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The world is losing its battle against global warming. Even in Europe, where they have valiantly fought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the imbalance gets worse every day. Biofuels are the biggest disappointment. They still emit CO2 when burned and require fertilizer, processing and transportation which all emit even more CO2. The justification for biofuels is that the growing plants take CO2 out of the air. However, plants growing on the land before planting were already capturing CO2, so only the increase in CO2 capture (if any) should be counted.
The natural balance of the earth has always included carbon storage in the plants and soil. The problem is that we have disrupted that balance. We have burned in one century much of the carbon that nature sequestered over millions of years. Coal is almost pure carbon, gathered by plants and sequestered by natural processes. We need to stop burning it!
Though growing plants take CO2 from the air and fix it in their cells, the carbon is only borrowed: 99% of that carbon ends up back in the atmosphere as the plant is eventually burned or consumed by animals, termites, fungi, nematodes or worms, which then return the carbon to the atmosphere. Pyrolysis is a way to grab the carbon in plants before it can become a meal for these creatures and return it to the soil as pure carbon biochar.
Pyrolysis mimics the natural process that turned ancient plants into coal: When biomass is heated up with no oxygen supply it melts into carbon, syngas and biooil. Pyrolysis was used thousands of years ago by the natives of Brazil to enrich their poor, acidic soil into Terra Preta, one of the richest, most productive soils known to man.
Terra Preta still contains as much as 9% carbon. It is always found with pottery shards and other evidence that it was man made. It is so productive that it is bagged up and sold today as potting soil. We're still trying to match their superb results. If we succeed, we will solve world hunger, global warming and our energy shortage in one stroke.
The Amazon culture that made these soils was killed by conquest and disease. The primitive people in the area today practice slash and burn agriculture, which quickly depletes the soil and spews CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere. The Terra Preta was created by slash and char, which involves cutting off oxygen to the burning biomass. Without oxygen, little CO2 is produced and the biomass melts into carbon with a very fine structure called biochar. The hydrogen in the plant molecules produces heat, syngas and biooil as the plant molecules are reshuffled.
The buried biochar retains some of the micro-cellular structure of the plant. It is activated charcoal with very high surface area. It can hold water and nutrients and gradually release them as needed. The nanoscale structure of biochar, like a coral reef, hosts a whole ecosystem of soil fungi and bacteria that feed the roots of plants and hold soil together. This part of the terra preta story is still not fully understood. It takes some time for this microscopic biological culture to develop and produce the amazing increases in yield for the soil.
Experiments have shown that burying biochar in the soil can increase productivity significantly. For poor acidic soil it has sometimes been known to double or triple production! The pyrolysis process converts cellulosic matter into syngas, biooil and biochar by heating in the absence of oxygen. The biooil produced can be used like low-grade diesel fuel for heating and power generation. Syngas can be burned like natural gas or converted with catalysts to ethanol and chemicals usually made from petroleum.
The energy in the biooil and syngas produced is much greater than what is obtained by fermentation to ethanol. For example, Miscanthus, a wild grass can produce 340 GJ/hectare/year of biooil. For comparison, corn fermentation only produces 120 GJ/hectare/year (net) of ethanol. The fermentation process uses lots of energy and is only 3-5% efficient at converting plant energy into fuel.
While the fermentation process emits a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere, Pyrolysis can be carbon negative if the biochar produced is buried for carbon credits and crop enhancement. Every ton of biomass produces about 400 lbs of biochar by weight, which is equivalent to about a half ton of CO2. (CO2 is only 27% carbon.)
Because biomass has low energy density, it is expensive to ship. Pyrolysis units should therefore be close to the biomass source. Since biooil occupies about one-tenth as much volume as the biomass that produced it, it can be easily shipped by tanker truck or used locally. Pyrolysis units are available that fit in a standard shipping container and can handle the needs of a small village.
