Making (and understanding) Biochar

[RMorgan]

Posted by nomadguy (here)
[
Why are wildfires attracted to that area?

Well, usually, this land is about 700 to 1200 meters above see level, and is very rich in iron ore, which may contribute to attract lightning strikes.

It´s also a very dry region during most part of the year, which contributes to spread wild fires.

Raf.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

It´s also a very dry region during most part of the year, which contributes to spread wild fires.

And burn slowly underground in an oxygen deprived environment, hence terra preta, thats very fertile mud.

[blufire]

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)

Posted by blufire (here)
... my first question .. would be . . . .are you aware of the fact that companies like Monsanto are behind this technology and the reason(s) why?

A second question would be . . . . why is it nowhere discussed (clearly) in the websites and information provided by especially Biochar International where all this biomass is coming from to create these millions of tons of Biochar for the creation of (especially) third world countries ‘topsoil’ to attempt to grow food in? Why is not clearly stated specifically what ‘material’ is going to be put into these special high tech specialized ‘burners’ to create this ‘carbon charcoal’?

Hi blufire,

What, in your understanding, is the answer to these questions?

Dennis

Get the 'Picture' . . . . .

[Dennis Leahy]

Posted by blufire (here)

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)

Posted by blufire (here)
... my first question .. would be . . . .are you aware of the fact that companies like Monsanto are behind this technology and the reason(s) why?

A second question would be . . . . why is it nowhere discussed (clearly) in the websites and information provided by especially Biochar International where all this biomass is coming from to create these millions of tons of Biochar for the creation of (especially) third world countries ‘topsoil’ to attempt to grow food in? Why is not clearly stated specifically what ‘material’ is going to be put into these special high tech specialized ‘burners’ to create this ‘carbon charcoal’?

Hi blufire,

What, in your understanding, is the answer to these questions?

Dennis

Get the 'Picture' . . . . .

hahaha well, yes maam, I do!

Interestingly, this is exactly what BioRootEnergy.com is proposing as the front end hydrocarbon "biomass" to make a patented formulation of up to 10 kinds of alcohol they call, generically, "higher mixed alcohol fuel", and the patent holder calls "Envirolene."

They can take in sewer sludge, trash including plastics, methane (like the 100 foot tall 'candles' burning 7/24/365 over places like Montana that have no pipeline and so just burn it to get rid of it), wood or agricultural "waste", or coal... and output "clean burning mixed alcohol." And, they told me that what is left over after the gasification is more like glass than charcoal.

So, now I'm wondering just exactly what comes out of the Monsanto units. Is it really biochar (and who has defined what biochar is and is not) or is it more like porous carbon-glass? Are there heavy metals in it? Other nasty stuff like medicine residue? Or does the processing make a sterile substance that has no leachable heavy metals or radiological elements?



And..... (sort of an aside)

...I suspect that you are not really neutral on Monsanto. It is (as Spock would have said), "Illogical." If you were in a concentration camp, and thirsty, and a compassionate guard gave you a glass of clean water, that wouldn't make you neutral on concentration camps, right?

I'm also wondering where you got the idea that Monsanto's GMO seeds were something special. Their GMO drought-resistant cotton seeds failed so miserably in India that dozens of Indian farmers committed suicide. From what I have read, the only "success" with GMO is the ability to spray Roundup/glyphosate directly on fields, and kill weeds. Their seeds have not and will not contribute to saving the starving masses. In fact, the opposite is true, and you are a superb example of it: saving open-pollinated seeds from plants that have survived natural but harsh conditions, your personal seed bank typifies exactly what humanity needs to prepare for weather extremes.

Other than what has been written by Monsanto themselves - self-promoting, and even lying in promotional material - I have seen nothing suggesting, even grudgingly, that Monsanto's seeds were superior in nutrition or drought resistance. Resistance to a poison made by the same company is hardly an attribute, so I challenge the notion that Monsanto has done anyone any favors, has experimented with and has created seeds that have proven to be better than organic (or hybrid seeds, or even non-GMO conventional-hybrid seeds.)

