Terra Preta The antidote to CO2 capture

[Bubu]

I look up from many sources how carbon is absorbed by the plants, every single one said that carbon finds its way into to the plants in the form of carbon dioxide, but not one sees that carbon alone (smaller than CO2) can be absorbed via the roots. Of course this is typical of a junk science. Terra Preta proves that carbon can be absorbed via the roots. I have been using powdered charcoal in my garden but only now it occurred to me that carbon molecule can find its way into the plants via the roots. This is because Terra Preta advocates gives a different reason for the vigorous growth. Which could also be true but they failed (or deliberately failed) to note that Carbon is smaller than CO2.

Try it in your garden you be the judge:wizard:

http://biochar.info/biochar.terra-preta.cfml

http://www.biochar-international.org/biochar/soils

[Erichj]

The number of peer-reviewed studies on Biochar have grown exponentially for the last 3 years.

None, I have read, reports C adsorbed by plant roots.
Fungi trade H2O, chemical signals & nutrients, for the liquid Carbon exudate of plant roots; Sugars. Biochar fosters this trading.

To appreciate the wider applications of Biochar, the use as a feed additive and nutrient management tool, Please review my presentation and slides of this opening talk for the USBI Biochar conference in Sonoma California. This is the third US Biochar conference, after ISU 2010 and Colorado 2009;

"Carbon Conservation for Home, Health, Energy & Climate"

http://2012.biochar.us.com/sites/2012.biochar.us.com/files/presentations/ErichKinght.pdf

Modern Thermal conversion of biomass burns only the hydrocarbons in that biomass, conserving the carbon for the soil. At the large farm or village scale modern pyrolysis reactors can relieve energy poverty, food insecurity and decreased dependency on chemical fertilizers.

Please take a look at this YouTube video by the CEO of CoolPlanet Biofuels, guided by Google's Ethos and funding, along with GE, BP and Conoco, they are now building the reactors that convert 1 ton of biomass to 75 gallons of bio – gasoline and 1/3 ton Biochar for soil carbon sequestration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkYVlZ9v_0o

If CoolPlanet Biofuels processed the entire projected US biomass harvest in 2030, of 1.6 Billion Tons, the yields would be;
120 Billion Gallons of tank ready fuel ,(The US uses 150 Billion gallons/year), and 0.3 Billion Tons of Biochar
The big numbers are jaw dropping,
The 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!

Costs; The field to wheel analysis is $1.50/gallon!

To review other developments in cleanburning cook stoves, pyrolytic home heating stoves etc. Please review my Sonoma Biochar Conference Report;

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-policy/message/3921

[Erichj]

Since this forum has a spiritual component, may I present the following Paraphrases;

The soil carbon sequestration story is one that can be heard and understood by everyone, all politcal persuasions agree building soil-C is good.

Here are my paraphasings from over the years, I hope you can use them, or at least they put a smile on your face;


A Carbon-Based Religion;

Carl Sagan's human connection to stardust leaves out a critical stage. We are stardust, bu only stardust transformed by life. Every time I look at the scanning electron microcope pictures of Biochars, it strikes me, the perfect preservation of the base structures of life, a fractal vision, how life creates the greatest surface area with the least amount of material. The preservation of this structure, for return to the lowest order of life, seems almost a religious act. A perfect cradle to cradle recycling, biotic carbon should never be combusted and destroyed, but be revered, as life is revered, for returned to the cradle of terrestrial life the Soil

Reading the Japanese work on adding char in animal feed, I thought of posting the Vatican, to lobby for a re-formulation of communion wafers. Communion is what I feel when I sequester carbon in soils. This feeling lead me to compose this paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer: [Our Carbon Who Art in Heaven]

In this Carbon based religion Burning is not the consequence OF Sin, Burning is the Sin.

We have been burning biomass C for over one million years, exploiting it out of the soil for 10,000 years, combusting fossil carbon for 150 years.
Now, we can grow nano-structured fossil carbons into unprecedented materials and even human tissues. Graphene; a two-dimensional, one-atom-thick membrane in a three-dimensional world, able to sieve water from the seas, Buckminsterfullerene & Nanotubes; for superconductivity, Solar & Thermo-electrics.
The Stone Age did not end for a lack of stones, as well, the Combustion Age will not end for lack of fossil fuels. Nanotechnology and Terra Preta Technology has thrust The Diamond Age upon us, with it, the rectification of the Carbon Cycle, this train is leaving the station, either get on board or be left in the combusted soot and CO2 pollution of history!

Religious parallels:

1) About a central figure responsible for life, carbon.

2) Stewardship; living today in a way that protects the system for posterity.

3) About something in the heavens that need to manifest on Earth

4) The Golden Rule: Account external costs so they are not done unto others.

The Terra Preta Prayer

Our Carbon who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name
By kingdom come, thy will be done, IN the Earth to make it Heaven.
It will give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our atmospheric trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against the Kyoto protocols
And lead us not into fossil fuel temptation, but deliver us from it's evil
low as we walk through the valley of the shadow of Global Warming,
I will feel no evil, your Bio-fuels and fertile microbes will comfort me,
For thine is the fungal kingdom,
and the microbe power,
and the Sequestration Glory,
For ever and ever (well at least 2000 years)
AMEN


Soil Carbon Commandments:

1) Thou shalt not have any other Molecule before Me

2) Thou shall not make wrongful use of the name of Biochar, It will not acquit anyone who mis-charactorizes it's name

3) Observe the Fallow days and keep them, as Sustainability commands thou

4) Honor your Micro Flora & Fauna, as the Soil Carbon commands you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that High Soil-C has given you.