Carbon-inefficient slash and burn agriculture is practiced by 300-500 million people today. If these people could convert to slash and char methods, we could stop the growth of greenhouse gas in its tracks. The International Biochar Initiative and the Biochar Fund are dedicated to making that happen. This is a win-win proposition because crop yields are significantly improved while global warming is brought under control and the biooil produced provides a local source of fuel for electricity, cooking or heating. More crops, free fuel plus a revenue stream from selling carbon credits could transform these subsistence cultures while saving the planet.
As a direct result of global warming, large tracts of forests in Canada and the United States have been decimated by bark beetles. Though fast growing trees initially take in a lot of CO2 and sequester it temporarily in their wood, dead wood absorbs nothing. If we burn the trees all of the carbon they took in will be returned to the atmosphere. If termites consume the trees they will produce methane and CO2 with even worse effects. Methane is forty times worse for global warming than CO2. Pyrolysis could pay for itself by producing biooil and biochar while disposing of the dead trees to make room for healthy new ones.
The 2008 farm bill (passed over Bush's veto!) included amazingly strong provisions for encouraging development of Biochar. The farm lobby finally got it right! Agriculture has become a big contributor to global warming and now they can be a major part of the solution. To quote James Lovelock, creator of the Ghia theory: "The biosphere pumps out 550 gigatonnes of carbon yearly; we put in only 30 gigatonnes. Ninety-nine percent of the carbon that is fixed by plants is released back into the atmosphere within a year or so by consumers like bacteria, nematodes and worms. What we can do is cheat those consumers by getting farmers to burn their crop waste at very low oxygen levels to turn it into charcoal, which the farmer then plows into the field."
Modern farming practices have increased greenhouse gas emissions dramatically. Fertilization emits oxides of nitrogen, which are 140 times worse than CO2. Tilling of the soil lets carbon escape as CO2. Since agriculture began, about 140 billion tons of soil-based CO2 have been lost to the atmosphere. Carbon trading provides a financial incentive for improving farming practices. By growing our fuel using no till, no fertilizer crops such as elephant grass, the farmer can help save the planet, improve yields and make good money too.
(Click here to watch a 49-minute BBC movie about Terra Preta)
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I truly believe that the ancient wisdom of Terra Preta de Indio -- translated into the modern processes of pyrolysis -- will be the game-changer whereby the wastes and depletions of the Industrial Age will be transformed transcended into an Anthropocene Age of human-and-nature reciprocities and renewals.
I've been looking into the cultural and spiritual basis for this transition, for the narrative that might guide a changing consciousness toward healing the relationship between people and nature.
Here is one of my essays: http://www.re-char.com/2009/04/17/terra-preta-de-indio/
And here is a broad range off materials that I've gathered for my blog: http://lougold.blogspot.com/search?q=biochar
Keep up the good work.
lou
For large populations it is the only longterm sustainable agriculture in the Americas and many other parts of the world.
Research indicates that this soil type must have produced 4-10 times as much food as other tropical soils.
Currently Wageningen University researchers attempt to unravel some of the remaining mysteries surrounding Petra Terra (attempts of recreation)
The presence of fish bones and special bacteria and fungi suggest an aqua cultural and agricultual hybrid soil -with Amazonic aquatic material used as powerfull fertiliser (algae) in addition to the favorable adsorption/desorption and temperature control of the char with its high surface area that slash-and char brings.
Thanks again for spreading some light.
www.algaelink.com
(Venture Capital, Banks: 50% annual roi in the PRC!)
to see how to make a burning barrel that won't methanize the atmosphere. Juice up the charcoal with compost slurry. Bourbon and mint go nicely with that...
And take a minute to watch www.thestoryofstuff.com in observance of Earth Day.
However there is a second attribute of bio-char (carbon) which I think is worth considering, which incidentally ties in with another article in this issue "Storing Renewable Energy on the Smart Grid", and this is that; carbon/charcoal is one of the most effective ways of storing energy, certainly on a volumetric basis (leaving aside nuclear).
Energy storage is a key component in most RE supply chains and most other forms of storage (non chemical) tend to be challenging when trying to store utility scale amounts of energy for long periods, more than a couple of days, because of cost (e.g. batteries) , size (e.g. pumped hydro) or energy retention (e.g. CSP/thermal). By comparison C can store huge amounts of energy virtually indefinitely easily and cheaply.