I think you have a heart as big as Alaska (I was going to try for a colloquial local analogy, but Dolly Parton's hair didn't seem big enough), and your heart is so big there is room for Monsanto. Bless you for your love and tolerance. But that doesn't make them good guys. :~)

Dennis

[Erich]

[QUOTE=Delight;641935]

Posted by blufire (here)

I do not nor will I ever use gmo seeds or farming techniques promoted by corporations like Monsanto . . . nor do I eat food that is genetically modified.

Monsanto is not ‘taking’ Biochar technology . . . . Monsanto created the technology. Obviously they did not create the ‘technique’ of burning general land and natural biomass produced on a working homestead because this common practice dates back thousands of years. But, Monsanto certainly did create and is manufacturing the complex technology and equipment to burn the ‘material’ that this technology will and is being used to ‘burn’ and turn into carbon charcoal.

No, I will not use GMO either and I would like to see Monsanto as a goad and that people will start to value what I value (because I am self interested). So far I find that I am able to access organic, Non GMO food.

Doug Beitler who is one small voice in agriculture technology has reported that when farmers realize that biochar+effective microbes+ ORMUS (his focus of combinations) make light work, they will have to find new ways to spend their time.

Doug Beitler also contends that seeds may be remediated in ideal soil conditions (including inclusion of biochar as home to water nutrients and microbes)...He insists that even GMO seeds may heal their genetic "defects" and become the ideal pattern of the particulart plant. Interesting ideas.....

Here is a report on using this combination in the Dubai dessert with salt reducing microbes
http://www.fractalfield.com/bloomthedesert/

A couple of pictures of desert plants they supported in a project in Dubai
cauliflower


eggplant





Wouldn't that be amazing, easy cultivation of sturdy, weather change enduring ( extremes of heat and cold and wet and dry) plants. This is due to being sited in the conditions of thriving!

I think you Blufire live in the Appalachian region too but farther north. You may have heard the program "Mayans in America". The researcher who discovered a city site in North Georgia very akin to Mayan town layouts is Richard Thornton. He is a proponent of the indigenous techniques that were brought to North Georgia.terracing and biochar help to grow crops in mountain conditions.

Here is a link to an article based on his experimentation near me.

A technique for dramatically increasing the fertility of soil that was developed by the indigenous peoples of the Upper Amazon Basin and the Itza Mayas of southern Mexico enables members of the cabbage family to thrive in frigid wintertime conditions. Plants in the cabbage family were probably not grown by Native American farmers until after the arrival of Europeans. Substantial evidence of biochar agriculture in the terraces at Track Rock Gap, Georgia was one of the strongest links to the former presence of Itza Maya farmers and possibly, also South Americans.

The opening scenes of the premier of the History Channel’s “America Unearthed” provided viewers glimpses of an agricultural experiment that is mimicking the growing conditions of the Track Rock Gap terraces. Both the Track Rock Terraces and the experimental garden face the southwest, which exposes them to the hottest growing conditions in the afternoon. Normally, this orientation is undesirable in the Sunbelt. The location’s suitability for agricultural is worsened by the shade of a 4,700 feet (1432 m) mountain immediately to the east blocks the morning sun.

http://www.examiner.com/article/bioc...race-structure

Eggplants grown in completely natural soil in normal environments don't really look like that.

[Delight]

Posted by Erich (here)

Eggplants grown in completely natural soil in normal environments don't really look like that.

No, that is true.... they were grown with biochar+ microbes+ORMUS (sea mineral proess). Maggie

[blufire]

First I want to make sure that it is understood this post has ONLY to do with industrialized Biochar production. I am in no way addressing carbon charcoal that small scale gardeners and farmers utilize and the process indigenous peoples through the centuries used . . . . . these are two completely different topics.

I need to try to impress that when researching issues like Biochar, Gmo’s and Monsanto’s involvement I truly do come from as pragmatic and logical place as I possibly can. I take it down and as deep as I can to try to form a true workable reason why these massive global companies are doing what they do.

With Biochar I asked myself the following questions:

(1) Why are Monsanto and sister companies spending billions of dollars on this new very complex and expensive technology?

