Biochar profs
In what is a good piece of news, Jim Anderton has announced the establishment of two bio-char professorships at Massey Uni. Biochar is a kind of charcoal produced from biomass. The great thing about biochar is that it is a way to take carbon out of the atmosphere and put it into long term storage in the soil. In the process it improves the soil.
The two professorships will investigate the impact of biochar on soil, and looking into pyrolysis - the process for turning biomass into biochar in the absence of oxygen.
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December 18th, 2007 at 4:53 am
Finally that fing-bat has done something good, i guess someone on his staff read the latest “organic NZ” magazine. And even tho it was done by the south americans 2000 years ago its still works, and is still noticeable in the soil there aswell.
Still 2 people seems like a small prick compared to the entire farming population. still its a start i guess a VERY small one but what more can we expect from you slackers in wellington.
December 18th, 2007 at 10:52 am
But where does this lovely bio-char come from? Is it a processed by-product? Do you stick filters on a smoke stack and out comes bio-char? Or created in a lab or what?
December 19th, 2007 at 1:29 am
I assume it comes from the same place most charcoal comes from by starting a very hot burn of wood and then starving it of oxygen.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Stephen: one takes biomass, and chars it. Biomass is composed in part of Carbon from atmospheric CO2, which when charred appropriately can be ground and mixed with earth to both increase fertility and store carbon for extremely long periods.
What needs known is costs relative to added production to know how much of a hand it might need, if it’s worth giving a hand to in line with Kyoto and such, payoff time for farmers may be too long to do it alone. How it might work with national parks or forestry land could be interesting. Efficiency of the carbon capture needs determined, required land use for biomass production and ideal species for final stored CO2 ratios, embedding method costs and efficiencies, and so on.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Oh, and obviously if farmers could process waste biomass from crops and such into good bio-char with the help of mobile contractors it doesn’t even use up extra land, and may not even need much (or any) subsidy once the benefits are proven.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Ah righto thanks. Would depend how much energy it uses too, something of a case in point being the amount of fossil fuels needed to grow and harvest bio fuels.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:13 am
It takes Zero energy and no fossil fuels to make charcoal as it is simple half burnt plant/wood or is bio-char something different?