There is one important proviso however; the use of carbon as an energy source/carrier needs to be part of a 'Closed Carbon Cycle' energy system i.e. one in which RE (renewable energy), most likely solar, is used to re-generate the C from the CO2 produced when it is transformed to another energy form. I say transformed because there is a far better way of releasing C's energy than burning it. Using DCFCs (direct carbon fuel cells) carbon can be converted directly into electricity, in theory at 100% efficiency and 80%+ has been achieved in prototype DCFCs. The other draw back with burning C is that the CO2 released is expensive to capture, however when transformed in a DCFC the waste product is pure CO2, ready for reprocessing.
There are a number of routes for converting the CO2 back to C. Photosynthesis (plants) is the obvious choice but is not particularly efficient, I think chemical reforming using direct solar energy is likely to be the best approach, probably via an intermediate product such as methane, methanol or syn-gas.
It is impossible to raise the CO2 level of the atmosphere above base level using biofuels. Biofuels are the result of plants removing CO2 from the atmosphere to carry on metabolism. If there is no CO2, green plants can't take in CO2 and give off oxygen---there is no metabolism, the plants die. The same as you will die without oxygen. No plants, no biofuels. That is why it is impossible to raise atmospheric CO2 using biofuels.
If plants were able to make use of unbound carbon in the soil, there would be no unbound carbon in the soil. Plants would have used it up long ago and it would not be there for us to discover.
There is nothing wrong with returning post combustion ashes to the soil as fertilizer to stimulate new plant growth. Nature has been doing that for billions of years. However, unburned carbon does not fertilize the soil.
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.
As one microbiologist said on the Biochar list; "Microbes like to sit down when they eat". By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders of life.
Plant root / fungi symbiosis forms A superhighway for moisture and nutrients, an Internet for plant chemical communication,.
Ultimately producing Glomalins which account for 1/3 of soil carbon, the soil aggregate glue of Soil tilth & texture.
The lion's share of sugars that plants produce feed this fungal Net, to extend the functionality of roots 100 times over, in order for the plant make the sugars that we consume.
The Massive fungi populations (ultimately Glomalin) and wee-beasties, microbes to worms increase ribozome recalcitrant biomass, in addition to sequestered elemental inorganic carbon of the Biochar itself.
biochars have significant reductions in nitrous oxide emissions from the soil; between five- and ten-fold reductions in nitrous oxide emissions ( I think N20 is 296 times the GHG CO2 is)
UNCCD Submission to Climate Change/UNFCCC AWG-LCA 5
"Account carbon contained in soils and the importance of biochar (charcoal) in replenishing soil carbon pools, restoring soil fertility and enhancing the sequestration of CO2."
http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/AWGLCA5/menu.php
This new Congressional Research Service report (by analyst Kelsi Bracmort) is the best short summary I have seen so far - both technical and policy oriented.
http://assets.opencrs.
You can see it on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzmpWR6JUZQ
I'd like to add that pyrolysis energy ratio is 1:3 to 1:9 (one unit of energy input to 3 to 9 units of energy output). Pyrolysis biofuels could be used in power plants to mitigate their emissions (40% of total world's GHG ).
Also, agriculture contributes with 15% of world's GHG emissions and by apllying biochar to soils, very important reductions can be accomplished.
According to Johannes Lehman, in "Bio-energy in the black":
"Preliminary results indicate that biochar bio-energy not
only leads to a net sequestration of CO2, but that the presence
of biochar in soil may decrease emissions of two even
more potent greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (NOx) and
methane. In greenhouse experiments, NOx emissions were
reduced by 80% and methane emissions were completely
suppressed with biochar additions of 20 g kg-1 to a forage
grass stand (Rondon et al. 2005)".
Regards,
Arturo Velez
----------
Can we incorporate charcoal into everything we do, from toothpaste to shoe insoles, char-cremation, cat food & cat litter, animal feed & water, concrete, carbon fiber, Kleenex and toilet paper, detergents, carpets, shingles, red wine and of course bourbon.