Just like gmo seeds/food technology, companies as Monsanto foresaw a global problem that has the very real possibility of further destruction to the planet and this part is two fold . . . . billions of tons of trash and sewage and secondly the very real need for as much farmable land as possible for the growing world population.

Biochar technology is on its way to possibly solving both of these very real global problems. By turning these billions and billions of tons of trash and sewage into even moderately productive farmland, more food can be grown and they rid the planet of disease and environmentally causing garbage and sewage.

(2) Why does it take such highly technical, expensive and complex process to manufacture something as simple as ‘carbon charcoal’?

Simple . . . because Biochar manufacturing plants are ‘burning’ highly poisonous, dangerous and corrosive biomass product . . . plastic, rubber, fiberglass, extreme bio hazards etc. . . .just think of what are in the landfills and trash around the world. It takes this very expensive scientific technology to take this biomass and convert it into even fairly productive ‘soil’.

(3) Why are they ‘spin doctoring’ into the realm of green sustainable technology.

Because it is. They are taking a major destructive world problem (trash and raw sewage) and turning into something that at least will begin to moderately lessen this destruction and provides a solution of the need for more soil for food production. Monsanto is being responsible in creating technology that will not add to the pollution globally and instead is getting rid of pollution as the biomass is processed into Biochar.

I also think they ‘spin’ it because investors are much more willing to get onto the bandwagon of this new and very lucrative fad of ‘green and sustainability’

I have deep gut feeling that Erich J Knightis not aware of Monsanto and subsidiaries are this involved or he is afraid to admit it.

Also, I noticed Cjay updated his thread on his project that also includes Biochar and even though in that thread I challenged him about his knowledge of Monsanto being involved in the very technology he is promoting he completely and blindly stepped around it. He stated in his post on that thread today that he has investors for this muti-million dollar project . . . . I wonder just who is at the root of this investment company backing his project?

(4) Where are they acquiring literally billions and billions of tons of biomass to create Biochar?

Even though I addressed this earlier . . . . I want to be perfectly clear . . .the ‘biomass’ that is being generated to be processed in the Biochar Manufacturing Plants is billions of tons of garbage and raw sewage that humans create everyday. This technology will rid the planet of this very real and overwhelming destructive problem.

Although I do not want to discuss gmo seeds and food right now, I will say this. Part of the reason behind the ongoing scientific research with genetically altering seeds and plants is to be able to adapt these seeds and plants to ‘soil’ that is not truly ‘soil’ as in Biochar carbon charcoal.

This is not a matter of good guys –vs- bad guys any longer because I can no longer determine nor do I think it is beneficial in deciphering and analyzing what is happening around us at a ever increasing rate to limit ourselves with illogical emotion and what we have been 'told'. . . . .

Just a thought from a half-crazy woman deep in the Appalachian Hollows.

[Eram]

Thank you for your research on this blufire.


so.......... all the trash and sewage in the world will be converted into something.... that will be put in the ground that we grow our food on.
And the company that is making this all possible is the same company that overwhelmed the planet with GMO and Roundup?

woops!

I think I will have to draw the extremely leary card on that one.




Can you recommend some websites or other material to read up on this?




edit to ad

What happens with this stuff when it has been in the soil for about 10-20 years?


and


Interestingly, the carbon atom (of which charcol exists of) has 6 electrons, 6 neutrons and 6 protons....... 666
coincidence?

I hope I'm not fear mongering, but I have rather strong emotions when it comes to a company like Monsanto.

[Delight]

Posted by blufire (here)
Because it is. They are taking a major destructive world problem (trash and raw sewage) and turning into something that at least will begin to moderately lessen this destruction and provides a solution of the need for more soil for food production. Monsanto is being responsible in creating technology that will not add to the pollution globally and instead is getting rid of pollution as the biomass is processed into Biochar.

This post is just slightly off the subject but addresses a process that can make an end product that is touted to use the mountains of trash and waste including the waste from industrial poultry.... hydrous pyrolysis.

Here is a quote from Ericj I happened upon when writing this post

Modern Pyrolysis of biomass is a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration, Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.

http://greenupgrader.com/5018/sinkin...-with-biochar/

Has anyone else here been interested and knowledgeable about thermal depolymerization? It changes organic materials and plastic waste back into oil. An end product is inert and could be considered to produce a kind of biochar.

