Anyone make biochar?

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I searched the forum and came up with a little, but just wanted to see if there was anything else. I made a wheel barrow full last weekend by building a campfire out of brush then hosing it down when it had cooked down to coals...

If you don't know what biochar is check out this site

http://www.biochar.info/index.cfm?view=52.2&lan=en

[cbcansurvive]

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

I searched the forum and came up with a little, but just wanted to see if there was anything else. I made a wheel barrow full last weekend by building a campfire out of brush then hosing it down when it had cooked down to coals...

If you don't know what biochar is check out this site

http://www.biochar.info/index.cfm?view=52.2&lan=en

I think you'll have more luck just searching "charcoal." I live in New Jersey and there used to be a huge charcoal industry in the pinelands. Colliers (people who make charcoal) would gather huge piles of scrub oak and pine, cover the pile with dirt, and light it so as to create a lot of heat and not a lot of oxygen. It would smolder for days until it was put out and wa'la, charcoal! Most charcoal that you buy in the store these days (Kingsford, etc...) is made from sawdust mixed with coal tar and other stuff-it's not natural charcoal. You can still buy it though. I use Royal Oak natural charcoal for smoking meat-its good stuff. Its not hard to make on your own though. What you made isn't really charcoal-its just charred wood. Charcoal is wood that has been burned in a very low oxygen atmosphere (ie: buried in a pile of dirt)-you can do this by taking a 55 gallon steel drum and poking some holes around the bottom rim. Pack the drum with a wood of your choice and then replace the lid (bungs out), support the drum with cinder blocks and start a fire underneath. The wood will get hot enough to ignite but won't really burn because of the lack of oxygen. 12 hours or so later you'll have charcoal.

[Darren]

If I recall correctly scientists figured out recently that the fertility of the Amazon basin was due to biochar made long ago. There's also an area in Europe where similar soils are found. As the previous poster wrote, you need to "cook" the wood in the absence of oxygen or at very low levels. Without pyrolysis I'm not sure you'll get biochar.

The wood gas generators used to power engines use the same process. I think the crew at Mother Earth News used a wood gas generator to produce gas to run a pickup truck that was driven cross county. They fueled it with wood scraps from construction job sites. Back then I don't think anyone knew the stuff they threw away was a fantastic soil amendment.

One of the older ME magazines had directions on building a wood gas generator. I always thought it could be scaled up. Even if you don't use the wood gas, it would make lots of biochar.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

mother earth news had an article about it last year

i think you will find the trench method easier dig a trench , i wold just use the furrower behind the tiller then fill trench with dry garden waste and light it up when it is mostly burned rake or how the furrow over it will smother the remaining material , charcoal holds it's weight in water is my understanding while the char process also releases phosphorus from the burned vegitation

is it better than compost , not sure that would take tests.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

What I made was very much charcoal. Come see it yourself if you don't believe me. Sure I picked out some charred wood chunks, but most of it would crumble into black dust.

Seems like today is the day to tell me I am wrong about something

All pyrolysis is, is driving off the more volitile compounds. You can do it any number of ways. Let me assure you the coals in the middle of my brush fire were cooked throughly, and also let also assure you that the oxygen is well consumed before it hits the middle of the coal bed. The reason they generally make charcoal in an airtight environment is because it is overall more efficient and the resulting charcoal is destined to be fuel, making it terribly inconvient to hose it down to prevent it from self consuming...

[Harry Chickpea]

I plan on making some soon. Charcoal is more stable than compost, so it should last longer in the soil and help both aeration and water retention. Bio-char, charcoal - I can't see that there is much difference.

[agmantoo]

Do some research on terra preta

[live-oak]

Make your biochar (charcoal) from sawdust. It needs to be finely divided to work well in the soil.

[Navotifarm]

I've seen a demonstration by a forestry guy from Blacksburg (Virginia Tech), making charcoal from the much-hated ailanthus. He has made very strange-looking metal cookers! The smoke almost croaked me so I won't be doing it myself!

[ronbre]

we gather it out of our wood furnace all winter and then it goes in our gardens

[dezingg]

I didn't realize that the biochar label had been created. A couple of years ago I saw news that Amazon indians had used a 'slash and char' method to add charcoal to their soils. I did some internet searches and started thinking about adding charcoal bits to my sandy soil.

My place is mostly chaparral with lots of Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) brush.

I put some of the brush I clear into a 55 gallon drum and burn it. Most of the pieces created by burning are 1/2 inch or smaller. After I get about "20 gallons" of ash and coals in the drum, I put the lid on and walk away. It isn't a perfect fit, so some air leaks in. (the bottom of the barrel gets hot, so don't set it on flammable material)

Last year, I mixed it in the top six inches of dirt in about a third of my garden and I think it made a difference. That end of the garden grew better, but I can't eliminate other variables that may have had an effect, like possibly uneven watering. I was after long term benefits so I didn't try to determine specific results.

Since I had plenty of brush, it seemed worth trying.

[Ken Scharabok]

I doubt Native American Indians did much slash and burning for the sake of soil enrichment. More like burning off dried up winter grass to encourage new spring growth. They would get firewood by ringing a tree and then collecting the dead branches as they fell in future years.

Grass burning use to be fairly common in this area. People point out sites where they use to be barns and such with the comment it burned down when a grass fire got out of control.

One would think of old time blacksmiths using coal, but many were in areas in which suitable coal wasn't available. They bartered with customers who paid them in bushels of charcoal created while clearing land. I've tried it and you can go through a lot of charcoal in a hurry. Makes a wonderful forge fire though.