Well Tom, looking at your list........
---toothpaste is made from gum agar--derived from kelp seaweed
---shoe insoles are made from rubber---from latex tapped from rubber tree sap or other sources, such as milk weed or gum weed. Basically, any plant that produces a milky white sap is high in latex. Ground charcoal is often a component of shoe insoles because it gives them porous qualities that trap and hold sweat, and the charcoal traps and binds organic molecules that are the result of bacterial action in the hot humid environment inside shoes----this reduces odors.
---cat(and dog) food is made from corn and other grains(to make it kibble), the food part is ground and powdered meat and bone meal from all the parts of the animal not used when butchered. DDG made from corn is used to adjust protein and soluble vitamin and mineral content, especially trace elements.
---Cat litter, there are two types. One is rhyolite, a type of volcanic ash. The other is pine shavings, straw or other organic matter that is dried and compressed into pellets with hydraulic rams. This type can be dried after use and either burned or composted.
----animal feed, the final product after ethanol is fermented is DDG(dried distillers grain), this is dried and used as a high protein content ingredient in all types of animal feed. It is also very high in soluble vitamins(B Complex and Ascorbic acid)---DDG is the basic starting point for vitamin, protein and mineral supplements made for humans---or as a supplement itself, anything that lists brewer's yeast as an ingredient.
---red wine, and bourbon---are also produced by brewer's yeast action, bourbon is just hydrous ethanol.
----Kleenex and toilet paper, are made from wood pulp or other plant pulp. As is cardboard or any other paper product. Part of the pulping process produces "black liquor" from which alcohol(ethanol) or plastics(rayon, nylon) can be produced or many other products can be produced.
----Shingles---can be produced from tars from "black liquor" mentioned above. Or, you can bundle reeds together and make thatch roofs which has been done for thousands of years----thatch is still highly valued for its attractive appearance, long term durability and high insulating value, especially in Europe. In the US, cedar shakes(wood) are valued for their light weight, insulation,durability and appearance, and are often used on expensive homes for this reason.
-----detergents are made from plant or animal lipids(fats) treated with lye(sodium hydroxide) This binds an ionic inorganic molecule to the lipids which allows it to chemically combine easily with other molecules and become soluble in water----the way that soap gets things clean.
The point of all this is---we are no where near as dependent on the fossil fuel industry to provide everything we have come to take for granted as part of modern life. The truth is, there is a green substitute for anything that can be done with coal or petroleum. And often, the substitutes are better choices than the artificially produced fossil fuel choices for more reasons than just environmental.
I just think people need to know.
I did some math today: there are 2 billion hectares of 'degraded soil' in the world. Putting in a modest 500mm of soil compressed char would need only 15,000 tons of biomass grown on each hectare converted at a realistic 33% yield. This will take 60% of the energy away from the people who cook and heat their homes with what little biomass grows on it now.
Assuming we can convince the poor, cold and hungry to eat their food partially cooked, we can amend all that soil within 5000 years or so. In the process we will remove 36.7 trillion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Presto! Problem solved.
That way, we have all we need, and there are no more poor, cold, hungry people.
That is what I think our goal should be.
To date I have not heard a single thing that convinces me char amendment is of value save in particular areas: high rainfall, low nutrition soils, high temperatures, where the energy and nutrients are in the forest that sits on the ground, not in it.
Dr AD Karve in Pune, India has done remarkable work on feeding the bacteria that break down soils to provide fertilizers with components that are otherwise chemcially bound. Dung+sugar+water is used (total 1/2 a ton/ha + water) feeds the right bacteria. The output is remarkable. Simultaneously, he has tried char amendment for 10 years and found no benefit at all.
It appears this char burying business is an armchair technology sitting on some rather suspect math. There isn't nearely enough CO2 in the atmosphere to put a decent amount of char under the world's fields and it would take millenia to do so if there was.
The world is not short of food, it is short of fairness.