Apparently this process neutralizes toxins as it breaks down material including any plastics and returns it to the original compounds (sort of like a speeded process that Gaia uses to create oil in the first place). So, once the oil is re-"produced" it then becomes raw material for further synthesis of materials. If so, then any plastic can be recycled endlessly and any and all human, animal and other "waste" a source of oil.

In Georgia US where I live, chicken plants are in abundance. Then there is the question of all the landfills of mixed (unrecycled) trash. Then I thought about the mass of plastic sitting in the doldrums in the Pacific. It just sounds so GREAT to consider transforming all of this to oil!

The only plant Changing World Technologies in Carthage Missouri was still operational in 2012. Per the Carthage Press the company hoped in 2012 to be able to address odors still emanating from the Renewable Environmental Solutions plant, which started using new sources of material other than turkey offal to make fuel oil. I read that the plant's smell was a real problem for residents in the area.

The first article is a drastically dystopic presentation of pontential "misuse" (how people could all become fodder for fuel). I am including it not because I believe it is possible but because I consider an article like this to dissuade through extreme prejudice. It is the kind of big scare to stop us who entertain archontic influences from supporting a possibly beautiful endeavor. The rest are science FYI..... Maggie

http://www.oilempire.us/soylent.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization

http://www.thermaldepolymerization.org/

http://age-web.age.uiuc.edu/bee/RESE.../tccpaper3.htm


Ezine article

In the 1980s Illinois microbiologist Paul Baskis improved the process called hydrous pyrolysis to beyond the break-even point for converting waste products into oil. By the break-even point I mean the point where the cost of production equals the profit. This is the point when the process known as thermal depolymerization or TDP became a commercially viable process.

In 2001 Brian S. Appel of Changing World Technologies took the theory of thermal depolymerization and turned it into a business reality. His company set up the first plant using the new technology to make crude oil from turkey offal. The plant was so successful it managed to produce oil at 10% cheaper than the market price. Approximately 20% of the offal produced energy was required to power the plant. This was an amazing moment. Suddenly the future looked different for the world. Waste disposal is a huge problem facing mankind. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimated that in 2006 there was 251 million tons of municipal waste in the USA. Much of this goes into landfills. Much of this waste is plastic and doesn't biodegrade. A big problem is accidental fires in landfill sites which release lots of toxic gases into the atmosphere.

One of the biggest problems for effective waste disposable and recycling is plastic; and in particular plastics containing PVC or poly vinyl chloride. The chlorine in the plastic makes it very carcinogenic because of dioxin emission when the PVC is burnt. PVC is safe as uPVC windows and plastic credit cards and records and thousands of other consumer products but it is difficult to safely dispose of or recycle. That is until recently.

With thermal depolymerization the situation changes. Now it is feasible to take old vinyl siding from houses and subject it to intense heat and pressure to break it down into long organic compounds that in turn can be converted to oil. This means that where once plastic was considered a bad and environmentally unfriendly product it can now be considered as a valuable resource, as a source of energy. Considering the amount of waste modern societies produce thermal depolymerization could make lots of cities and other urban areas self-sufficient in energy terms.

Previously it was felt that we should abandon using plastics. Plastic is made from petroleum and was believed to be a wonder material in the 1950s because it was cheap, durable and versatile. uPVC or unplasticised Poly Vinyl Chloride was particularly popular because it withstood the corroding power of hot and wet weather much better than timber. As a result it was mass produced for uPVC or vinyl window frames and as siding for houses all over the United States. It is an ideal material for building because it doesn't expand or shrink and because it is low maintenance and easy to wash.

60 years on world leaders were beginning to despair at what could be done to safely recycle uPVC. The answer is now at hand. Turn it into oil. What was once a problem is now part of the solution thanks to World Changing Technologies and Paul Baskis.

