Biochar Plants in the UK

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Seemingly doesn’t matter what is burnt. Straw is a good option.

In terms of the rate, no one knows. That why it needs to be trialled.

Think your talking two different properties here. I use my wood ash from my wood burning stove as a fertilizer which gives an instant hit to plant growth whereas I think the idea of biochar is more to use its cell structure over a longer term period. I suppose I really need to do some trials but I am normally stacked out with wood ash so have not bothered.
 
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Fowler VF

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Our biochar is a co-product of gasification of virgin wood chip. The chip is "cooked" in a reactor vessel with a limited amount of air, gas comes off as Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen and leaves behind a small amount of carbon as the biochar. Typically we would see around 2 to 3% of weight of the incoming wood ending up as char. We could produce a lot more char by adjusting the process times and the gas production, but for us the gas is the main focus. We use the gas to run engines for electricity production. The char comes off as a fine powder/ granule, think of agricultural lime, only filthy black. The char will still burn, its carbon, so we have on times used it as a fuel in biomass boilers. As has been stated, the particle size isn't important, its the massive surface area on a micro scale that is its key. In soil it provides a huge surface area for bacteria etc to shelter in and work from and also gives micro pores for adsorption of nutrients. Zeolites have similar properties, in another life I did trial work on adding zeolites to composts and chicken manure to improve nitrogen retention. Zeolites are a volcanic rock formation, and have a long history in agriculture. The Romans used to mine it and apply it to farm land, no-one really knew what it did but they seemed to gain extra production from land that has it applied.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Definetly not true when your primary outcome is to generate electric. In my process the original torrefication process produces gas which is use in an efficient gas engine to generate electric the waste heat from that engine heats the thermal oil. The torrefied wood is made into charcoal slurry with water and oil seed rape oil then used in a modified efficient diesel engine to generate electric the waste heat from the engine heating the thermal oil. The thermal oil runs the plate dryer with excess capacity put through a thermal oil steam evaporator to produce electric energy from conventionl steam generators. The waste steam is then used to produce more electric from a heat recovery steam generator.
Our biochar is a co-product of gasification of virgin wood chip. The chip is "cooked" in a reactor vessel with a limited amount of air, gas comes off as Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen and leaves behind a small amount of carbon as the biochar. Typically we would see around 2 to 3% of weight of the incoming wood ending up as char. We could produce a lot more char by adjusting the process times and the gas production, but for us the gas is the main focus. We use the gas to run engines for electricity production. The char comes off as a fine powder/ granule, think of agricultural lime, only filthy black. The char will still burn, its carbon, so we have on times used it as a fuel in biomass boilers. As has been stated, the particle size isn't important, its the massive surface area on a micro scale that is its key. In soil it provides a huge surface area for bacteria etc to shelter in and work from and also gives micro pores for adsorption of nutrients. Zeolites have similar properties, in another life I did trial work on adding zeolites to composts and chicken manure to improve nitrogen retention. Zeolites are a volcanic rock formation, and have a long history in agriculture. The Romans used to mine it and apply it to farm land, no-one really knew what it did but they seemed to gain extra production from land that has it applied.

Well, bugger me :)
Thanks for the explanation, totally out of my line of work - whatever that is :LOL:
You'll hate me for wasting all that good gas :oops: burns off so cleanly, the only think I can think to equate it to is the clean pipe on our lorries, burns orange.
Must say it chews out the lid of a 44g drum fairly quickly. :whistle:

That's enough from me, but I thank you
 

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
You don't need much, the surface area of a kg of biochar is immense. Hence why it is such a great (stable, safe) habitat for soil life.
I just feed it to the cattle, for what that's worth, they colonise / activate it with their own rumen biota and then it goes straight out the back. 80% of it will be in the compost, as it's a logistical issue getting them to eat it at grazing without feeders etc - I just put it on their silage when housed, easy peasy.
Pete how much do you give to the cattle? Does it have to be ground up for them?
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Pete how much do you give to the cattle? Does it have to be ground up for them?
Just a bit, maybe a handful each, not every day. They seem to actively sort through their silage to get it.

Interestingly enough, kinda related; where my wife is rearing calves this season (neighbour's dairy) they will give scouring calves a bit of coaldust, which sorts them out overnight! Never would have thought it.
 

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
Just a bit, maybe a handful each, not every day. They seem to actively sort through their silage to get it.

Interestingly enough, kinda related; where my wife is rearing calves this season (neighbour's dairy) they will give scouring calves a bit of coaldust, which sorts them out overnight! Never would have thought it.
I have heard of that. I'm looking to build a pit to make some biochar out of the branches I collect from around the farm this year. It was to go into compost but maybe better fed through the cattle and added to the compost that way.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have heard of that. I'm looking to build a pit to make some biochar out of the branches I collect from around the farm this year. It was to go into compost but maybe better fed through the cattle and added to the compost that way.
That's what I figured, too.
You do see the odd wee speck of it in their poo, if you look, so it is getting in there.

It's a lot more stable, 'as a Carbon', because it cannot really decompose further than it is in soil - like the 3rd little pig's house of brick, as far as microbe habitat goes.
 

n.w

Member
Location
western isles
Thanks for posting (y) I have a few acres of croft and grow about a hectare of SRC willow originally as windbreaks etc, would this be ok to make Biochar and would biochar be suitable for thin Machair soil over sand, I intended to use the larger size to make charcoal this year. [My croft is in two parts, black silty soil and sandy Machair].... cheers
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Thanks for posting (y) I have a few acres of croft and grow about a hectare of SRC willow originally as windbreaks etc, would this be ok to make Biochar and would biochar be suitable for thin Machair soil over sand, I intended to use the larger size to make charcoal this year. [My croft is in two parts, black silty soil and sandy Machair].... cheers

Would not really go to the bother of biochar. Have had very good results with decomposed woodchip in tonne bags left in the open for two years then incorporated as a soil conditioner. For instant fertilizer I use wood ash saved from the wood stoves in winter and used as a top dressing.
 

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