Keep an eye out for a new PhD thesis by Willem Nel, Univ of Johannesburg on peak energy which includes peak oil, peak gas, peak uranium, peak coal and peak carbon.
Terra Pretta may work in a few places but microbiology is more lilkely to put food on the table. The CO2 thing will pass of its own accord when we run out of carbon fuels in a few years. Like it or not we are going to renewables but we should invest the energy we have left in sensible ventures. Think of energy as capital and look at the available returns. It is quite 'straitening'!
Truer words have never passed anyone's lips.
Only biological conversion (by microbes) - of renewable organic material (biomass) to energy rich methane in biogas and to biofertilisers (organic fertilisers) containing most of the plant nutrients, for cultivation beneficial microorganisms and bioenergy in organic compounds - is sustainable ecologically, economically and socially.
Microbiologist J. Ford wrote in his book Microbes Power that technical processes can newer be more efficient that processes carried by microbes.
Pyrolysis is energy intensive thermal degradation (by heat and pressure) of organic material (biomass) in the absence of air to produce char, pyrolysis oil and syngas.
Combustion: Burning, or rapid chemical oxidation of bioenergy in organic structures, is accompanied by release of energy in the form of heat and light. Combustion is a basic cause of air pollution. Second product of combustion is ash - without energy, nitrogen and sulphur. From waste incinerators the amount of toxic ash is up to 25 weight %.
We all are responsible for production of biomass and not only for energy conversion from biomass. Sustainable systems can never be achieved by thermal conversion because that
1) some plant nutrients (nitrogen and sulphur) disappears as environment polluting compounds
2) ash and chair does not contain energy important for soil microorganisms.
Use of bioconversion systems, when the non-converted feedstocks residues are returned to the soil as organic fertilizers, can support production of new biomass without man-made agrochemicals. Many unfertile soils can be very fast turned to agricultural land with the help of organic fertilizers. The positive effects of bioenergy and microbial activity in biofertilisers should be calculated in economical terms.
rsvedelius@hotmail.com
Since different greenhouse gasses have different lifetimes there is no one number for comparing them. Methane is 72 times worse than CO2 if you look at over a 20 year period. Over 100 years it is only 25 times worse
look at p5 of this presentation from DOE
http://www.bioeconomyconference.org/07%20Sessions/approved07sessions/Amonette,%20Jim.pdf
Lighten up! I'm not trying to con you.
You are presenting religious dogma. Nature created fire so pyrolysis is a natural process that happens to be more efficient than fermentation for extracting useful energy from biomass. You present only dogma. Biochar does significantly enrich some soils and so does manure. Let's stick to the facts and accept both.
The Center's output of BioChar can potentially sequester 96,000 tons of CO2 per year. The plant will convert 43,000 tons of biomass waste to 32,000 tons of EternaGreen™ BioChar annually. Additionally, the facility will produce enough BioElectricity to power more than 1,200 households.
In the fields next to the center, Mantria Industries will be growing bamboo, switch and elephant grass as feedstock for the plant, earning carbon credit in the process.
EternaGreen ™ BioChar is a BioProduct ™ created by the innovative EternaGreen ™ Carbonization process, which is a groundbreaking new method of converting biomass into energy, fuel and valuable carbon products.
BioChar itself is backed by over 30 years of research and promises to drastically reduce greenhouse gasses, increase crop yields greatly, and provides new life to our ecosystem.
As a soil amendment, EternaGreen TM BioChar can help increase the Cation Exchange Capacity or CEC which allows for nutrients to be readily available to plants. Due to its highly porous structure EternaGreen TM BioChar allows for supreme adsorption of nutrients, minerals, and gasses increasing microbial functions in the soil. EternaGreen TM BioChar acts as a "sponge" for nutrients and minerals releasing them as needed ensuring that farmers get the most out of your soil using far less water and fertilizer.
BioChar is not going to combat global warming alone, but will - now that it is available in commercial quantities - have a very positive impact on CO2 levels, green energy production, waste reduction and increased agricultural output.
To learn more visit: http://www.biocharcorp.com
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