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Th...ld?&id=4217384

[Dennis Leahy]

Making crude oil from plastic=good

Making water-soluble, clean-burning, 138 octane, "Higher Mixed Alcohol Fuel" from plastic=great

(in my opinion)

Yeah, it's off topic from biochar, and hope we can steer this thread back to biochar, but as I have mentioned before, this new process is just waiting for the financial backing to build the first processing plant (maybe $10M.) I'd love to see a city like New York, that is taking barges of garbage out into the ocean and dumping them (which should be a criminal offense, but all the jail cells are filled with whistleblowers and pot smokers), start up one of thees plants.

Input: trash, sewage (wouldn't even have to be high-quality plant-based biomass that has the potential to become compost or biochar.)

Output: fuel to run the entire fleet of vehicles owned by New York City.

And now, back to biochar...

Dennis

[Erichj]

Hi all,

Let me try to encapsulate all your questions.
Seven years ago I was doing online research concerning development of nano structured materials for alternative energy, thermal electric conversion, PV, flywheels, my basic modus operandi Was to consult the group mind on many science forums and the list serves, contact the CEOs of these killer applications concerning problems with the technologies. I made much goodwill on both sides and gained quite an education. I had read "1491" but missed the three pages that Charles Mann spoke about the Terra Preta soils of the Amazon. Then on a soil science forum ; http://scienceforums.com/forum/58-terra-preta/ All of the threads my life came together in one spot, Thermal conversion technologies, that wedded a 32 year ornamental gardening career, working with farmers to get them the compost their manures, added to my interest in strawbale construction and alternative energy, and the Biochar blinders have been on ever since.

I set my Google alert filters on all the key terms, Biochar being a newly coined term for charcoal intended for the soil assured that my Google ears pick up about everything, along with "agricultural charcoal", "Bio-char" "Plant Coal", to catch the German research, "black carbon", "Pyrolytic Carbon". Over the years my search results started one or two a day now 10-20, Mostly elementary, but I go through them all for relevance to my readers on the dedicated Biochar science forums and list serves.

My networking of companies, industries, academics, governmental departments across the globe and my absolute insistence on open source networking, since there is no such thing as competition until there is a market, collaboration and validation are the orders of the day.

"The Biochar company" funded my field studies in 2009 with the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, for three years they supplied a stipend for me to be verbose and bombastic on the Internet. When they made this offer I told them whether they paid me or not, would not affect my behavior at all, that I would still send them what I thought would grow their business as I do every other Biochar NGO company etc. etc.

Now I am basically an Internet panhandler, my PayPal account set up, and this last year just a single guilt evoking e-mail soliciting my readers provided funding for me to make my presentation at the 2012 USBI Biochar conference in Sonoma California. I have also helped plan all previous conferences and was the opening speaker at Iowa State in 2010 and a moderator at the University of Colorado in 2009, in 2011 I got to give my Biochar song and dance directly to Sec. Lisa Jackson and her counterparts from Mexico and Canada at the commission for environmental cooperation in Montréal.

This Odyssey for a mom-and-pop ornamental gardener/eclectic science nerd has been overwhelming at times. Carbon as the center of life touches every aspect, every profession, no matter what you do, at what scale you do it, I can find a technology, application that will serve you. Go to the international Biochar Initiative webpage and look at all the grass roots organizations, all the Governmental Biochar initiative's across the globe, tens of thousands of farmers be trained in Africa and India, coffee cooperatives in Central America, cacao farmers, On and on.

We need all Agricultural Hands on deck, all acres under management, for soil to be a global Climate solution, show them the data & their hearts, Minds & Wallets will follow! Soil is the bank everything else dividend, if soil carbon is the rule, wise land management, Holistic grazing , Afforestation and Biochar soil technology will be the game.
Yes I have taken this to Monsanto, got a nice hearing from their new director of "biologic control division" and their integrated farming director, however they said at this time Biochar does not fit with their plans.
I've taken this DuPont with much better affect they started a Mercury remediation program in the Shenandoah River at Waynesboro Virginia, the bio assays over the last two years from the simple in situ Biochar application has progressively bound the methyl species of Mercury from rising in the food chain, starting on the lab
bench full mixing of the sediments @ 95%, the bio assays for the last two years in the test pond show today a 65% reduction in Mercury traveling up the food chain.They plan to expand this pilot study to the forest and fields of this old Rayon plant and eventually to the river sediments. If they take this the full-scale, given the results so far, my kids could be eating the fish from the Shenandoah River in 10 years.