[dezingg]

Here's a link to the Mother Earth News article, thanks GreenCountyPete.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organ...Your-Soil.aspx

Please note that there is a difference between the 'slash and burn' practice which reduces everything to ash, and the 'slash and char' practice which is used to deliberately create pieces of charred wood.

[Ken Scharabok]

There is an article in the current issue of Farm Show about a guy who uses dried animal manure to create charcoal. Remember the old western trail wagon trains would use dried buffalo chips for campfires. From what I can tell the movies which showed people riding the wagons were wrong - everyone who could walked. As they did so women and girls would gather up dried chips in their skirts.

[erich]

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;
http://jeq.scijournals.org/cgi/conte...ract/36/6/1821
and
http://jeq.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/38/6/2295


The Ag Soil Carbon standard is in final review by the AMS branch at USDA.
Contact Gary Delong . www.novecta.com
Read over the work so far;
http://www.novecta.com/documents/Carbon-Standard.pdf

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

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.

Hope to see you at ISU for the 2010 US Biochar Conference

Dr. Robert Brown and the team in Ames Iowa are planing the next national biochar conference. The Conference will be June 27-30 in Ames Iowa Hosted by Iowa State University.
http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010.html

WorldStoves in Haiti; ( http://www.charcoalproject.org/2010/...ove-a-mission/ ) and
The Biochar Fund deserves your attention and support.
Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon
http://scitizen.com/screens/blogPage...tribution=3011

NSF Awards $600K to BREAD: Biochar Inoculants for Enabling Smallholder Agriculture
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showA...Number=0965336

Thanks for your efforts.
Erich

Erich J. Knight
Chairman; Markets and Business Opportunities Review Committee
US BiocharConference, at Iowa State University, June 27-30
http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010.html

EcoTechnologies Group Technical Adviser
http://www.ecotechnologies.com/index.html
Shenandoah Gardens (Owner)
1047 Dave Barry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
540 289 9750
Co-Administrator, Biochar Data base & Discussion list TP-REPP


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.


Legislation:

May 14, 2010, Important Biochar Provisions Included in the Amercian Power Act

Senator Baucus is co-sponsoring a bill along with Senator Tester (D-MT) called WE CHAR. Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration Act!
WashingtonWatch.com - S. 1713, The Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act of 2009

Biochar systems for Biofuels and soil carbon sequestration are so basically conservative in nature it is a shame that republicans have not seized it as a central environmental policy plank as the conservatives in Australia have; Carbon sequestration without Taxes.

Research:

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.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org...izing_Biochars

The Ozzie's for 5 years now in field studies
The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/featu...211-20142.html

Phosphorous Solution;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/nishio

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

UK Biochar Research Centre
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/sccs/biochar/

ICHAR, the Italian Biochar Association
http://www.ichar.org/

Field Trial Data Base; The new version of BiocharDB has been released! To see it, please visit http://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. http://www.carbonchar.com/plant-performance

USDA in their 2 nd year; "Novak, Jeff" <Jeff.Novak@ars.usda.gov>, & "david laird" <david.laird@ars.usda.gov>,
There are dozens soil researchers on the subject now at USDA-ARS.
and many studies at The ASA-CSSA-SSSA joint meeting;
http://a-c-s.confex.com/crops/2009am...ssion5675.html

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;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org...d-and-charcoal

My 09 field trials with the Rodale Institute & JMU ;
Alterna Biocarbon and Cowboy Charcoal Virginia field trials '09
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/node/1408


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.
http://www.biofuelsjournal.com/artic...har-90009.html





Reports:

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
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20....full.pdf+html

[Paul Wheaton]

My impression, to date, is that biochar is great stuff if you live in a tropical area. If you live in a colder climate, hugelkultur is better.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Shoveled out the fire pit again this weekend, got a good wheel barrow load of small charcoal lumps to dump in the garden. It's not too much work so I figure I might just keep doing it and see what happens...

[Toads tool]

I go out and rake up what's left after a good brush fire. Use what's available.
I like to let it get rained on a cleaned off real good before I collect it.
I get at least a five gallon bucket from each burn pit after each burn.

[ArmyDoc]

I decided to try making some bio-char myself. Here is my first barrel cooker:

Start with an oil drum... open it and wash it out. All mine opened easily...except one, which goes to show the phrase "there's one in every crowd" applies to more than just people. I got mine from a guy who makes bio-diesel for $10. He buys methanol in them, but doesn't have any real use for them after that.

Yes there's a tool for this, but I don't have one. Screw drivers did the trick.

Mark it for cutting. Grease pencil is ideal, but a crayon works fine, and is cheaper. I marked mine this way, where the end of the T-square hit. You could also get fancy and measure it... I'd say this is about 3 1/2 inches.

[ArmyDoc]

I did mention a grease pencil is ideal... Crayons brake when you step on them... on the other hand it only cost me a quarter for a box of them, so it's all good.


Use a dremmel to make a small opening. You could use a dremel to cut off the lid too, but a saws-all reciprocating saw works much faster. Use a 24 tooth per inch blade for cutting thin metal.

Makes you wonder how much Spaghetti O's one of these things would hold...

Next "carefully" mark it for vertical cuts to narrow the upper rim of the can... I just eye-balled it and cut them down to the top of the firs ridge...about 3 inches I'd say. I made 8 cuts - dividing the circle in half and half again... you could also take the diameter x 3.14 and divide by 8 and measure it.