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Chris Adam Kiln Chars Coconut Shells in Kenya
November 5, 2009

Coconut Husk in Kenya

A Chris Adam Kiln retort which was built a year ago at the Kenyan Coast.

They are using it 3x a week to carbonize coconut shells and it seems to work well.

--Chris

Gasifier Charcoal as a Substitute for Vermiculite in Container Growing Media
Tom Miles, August 22, 2009
P Pine Seedlings in 25% Biochar
Our second trial of biochar as a substitute for vermiculite in container media for growing tree seedling has proved successful. These tests are by a private nursery to determine if charcoal from a gasifier heating system can be used in container growing media.

Last year weathered charcoal was collected from forest fire burns, milled, and used as a direct substitute for vermiculite in up to 50% of the container mix. Some of those trees have been retained in containers for a second year and still look good. At that time the forest tree nursery concluded that the biochar could be used for up to 50% of the mix with some adjustments to plant nutrition.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/charcoalmedia

This year the nursery filled a larger sample with media containing 25% biochar from a gasifier.

During gasification the char is made as wood (mixed Pine and Douglas Fir from the California Coast range) is subjected to temperatures of 1000 C (1832 F) in an oxidizing atmosphere and 850C (1562 F) in a reducing environment. Tars are volatilized and combusted to carbon dioxide and water. Tars are completely consumed in the process. The CO2 reacts with the devolatilized charcoal to form a gas rich in carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The gas will be used in place of propane to heat greenhouses.

Water is condensed from the gas. The recovered water (condensate) could probably be used to supplement irrigation. It is clear to light lemon colored and has a faint odor. It has a pH of 7.1 and is highly saline with an electrical conductivity (EC) of 5.1 mS/cm. It will be analyzed for composition.

Less than 5% of the dry fuel is recovered from the gasifier as a charcoal residue. The charcoal residue is still being characterized. It is small in size and puffy with powdery fines that are like a confectioner’s sugar. Due to the conditions of carbonization it is likely that it has very low labile (volatile) carbon, high surface area, high CEC and high pH. (High pH does not appear to have affected nutrient availability in previous trials even up to 50% charcoal in the container mix.) It was tested at the nursery as biochar.

Ponderosa pine seedlings grown in 25% gasifier charcoal since June were identical in root development and plant growth as those grown in the vermiculite mix. Two of each are shown in the attached image.

Future trials will use biochar in media to grow other tree species.
Condensate from Wood Gas

Third year results: Fourth Corner Nurseries Soil/Biochar Study
Richard Haard, Plant Propogationist, July 31, 2009

This study predates the coining of the term biochar and I claim grandfather rights to use the word charcoal.

Third year results, Fourth Corner Nurseries soil/biochar study

Summer 2009 Biochar plot studyresults are showing some trends I have had difficulty measuring with the last two years of cropping these plots. The use of buckwheat, a short season cover crop plant makes a visual view of performance reflecting nutrition, quite vivid. In spite of the dips in the plots due to deer browse.

This image is a merged sequence of pictures taken at same distance. Background may be confusing because of perspective. These plots are the first set, (south end), of treatments laid out in a systematic way. Results from the north set are similar and will be presented in a final poster

This plot study included: compost ( a wood based commercial compost of sewage solids)
charcoal 1 ( about 1/2 inch minus), charcoal 2 ( powder from John Flottvik's pyrolyser).
fertilizer: a complete, chemical fertilizer

These additives were only used once. In 2008 and 2007 all plots were given a light treatment of urea, none in 2009, although the early spring cover crop was legume.

Quirks shown in pictures: upper right dips in each of 3 plots due to deer browse. Bump in production in compost plot that is consistent with every year and a odd drop in plant height in fertilizer plus charcoal 2 plot. Also the soil analysis of the north set of plots is better than the south part, and this also shows in the charcoal 2 only plot at the north end of the south set.

This said there are some interesting trends showing in this third year of this experiment.

Compost is still showing benefit even after continuous cropping.

This year the strategy was to duplicate our farm soil management strategy of cover cropping after two years to build up organic matter and burn weed seed. First cover crop in March was vetch and fava bean. Buckwheat was planted immediately in May and will be tilled in within a few weeks to be replaced with another cover crop (oats or barley) before planting with transplanted native plants next spring.

The compost + charcoal and compost + fertilizer + charcoal plots are showing the best growth of all the plots. This to me is an indication of synergism or an additive effect of charcoal in combination with compost.

Fertilizer series. The first 2 years of cropping the benefit of fertilizer was shown. Now I am seeing a decline in production in these plots. The compost plus fertilizer plot mysteriously is not better than compost only.

Control set. Interesting that the growth in the charcoal 1 is less than the control. Perhaps indication the charcoal errr biochar is removing nutrients from the soil. As mentioned above charcoal 2 control set is in beginning of higher nutrition soil.

This image is original size that allows scrolling close up.
Here is an image that shows all plots full screen.

Rich Haard, Propagation Manager
Fourth Corner Nurseries
Bellingham, Washington

Peter Hirst, Pony Farm in Temple, New Hampshire, on May 9, 2009.

Follow the link for some great video from the recent Biochar Roundtable at the Lodge at Pony Farm in Temple, New Hampshire, on May 9, 2009.

Pony Farm Biochar Workshop

http://thinkingglobalactinglocal.com/biochar-workshop-may-9-2009.html

1. GEO BIOCHAR URINAL - PVC and 2. GEO BIOCHAR URINAL - CLAY

Biochar / charcoal can be used for tapping the Nitrogen and other useful elements. Simple urinals are designed http://e-biocharurinals.blogspot.com/ for tapping the nitrogen and other useful elements for using as a soil amending material for improving the quality of the soils, increasing crop production, addressing the global warming by reducing the NOx emissions, avoiding artificial fertilizers, keeping the toilets clean and odor free, etc.