I have been briefing Michael Pollan for 5 1/2 years, just turned me down the be the keynote speaker at University of Massachusetts, but finely assured me that he would be writing about Biochar next book. I've gotten to speak with Dr. EO Wilson at Harvard the father associate of biology, I've gotten unsolicited thank you e-mails from Dr. Rattan Lal at Ohio State, the most cited soil sciences in the world. All my scientific heroes I actually get to engage with.

The post that I first put on Avalon is actually and updating briefing that I sent to secretaries Vilsack & Jackson last month with a host of department of energy, USDA, NOAA, USGS, NASA, EPA and department of climate at DOD. I just got a real paper thank you letter from the Sec. Vilsack.

These are the things that are my true remuneration's.

Your CharOracle,
Biochar Britannia & Hi Priest of Terra Preta,

Erich

Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd. McGaheysville, VA. 22840
540-289-9750

Policy & Community Committee Chair,
2013 North American Biochar Symposium
http://pvbiochar.org/2013-symposium/

Opening Speaker for the 2012 USBI Biochar Conference;
2012 US Biochar Conference | Building Soil - Redirecting Carbon
http://2012.biochar.us.com/299/2012-...-presentations

Chairman; Markets and Business Committee
2010 US Biochar Conference, at Iowa State University
http://www-archive.biorenew.iastate....-overview.html

All my Headline Char News can be reviewed at;
http://groups.google.com/group/se-biochar

PS
The rosiest of rosy scenarios, Wee-Beastie real estate at bargain prices;
If CoolPlanet Biofuels processed the entire 2012 biomass harvest in the US, 1.6 Billion Tons, the yields would be;
120 Billion Gallons of tank ready fuel , The US uses 150 Billion gallons per year

0.3 Billion Tons of Biochar
The big numbers are jaw dropping,
That 0.3 Billion Tons of Biochar, with a surface area of 400 m2/gram means; One Ton has a surface area of 98,000 Acres!
Now for conversion fun: 98,000 Acres is equal to 152 square miles!! ....

So; 300 Million Tons of Biochar equals 45 Billion Square Miles, or 230 times the entire surface of the earth!

[Bo Atkinson]

I suppose i could seek my answers within you links Erichj and i expect other links on this thread.

World industries do need a triage treatment, to help fix our collapsing planet. Bio char solutions may ad some hope, but the income to investment balancing still puzzles me.... If a planet wanted civilization based on harmony, carbon would find better applications to begin with. Things like "cradle to grave" planning would never create the carbon messes, in the first place. Correctional-industries would not hold back the more creative paradigms of civilization.

That is the way i see nature's better cycles. The bio-carbon cycle nicely swirls with the bio-nitrogen cycle and the rain cycles. Instead of getting hopelessly mashed up into the more expensive reprocessing industries.

I've been interested in the whistle blowing of Avalon, to help assess the world planner agendas on our planet. Why is the carbon cycle, for example, so totally screwed up and weird? If profits are to be made, in bio char, how will the mess-makers be kept out?

[biocharproject]

Hello Folks I would like to say this thread has stretched my reading capacity 10 fold for that I thank you all.
I have been involved with Biochar since 2009 where a gift brother started the passion in my heart with a impromptu and seriously humorous rendition of how to make biochar. (He made everyone in the crowd eat biochar).

Since then I have spent a good deal of my waking time trying to see where I fit in the big picture.

I have taken the position that directly opposes the status quo in life as most of us know it. I am grass roots biochar with a focus on bringing the peoples technology out into the open free of charge. I call it manifesting abundance and it works for me.

Some things that scientists / consumers can not see or can not use get very little attention. Where these things are absolutely essential to the big picture.

Just from what I have read in this thread I can see the old programing being pulled out into the open. The Us and Them scenario.
We are all one and to even consider this fact is a note we are on the right track. However dualism is what we ordered and so this is the game we must play. I want to say I play my game for 110% enjoyment with the added physical bonus of the feeling I have a lifes purpose.

