Biochar

[Clive]

But surely it's better to *not* burn the wood? Or is this more a way to divert a waste stream somewhere else?

doesn't have to be wood - can be waste material

from what I understand it pretty clean energy dues to the no C02 release plus you are locking Carbon away long term

better than planting trees really

 

[Clive]

It's rubbish.

Based on something from rainforest soils way back which do have a problem holding onto nutrients. Foolishly extrapolated above and beyond what it needs to be and it would be expensive.

Possibly at garden scale level it has a merit but even then there are more practical alternatives

i had a ba9 of it given me a few years ago - about 5kgs - I did a very unscientific experiment and grew 2 plants in pots, 1 with the biochar and one without, the difference was dramatic, like double the growth

unless its was big scale power stations though i don't know how you would get enough for filed scale use

it certainly seems to make sense form a locking away carbon in soil point of view

 

[BRB John]

i had a ba9 of it given me a few years ago - about 5kgs - I did a very unscientific experiment and grew 2 plants in pots, 1 with the biochar and one without, the difference was dramatic, like double the growth

unless its was big scale power stations though i don't know how you would get enough for filed scale use

it certainly seems to make sense form a locking away carbon in soil point of view

Has anyone done any field scale trails?
Would 5t/ha make any difference?
Ignoring the cost obivously.
I like the idea if only there was a large scale way of making charcoal....

 

[SilliamWhale]

i had a ba9 of it given me a few years ago - about 5kgs - I did a very unscientific experiment and grew 2 plants in pots, 1 with the biochar and one without, the difference was dramatic, like double the growth

unless its was big scale power stations though i don't know how you would get enough for filed scale use

it certainly seems to make sense form a locking away carbon in soil point of view

How do you know there wasn't a fertilizer value in the biochar?

 

[Clive]

How do you know there wasn't a fertilizer value in the biochar?

i don't - i did say it was unsceintific but with all else equal it did without doubt create significant difference

 

[HempInnovationsLtd]

in a simplified nutshell you burn wood (or waste organic matter ideally) in the absence of oxygen so no co2 is released - you take the heat energy from that to produce power and the biochar (crushed charcoal basically) is a valuable soil improver ( tera preta as used by Inca civilisation)

you are effective locking the carbon of the waste or wood away in the soil - kinda like coal mining in reverse !

the reason it improves soil is its coral like structure basically increasing soil surface area dramatically making it biologically much better

Thank you for a great summary of bio char. We will be working with the university of East Anglia to understand how hemp works as a substrate for this process.

Hemp sequesters around 22 tonnes of carbon per hectare, 84% of which is locked up permanently in the stalks and stems.

By modifying the biochar process slightly we believe we can get the excess methane out of the char before it is pelletised.

Once we have the trial data I will be sharing it on our website and social media platforms, and now one here it seems.

 

[baothewylde]

Has anyone done any field scale trails?
Would 5t/ha make any difference?
Ignoring the cost obivously.
I like the idea if only there was a large scale way of making charcoal....

Have you heard of ecotech projects? they bulk sell biochar about £300/tonne, might be worth looking into?

 

[BRB John]

Have you heard of ecotech projects? they bulk sell biochar about £300/tonne, might be worth looking into?

That might be worth it for maybe a garden situation but to do that on a farm scale would be astronomical.
Biochar would need to be £30 a ton for use outside of gardens and polytunnels.

 

[cquick]

Same sort of price with these guys - Anyone come across Onnu before?

Biochar for Agriculture

Biochar is a vital tool in modern agriculture, offering a multitude of benefits for soil enhancement and plant health. It improves soil structure, boosts water retention, and enhances nutrient availability, leading to stronger and healthier crop growth. Biochar's porous nature also aids in...

onnubiochar.com

It wouldn't work for broadacre use at this price but it might be interesting to put 50kg down the slot at drilling, or mix a few tonnes into a muck heap?

