Terra Preta in the news

[freeztar]

Anyone got any "back-of-the-envelope" calculations about how much biomass agriwaste is produced around the world?

 

Apparently 10 tons of biomass = 3 tons of synfuel and 1 ton of char. (Eprida).

1 ton of char is a fair bit of Co2 locked away.... so... any "rough" calculations about how much Co2 the world's agriculture could lock away each year?

 

(Remembering that we produce about 9-10 billion tons Co2 from fossil fuels and 30 billion when all industries and deforestation are calculated.)

 

Well, let's start simple.

 

In the US, there were 70,537,000 acres in corn production, with an average yield of 134 bushels per acre (at 56lbs. per bushel).

Source: Corn--Acreage, Production, and Value, by Leading States statistics - USA Census numbers

 

If we assume half of this is waste (cornstalks etc.) then we have (per 1999 numbers) a waste of 70,537,000 x 134/2=4,725,979,000 lbs. of corn "waste". In tons, this would be 2,362,990. So, from the Eprida numbers, this would provide for 236,299 tons of char and triple that for syngas.

 

Of course, this is *just corn in the US*!

Also, these numbers do not reflect the explosion of corn production we've seen here in the US this last decade.

[erich]

ABC Interview with Ozzie Biochar Luminaries

 

LUKAS VAN ZWIETEN: We're getting very significant improvements in yield in our cropping situation. We've increased yield of sweet corn from 16 tonnes up to 35 tonnes of fresh cob per hectare and we've more than doubled our yield of fibre bean crops as our winter crop. So we're getting quite significant and also economic returns on the investment of applying biochar to soil.

STEPHEN KIMBER: We've seen very significant impacts in the laboratory where things are a lot easier to measure and we've had up to a 90 per cent reduction in nitrous oxide generation. Nitrous oxide is important because it has a potency of around 300 times that of carbon dioxide. So small fluctuations in the nitrous oxide story have a profound influence on the overall greenhouse gas story.

 

MALCOLM TURNBULL: For the life of me I cannot understand why they don't do it. It is pretty straightforward. It's readily measured. The science is very well known. It's been around for centuries, thousands of years, in fact. So it's something that we should just get on with and support.

 

TIM FLANNERY: I would argue using these technologies to repay our historic debt to the world, calculate how much carbon pollution we put in the atmosphere over the last century and seek to repay it using biochar and other biological carbon options.

 

Char Grilled - Landline - ABC

[erich]

Someone finally got to Branson, when he ran his Carbon Prize last year I nominated the the Kayapo Amazonians for a posthumous award, no reply.

 

Erich

 

 

It takes more than the web to capture the Zeitgeist - Media news - Media Week

[erich]

I'm surprised Max DeRungs didn't post this to us, he's a regular commenter on the Biochar List;

 

Borgford Octaflame Gasification System

 

Solid State Technology- Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry News covering Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment, Process, Services

 

Borgford Bioenergy

Evergreen BioEnergy - Home

 

 

 

Just about trees, no char, but shows what we earthlings can do;

 

Pakistanis set tree planting record: 1,800 each a day

Pakistanis set tree planting record: 1,800 each a day | Distant-Help

If you feel proud about having planted a tree sometime to help protect the

environment, you may have to think again.

Pakistan has apparently set a record for tree plantings, with volunteers

planting about 1,800 mangroves each in a day in mud and temperatures of up to

37 Celsius, according to the WWF International conservation group.

Maybe such competitions will catch on [...]

 

 

 

 

BFW UK ran this piece on Lovelock & Richard Branson, with no derision of biochar.

 

Biofuel Watch: biofuelwatch - Branson interview claims on "clean fuel" and biochar

 

I should have much to report after the NABC nrxt month

Cheers,

Erich

[freeztar]

I received the following from Folke Günther recently (via Facebook).

 

Participate in the 350 events the 25th of October: Dig down a kilo of char in the soil!

 

Seems easy enough! Anybody else participating?

 

:)

[Eclipse Now]

Folke's visionary for how fast cities can transform into other forms.

 

“A normal city is changing all the time – buildings grow old and are replaced. Just look at a picture of your city fifty or a hundred years ago. If the average building life is 60 years, then the city changes at the rate of 1.6% per year. I took as the basis for this scenario the average size of an average Swedish municipality – 36,000 inhabitants. I assumed that instead of building the houses on that same plot as the one demolished you build eco units on the periphery of the city, along the roads preferably. Then you start to ruralise at the same pace as the normal replacement rate. After 50 years, only ten percent of the city is left.”

 

Folke Günther talks about re-ruralisation with Stephen Hinton | Global Public Media

[Michaelangelica]

Single-desk carbon trade 'could earn billions'

 

THE former Australian of the year Tim Flannery has proposed a single Australian Government trading desk ? similar to the former wheat desk ? to sell carbon credits to the United States.