Like ErichJ above stated his rewards are more than just status quo. I have supported ErichJ to reach his goals and he has returned the favor many times. He is one of 5 people in Biochar that I deal with that indeed have Integrity. I must apologize to the thousands of people I have dealt with in biochar who might read the truth here. But remember what you first thought of me and allow that to ease your feelings of hurt.

Its just a game.

Now onto the Rant... Biochar + Awareness + humor + Integrity I believe will equal everything we all dream of (Eternal life for all).
Some of us can reason in logic some of us reason on feelings some of us if not most walk around in a self inflicted stupor.

The truth is Mankind has a powerful unlimited Biological computer that can figure out anything. So far it has failed because we only feed it half truths and misinformation. I ask each and everyone to consider this and the big picture when trying to compete in their chosen game.

The industrialized concept of biochar for a profit will never achieve the goal of all it will surely hamper efforts to help our planet because of the ego of greed. I lead a project to allow every man woman and child to get hands on with biochar and if they so feel inclined to help repair the planet or repair themselves together.

Biochar is mankind's offering and Biological activity in all its forms is natures offering however this still does not make Terra Pretta (The amazing fertile soil of the Amazon) Indeed we need a last variable that can only be given to us by Doctor Who.

TIME.

I would like to honor everyone at every stage of this current biochar discussion. For without your input we can not move forward.

Regards

Charmaster Dolph Cooke
Grass roots Biochar advocate
Kunghur Australia.

[Erichj]

The Char Master from OZ is a prime example of the grass roots movement, of community supported agriculture, getting everyone involved, building networks and spreading Biochar of, by and for the people. As my other heroes, a vast group of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), now in collaboration with the United Nation's Global Clean Stove Initiative. Last year Sec. Clinton joined this effort bringing in the Center for Disease Control, Department of Energy biomass division, USDA and many others. The goal; 100 million clean stoves across the globe replacing "three rocks &^ A Pot". The cascading health benefits have been equated to the total eradication of malaria and AIDS combined.

Dr. Stephen Joseph, who developed one of the very first pyrolytic reactor companies in Australia, (was Best Energy, now called PacPyro) is an examplar EWB, over the years developing stoves in Ethiopia, and this new work in Southeast Asia looks like an example of how, properly introduced and incentivize, understanding and co-opting the strengths of the local culture, self-perpetuating virtuous cycles can generate exponential growth as people look over the fence and say "wow, I could do that".

North Vietnam Villagers Develop Strategies to Help Combat Global Warming and Improve Household Health; Results of First 18 months Of Village BiocharProgram

Dr. Stephen Joseph's work in Vietnam establishing clean cook stove production of Biochar with some 450 stoves being manufactured as of this report. Generally reporting yield increases of 20 and 30% in random replicated plot trials.
Four out of 5 households had started composting animal manure with the stove biochar using the new
technique introduced by the Soils and Fertilizers Research Institute (SFRI) .
All households were adding the rice husk biochar produced by the stoves in the animal pens.
All households reported complete removal of odors and reduction in moisture content of the manure.
All households had increased the use of biochar in their gardens and reported improvements in quality and yield. Four of the households had already trialed the biochar compost made with biochar in the home gardens and field and reported significant improvements in yields. One woman reported that she had reduced her use of chemical fertilizer by 50%.
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2243805...char_final.pdf

[Erichj]

Chinatown Roulette: Bamboo Charcoal Peanuts
"When you go to Chinatown, you're morally obligated to buy strange and unfamiliar goods, then decipher (and eat) them back home. It's Chinatown Roulette!"
http://brooklynbrainery.com/blog/chi...arcoal-peanuts

Other Livestock like Charcoal too;

90% of the biochar produced in Europe is used in livestock farming. Whether mixed with feed, added to litter or used in the treatment of slurry, the positive effect of biochar very quickly becomes apparent. The health – and consequently the well-being – of the livestock improve within just a short space of time. As regards nasty smells and nutrient losses, the use of biochar could even herald a new age of livestock farming, closing agricultural cycles of organic matter.

