy Lists: BioChar (or Terra Preta)

The Ozzie's for 5 years now in field studies
The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater
The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater*(Science Alert)

Phosphorous Solution;
Microbial Fertilizers in Japan | BioEnergy Lists: BioChar (or Terra Preta)

The Japanese have been at it dacades:
Japan Biochar Association ;
http://www.geocities.jp/yasizato/pioneer.htm

UK Biochar Research Centre
Biochar

ICHAR, the Italian Biochar Association
ICHAR - Associazione Italiana Biochar - Home

Field Trial Data Base; The new version of BiocharDB has been released! To see it, please visit biocharbazaar.org.

Virginia Tech is in their 4 th year with the Carbon Char Group's "CharGrow" formulated bagged product. An idea whose time has come | Carbon Char Group
The 2008 trials at Virginia Tech showed a 46% increase in yield of tomato transplants grown with just 2 - 5 cups (2 - 5%) "CharGrow" per cubic foot of growing medium. A Biological Tool for Reducing Input Costs | Carbon Char Group

USDA in their 2 nd year; "Novak, Jeff" , & "david laird" ,
There are dozens soil researchers on the subject now at USDA-ARS.
and many studies at The ASA-CSSA-SSSA joint meeting;
Session: Biochar Use for Improving Environmental Quality: I

Nikolaus has been at it 4 years. Nikolaus Foidl,
His current work with aspirin is Amazing in Maize, 250% yield gains, 15 cobs per plant;
Trials in Maize, reactivating dormant genes using high doses of Salicylic acid and Charcoal | BioEnergy Lists: BioChar (or Terra Preta)

My 09 field trials with the Rodale Institute & JMU ;
Alterna Biocarbon and Cowboy Charcoal Virginia field trials '09
Alterna Biocarbon and Cowboy Charcoal Virginia field trials '09 | BioEnergy Lists: BioChar (or Terra Preta)


Most recent studies out;
Imperial College test,
This work in temperate soils gives data from which one can calculate savings on fertilizer use, which is expected to be ongoing with no additional soil amending.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1755-1...1-2be7e2f3ce1b

The BlueLeaf Inc./ Dynamotive study are exciting results given how far north the site is at 45 degrees, and the low application rates. I suspect, as we saw with the Imperial College test, the yield benefits seem to decrease the cooler the climate. In 2008, a 20% increase in grain yield was shown and for a forage mixture in 2009 a 100% increase in fresh biomass was obtained. Other parameters showing increases with CQuest Biochar included earthworm, nematode and mycorrhizal root colonization, supporting the hypothesis that biochar may serve as a refuge for soil microbes. Surface soil water infiltration was also greater in biochar amended soil.
BlueLeaf Inc. and Dynamotive Release 2nd Year Field Trial Results With Dynamotive CQuestT Biochar | BioFuels Journal





Reports:

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 the USA

http://www.biochar-us.org/pdf%20file...ort_lowres.pdf



This PNAS report (by a Nobel lariat) should cause the Royal Society to rethink their report that criticized Biochar systems sequestration potential;
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Reducing abrupt climate change risk using
the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory
actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions
Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions ? PNAS

CookieCows

Alot of interesting reading here!! Suscribed to thread!

Thanks,
Deb

__________________

Richard

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

erich

If we replicate the Ecologic Services of the extinct megafauna, since 7 billion of us makes us the new Megafauna, then we could build back Soil Carbon with massive increases of Net Primary Production. An ecology not seen for 12,800 years.
An Ecology not limited by Phosphorous, Sodium & lost Soil-C.

For a complete review of the current science & industry applications of Biochar please see my 2013 Umass Biochar presentation. How thermal conversion technologies can integrate and optimize the recycling of valuable nutrients while providing energy and building soil carbon, I believe it brings together both sides of climate beliefs.
A reconciling of both Gods' and mans' controlling hands.

Agricultural Geo - Engineering; Past, Present & Future
Across scientific disciplines carbons are finding new utility to solve our most vexing problems
http://www.trunity.net/files/236901_...nght2013-1.pdf