5) Thou shall not murder the Soil Food Web

6) Neither shall thou adulterate the Soils with Toxicity

7) Neither shall thou steal Biomass from the Soil Food Web

8) Neither shall thou bear false witness against your neighbors Biochar, or about Thy own

9) Neither shall thou covet your neighbor's Fertility

10) Neither shall thou desire your neighbor's house, or field, or Pyrolysis Reactor, or farm implements, or anything that belongs to your neighbor, as thou may Create thy Own


Ode to Dr. Seuss, "The Lorax", A Paraphrase;

"The Charist"
I am the Charist… I speak for the Carbon… I speak for the Trees for the Trees have no tongues
And cannot express... what they do with their Lungs
Fix all the Carbons in Lignins and more… Which we Charistas... can Recalcitrantly Store
Thermal Conversion is what biomass needs… To bring down the World-temps... a couple degrees
It can heat up our Pots… And drive us Alots… With no Ecosystem giving up what it's Gots'
I am the Charist, and I'll YELL and I'll SHOUT for the fine things on earth that are on their way Out!
Externalized Cost I will shout at the most.... For Chars value in soils is easy to boast,
I speak for the Humus, the Wee-Beastie Bugs...for the structure char gives them....They Just Loves'
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,.... nothing is going to get better...... It's Not......

If it's Good enough for Google… It's Good enough for me;

Winning the heart of the Guy from Google;
The representative from Google ventures, the guy that brought Google first to the table with CoolPlanet Biofuels, sat down with me at the Sonoma Conference lunch, introduced himself, then stood up, immediately went into a full elocution, several stanzas deep, of Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax", his son demanding this performance for years on end. So my choice to paraphrase "The Charist" was fortuitous. The lunch time crowd at the table broke into applause.

a Paraphrase composed going home from the Sonoma Biochar Conference last year, read to the tune of ;

"Give Me that Old Time Religion";

"Give me that New Biofuels Religion"
Sooo… Give me that Biofuel religion… Give me that New Biofuel Religion.... give me that Cool Biofuel Religion…

If It's Good Enough for Google, it's Good Enough for Me

If it's good for big brother BP and… Good for the brother GE... And Good for the Wee-Beasties......It's good enough for me

It was tried in the fiery furnace... Fuel with C14 won't burn Us..... Noooo- emissions to Concern Us......sounds good enough for me

It will bring you from Fossil bondage.... Provide our Fruitage and our Forage... A more Comprehensive Knowledge..... plain for me to see

It was good for the Kayopo Children....where Fertility was no Burden......Sustainability was for Certain... that's good enough for Me

It can take Carbon from the Heavens... To the Soils it does Leaven... To avoid an Armageddon......good enough for Me

It will do when the world’s on fire.... won't let Temperature much Higher... An Ocean De-Acidifier..... good for the Fish & Me


Soil Carbon Dream

I have a dream that one day we live in a nation where progress will not be judged by the production yields of our fields, but by the color of their soils and by the Carbon content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, a suite of earth sensing satellites will level the playing field, giving every farmer a full account of carbon he sequesters. That Soil Carbon is given as the final arbiter, the common currency, accountant and Judge of Stuartship on our lands.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made forest, the rough soils will be made fertile, and the crooked Carbon Marketeers will be made straight, and the glory of Soil Sequestration shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see a Mutually assured Sustainability.

This is our hope.

My apologies to Dr. King, but I think he would understand my passion



Cheers,
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;
http://2012.biochar.us.com/sites/2012.biochar.us.com/files/presentations/ErichKinght.pdf

Chairman; Markets and Business Committee
2010 US Biochar Conference, at Iowa State University
http://www-archive.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010/conference-agenda/agenda-overview.html

Administrator;
Biochar Policy;
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-policy/

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

[nomadguy]

And where Biochar will not work, Holistic Land Management will. We have all the solutions. Us humans merely need to get busy.
>>>
uEAFTsFH_x4
- http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?57770-How-Holistic-Mob-Grazing-Can-Green-Desertified-Grasslands-and-Reverse-Global-Warming

[Bubu]

Thanks Erichj. That's quite a prayer although i do not recite prayers at all.

None, I have read, reports C adsorbed by plant roots.

My experience proves to me that carbon in soil gives very good result and that is more than all the study combined which for the most part is paid propaganda as we all knew it to be. I had develop some form of allergic reaction from books and scientific study. And because of this I am closer to reality than most people.

[Bubu]

I agree with holistic land management, "Comprehend and copy nature" Victor S.

[Bubu]

Halo Erichj,

"If all these stoves were fully utilize, without building a single new stove, over the next 10 years, would be responsible for sequestering 1 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere."

This is a totally different route from that was proposed by CCS which aims to sequester and store CO2 underground with no use at all.
If this new religion you discuss will free us from petroleum slavery then so the best. But have you consider the possible adverse effect of atmospheric manipulation. With this new C religion and CCS what do you think are the consequences. So I guess this is one reason why CCS is being push on by Big Oils. But If you say that CO2 causes global warming then I totally disagree with you.

Anyways What company manufacture these stoves, it was mentioned that it is on promotion in the Philippines. But with it's price of $2000 I doubt if there would be enough interested parties on the third world.

I myself is developing a biomass stove that doesn't need atmospheric CO2, my aim is Blue Flame. This can be accomplish by thermal cracking/ steam reforming right at the burner. I have already gone two prototypes with unwanted colored flame.

Any clarification in a much simpler and concise English will be much appreciated. I am not blessed with good eyes and good english