Biochar – a key technology for the planet
http://www.ithaka-journal.net/pflanz...slaufe?lang=en

[Delight]

Posted by Erichj (here)
[B][SIZE="3"]
90% of the biochar produced in Europe is used in livestock farming. Whether mixed with feed, added to litter or used in the treatment of slurry, the positive effect of biochar very quickly becomes apparent. The health – and consequently the well-being – of the livestock improve within just a short space of time. As regards nasty smells and nutrient losses, the use of biochar could even herald a new age of livestock farming, closing agricultural cycles of organic matter.

Biochar – a key technology for the planet
http://www.ithaka-journal.net/pflanz...slaufe?lang=en

One of the questions that I have been asked when trying to share information about biochar is "Is biochar activated charcoal?"

You already may know how activated charcoal and biochar are quite different? Until I looked it up, I did not, so thought I'd share this info......

"Activated charcoal is basically biochar that has been activated, by submitting it to exposure to steam or some chemicals. The additional process increases charcoals' ability to absorb AND adsorb. This oxidative process erodes the charcoals internal surfaces and increases its adsorption capacity by creating an internal network of very fine pores."

http://www.vrp.com/digestive-health/...and-detoxifier

"Food grade activated charcoal is usually made by heating wood or nutshells to an extremely high temperatures and/or oxidizing by exposing the raw material to steam or air. This process makes the carbon extremely porous. So porous, that one gram of activated charcoal can have a surface area equal to two tennis courts! There are other ways to make activated charcoal using chemicals so be sure to buy only "food grade" charcoal."

Read more: http://www.healing-from-home-remedie...#ixzz2MbFwKNlb

"Activated Charcoal is one of the finest absorptive and adsorptive agents known (it is even mentioned in Webster’s Dictionary under the definition of the words absorb and adsorb). Orally administered, these odorless and tasteless fine black granules have an amazing ability to extract and neutralize thousands of times their own weight in gases, heavy metals, toxins, poisons and other chemicals. Activated Charcoal is known as an agent for cleansing and assisting the healing process of the body, and orally administered activated charcoal has proven to be very effective in preventing many intestinal infections."

http://www.enzymestuff.com/activatedcharcoal.htm

"ABsorb means a process by which a substance is taken into another substance. Absorb is also a condition where the atoms, molecules and ions enter a solid, gas or liquid material. Absorb is also a process in which the energy of a photon is taken into by another entity.

ADsorb can be termed as a process by which the liquid or gas is not absorbed but it only forms on the surface. Absorb is related to volume whereas adsorb is related to the surface. The phenomenon of adsorb is widely used in industries for water purification and synthetic resins.

When talking of Absorb, one can say that something moves inside an object. But in the case of adsorb, something forms a layer on the surface of an object."
Read more: Difference Between Adsorb and absorb | Difference Between | Adsorb vs absorb http://www.differencebetween.net/sci...#ixzz2MbB01SuH

One of the very best articles I have read about how to use activated charcoal in filtration comes form this article about filtration in distillation. It also talks about how to prepare activated charcoal to best filter and how to recharge charcoal that has depleted activity.

http://homedistiller.org/activated_book1.pdf

I know that regular charcoal....biochar has many of the benefits of activated charcoal for animals and humans too. To actually safely make one's own activated charcoal is questionable. It keeps and I think we all would benefit from buying food grade activated charcoal for our medicine cabinets.

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/...vated_charcoal

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Bump for the thread!

[blufire]

Posted by 778 neighbour of some guy (here)
Bump for the thread!

What is it about this thread that particularly intrigued you that you would bump it??

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Posted by blufire (here)

Posted by 778 neighbour of some guy (here)
Bump for the thread!

What is it about this thread that particularly intrigued you that you would bump it??

Everything, especially the potential of the biochar to enrich soil, absorb carbon, potential to increase crop yield and I can make it myself, never done it, don't even have a garden, not even an balcony, but its very interesting as another tool in the bag on the way to become a bit more self reliant if and when the time comes, so imo important enough to bump and important enough to be seen and hope some of its sticks in back of peoples mind, hence.........bump.