 

[PSQ]

Thank you for a great summary of bio char. We will be working with the university of East Anglia to understand how hemp works as a substrate for this process.

Hemp sequesters around 22 tonnes of carbon per hectare, 84% of which is locked up permanently in the stalks and stems.

By modifying the biochar process slightly we believe we can get the excess methane out of the char before it is pelletised.

Once we have the trial data I will be sharing it on our website and social media platforms, and now one here it seems.

Please keep us updated.

In the early 90's there was a farmer near here who grew 2 fields of low THC hemp under strict Home Office rules, and the biomass was off the scale, about 7 foot tall when I saw it and still growing at a hell of a daily rate. If it wasn't for its illicit history then hemp would be *the* go to green manure / carbon capture crop, nothing else comes remotely close. It's just a crying shame that a crop that could have a huge effect on carbon capture and soil OM levels, as well as pretty much replacing synthetic fibres, can't ever be used because of it's links to the drugs trade.

It would be very interesting to see how carbon capture from hemp compares to the current political 'sticking plaster on a gunshot wound' for carbon capture: planting trees.

 

[stroller]

Same sort of price with these guys - Anyone come across Onnu before?

Biochar for Agriculture

Biochar is a vital tool in modern agriculture, offering a multitude of benefits for soil enhancement and plant health. It improves soil structure, boosts water retention, and enhances nutrient availability, leading to stronger and healthier crop growth. Biochar's porous nature also aids in...

onnubiochar.com

It wouldn't work for broadacre use at this price but it might be interesting to put 50kg down the slot at drilling, or mix a few tonnes into a muck heap?

I made charcoal from hedge laying thinnings and added a loader bucket full on top of each muck spreader load

 

[cquick]

I made charcoal from hedge laying thinnings and added a loader bucket full on top of each muck spreader load

How did you keep the air out of the fire to make charcoal?

 

[stroller]

How did you keep the air out of the fire to make chatcoal?

Start a fire, let it get going well then put another grab full on, let that flame up like the picture then add more wood, this squashes it down and keeps the air out, keep going like that until you run out of wood then use lots of water to put the fire out.
It's not as efficient as a closed container and some of the bigger bits will not be completely charred, but it's easier and allows you to use a large volume of wood. The pile of charcoal in the picture was about half a 14t grain trailer full, the small twigs turn to dust and I just picked out the big stuff, I saved a couple of dumpy bags and have been using it on the woodburner mixed in with logs.

 

[Chris F]

Same sort of price with these guys - Anyone come across Onnu before?

Biochar for Agriculture

Biochar is a vital tool in modern agriculture, offering a multitude of benefits for soil enhancement and plant health. It improves soil structure, boosts water retention, and enhances nutrient availability, leading to stronger and healthier crop growth. Biochar's porous nature also aids in...

onnubiochar.com

It wouldn't work for broadacre use at this price but it might be interesting to put 50kg down the slot at drilling, or mix a few tonnes into a muck heap?

We covered a company called climate robotics in the first issue of tech farmer and they have a machine that creates biochar in field on the go (although I haven;t seen the machine myself). If won an innovation award. It's the first solution I have seen that gets the scale required.

Biochar venture wins equity investment funding

Climate Robotics has brought biochar production and use into focus, winning the AgSharks Pitch Competition in the US. The first stage of any innovation in farming involves getting your projects fun…

directdriller.com

Follow up interview in the next issue coming out in May.

 

[Chris F]

How do you know there wasn't a fertilizer value in the biochar?

This is worth reading in terms of a 3 years trial and how the biochar was evaluated. Albeit in soils in china:

Frontiers | Different Responses of Soil Bacterial and Fungal Communities to 3 Years of Biochar Amendment in an Alkaline Soybean Soil

Biochar as a soil amendment has been regarded as a promising way to improve soil fertility. However, the response of microbial community after biochar and bi...

www.frontiersin.org