Two sets of prototype Urinals - PVC urinal and Clay pot urinal are designed and being used by GEO.

The production of fertilizers require lots of energy, in many countries Natural gas is used for producing urea in large quantities. This demand is ever growing and we dont have enough energy to meet the demands. The complex fertilizers are also contributing to alkalinity of the soils.

From the below information we can see that there is a great potential to tap nitrogen from Urine, as biochar has an affinity to tap nitrogen, using charcoal for tapping the Nitrogen and other elements is a great opportunity to find solutions for many problems. Urine is a great source of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium

For more details please see this blog: http://e-biocharurinals.blogspot.com/

Also see the following links: http://e-opentoilets.blogspot.com/ 

http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/

Energy Cost of Charcoal
Bryce Nordgren, (Rev) March 26, 2009

Because I really had no idea about how much energy it takes to make
charcoal, I made a table from the specs of the Chinese equipment posted by
gordon eliot. Then I calculated the "Energy Cost" of each component in
(MJ/kg). Finally I aggregated the energy costs from the "suggested
charcoal plants" to get an idea of the energy cost of the entire system.
Note that all of their plants use the new high efficiency coal bar
machine. This should represent a best case scenario: maximum rated
charcoal production at rated power. If you make less charcoal and consume
the same power, the energy cost goes up.

Consider this a first step in understanding the energy efficiency of the
entire process. To complete the analysis, we would have to know the energy
content (MJ/kg) of the produced charcoal. The big question is: can you
power a 30kW generator with the syngas in order to take the small charcoal
plant off the grid?

I hope this comes thru. I'm pasting the tables as html into the mail
message. I'm also attaching the spreadsheet from whence these tables came
in OpenDocument format. I exported the OpenDocument spreadsheet into excel
(attached). This retains the equations so people can plug in their own numbers?
The "source" of the numbers is the Gongyi Sanjin Charcoal Machines Factory:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/message/5534.

Charcoal Plant Proposals
# Description Components (MJ/kg) Total
Crusher Drier Coal-bar
1 25-30MT per month 0.00 0.05 0.17 0.22
2 80-100MT per month 0.09 0.03 0.17 0.29
3 180-200MT per month 0.14 0.02 0.17 0.32

Note that the bigger crushers have a higher energy cost than the small
crushers. I would have expected the reverse. Also, the high-efficiency
energy saving coal bar machine is less efficient than the multi-function
coal bar machine. The net result is that larger charcoal plants appear to
be less efficient (have a higher energy cost) than smaller plants. As the
table shows, inefficiencies in the crusher overpower the efficiency gains
by the drier. The most efficient small scale plant would include the 11kW
coal bar machine instead of the "high efficiency" 15kW one.

This message is intended to give ballpark figures for the energy cost of
producing biochar using a sample of COTS equipment specifications. It
does not represent an endorsement or criticism of the vendor by any
agency, department, or program of the United States Government.

Bryce Nordgren
bnordgren@fs.fed.us

Munda tribals living in parts of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal states, in India, use biochar for increasing the crop production. They mix charcoal with farm yard manure (pellets of small ruminants / cattle dung) and add to the red lateritic soils which are other wise less fertile. They cultivate vegetables and green salad in the well fenced plots of about 1 acre in size. The biochar is mostly a byproduct from the biomass cook stoves in use (most often three stone stoves / simple clay earth stoves). They have access to wood from the jungles, which is used as fuel.

For more details see the photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/saibhaskar.geo/TP_Sign_Keonjhor_Orissa#
http://picasaweb.google.com/saibhaskar.geo/TP_Sign_Keonjhor_Orissa?feat=...

and a small video film.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5144451319506748375
Latitude: 21.9722721074 Longitude : 85.2820737194

For more pictures see http://e-terrapreta.blogspot.com/

Soils ain’t soils: NSW DPI on the front foot with carbon sequestration potential in soils.
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Australia, 13 Feb 2009

With the potential for carbon sequestration in Australian soils such a hot topic at the moment, NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has dedicated two up-to-date and informative web pages to the issue.

The first web page (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/areas/resources-research/soils-recycled-orga...) highlights a 28-page Scoping Paper: Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) Sequestration Potential for Agriculture in NSW, authored in 2008 by NSW DPI scientists Yin Chan, Annette Cowie, Georgina Kelly, Bhupinderpal Singh and Peter Slavich.

The second web page (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/topics/biochar) provides a comprehensive background to biochar, a carbon-rich material produced from the slow pyrolysis of biomass, which has great capacity to sequester carbon in the soil. This page also outlines the research being conducted by NSW DPI into the potential for this material.

Agricultural Applications for Biomass Pyrolysis
Jon Nilsson, Carbon Char Group, NJ, Presentation to UN, November 2008

Agricultural Applications

Soil Scientist, Jon Nilsson of the Carbon Char Group presented Agricultural Applications for Biomass Pyrolysis at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development Partnerships Fair earlier this year. This was part of the Partnership in New Technologies for Small Island Developing States. The powerpoint of this presentation is available here.

The Charming Bamboo Charcoal in Taiwan
Taipei Municipal Daan Vocational Industrial High School, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, Cyberfair 2008, February 2008

Bamboo Charcoal Fertilized Vegetables

The Care for the Environment

The Project

Description of Our Community

In this community there are consumers like us who are interested in environment-friendly products, local business people who are trying to make use of natural resources, and research institutes who are helping make the economy and the environment better. Our project hopes to connect these three kinds of people so that we can know each other better and care more about our environment.

Summary of Our Project

Our project is about bamboo charcoal, its characteristics and functions in terms of environmental protection and applications to daily life. With its high utility, it is seen as a valuable natural resource for our future life.