 

Breaking News | Author unknown | Fri Jul 31 11:50:31 EST 2009

Single-desk carbon trade 'could earn billions'

I am not sure about this, when the yanks have been around with open cheque books buying up most of our pyrolysis technology. Certainly the immanent Cabon Trading Scheme is concentrating everyone's minds. Nothing like the $ to make a difference!

 

Burn, bury and bargain with it: biochar ticks the green boxes

Have your say: Will biochar make a difference? What unites Malcolm Turnbull, Tim Flannery and James Lovelock? Enthusiasm for biochar: one of the most intriguing solutions to global warming and a...

 

Breaking News | Author unknown | Sun May 31 01:19:36 EST 2009

Burn, bury and bargain with it: biochar ticks the green boxes

 

in the Boy Scouts we had to Burn Bash and Bury our tin cans. I wonder if that is still a good idea?

 

I don't seem to make the videos in this CNN report work. Which button need I press?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/03/30/biochar.warming.energy/index.html#cnnSTCText

[erich]

Biochar Job;

 

 

EngD Studentship – Manufacturing and Engineering the Mechanisation of Biochar Application Impact on Nutrient Status in Arable Soils

Organisation: Cranfield University

Location: Bedfordshire

Hours: Full Time

Contract: Permanent

 

Cranfield University, in collaboration with The Douglas Bomford Trust and The Crichton Carbon Centre, has an exciting research opportunity for a motivated graduate to undertake this four year project in an area of research that could prove significant in terms of waste management, food productivity and climate change.

 

Biochar is the carbon-rich product that remains when biomass is heated to high temperature (as in pyrolysis or gasification) in reduced oxygen conditions. Rather than being burned and oxidized to gaseous carbon dioxide, as would happen in combustion or incineration in an oxygen-rich environment, a proportion of the carbon in the biomass is retained within a solid residue. This ‘charred’ residue exhibits similar characteristics to charcoal.

 

The feedstock that is treated to create biochar can be grown biomass, for example wood or bioenergy crops, or it can be biowaste of various forms, such as green waste, paper, livestock manure or sewage sludge. This research aims to determine the optimum type of biochar that could be applied effectively to soil in order to influence the nutrient dynamics.

 

...

 

Please mention lowcarbon.com when responding to this ad.

 

*

More information

 

 

 

 

Lowcarbon.com: EngD Studentship – Manufacturing and Engineering the Mechanisation of Biochar Application Impact on Nutrient Status in Arable Soils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not exactly TP NEWS,

However, there is a certain great opportunity for using this news as parody in reply to deniers, Maybe if real money is being make, by the physical reality of no ice , it will hit home to them.

 

 

Climate change opens Arctic’s Northeast passage

Climate change opens Arctic’s Northeast passage | Distant-Help

Two German ships set off on Friday on the first commercial journey from Asia to

western Europe via the Arctic through the fabled Northeast Passage a trip made

possible by climate change. Niels Stolberg, president and CEO of Bremen-based

Beluga Shipping, said the Northern Sea Route will cut thousands of nautical

miles off the [...]

 

 

Erich

[Eclipse Now]

What happens to phosphorus in sewerage waste when run through a biochar cooker? I'm interested in a system we could build that would prepare for "peak phosphorus" and if biochar can help with that, all the better.

 

Or should biochar be mainly focussed on council green waste, lawn clippings, agriwaste and forestry waste? Is there another more appropriate means by which we can enable sewerage to become food? Some people visualise sewerage pouring into massive fields where certain biomass crops are then harvested for ethanol, and the ethanol byproduct sludge used as cow fodder, etc. Any thoughts on better using sewerage?

[Michaelangelica]

I just made a long post here and then Firefox crashed-arhh well, probably guff anyway

 

Eric, how about a new thread TP Jobs/employment business opportunities/?/

 

Phosphorus/Eclipse Now

In 2007, at the current rate of consumption, the supply of phosphorus was estimated to run out in 345 years.[25]

However, scientists are now claiming that a "Peak Phosphorus" will occur in 30 years and that "At current rates, reserves will be depleted in the next 50 to 100 years."

-Wiki

Today phosphorus production is larger than ever. It is used as a precursor for various chemicals,[30] in particular the herbicide glyphosate sold under the brand name Roundup

.

 

For plants, we may have to go back to getting it from soil biota?, as happened before 1900?(I will make a post on this in "wee beasties' soon -waiting for an article to be published on line).

or

stop making glyphosate,Sodium tripolyphosphate, methamphetamine,organophosphorous insecticides, napalm,chemical warfare and other assorted POP-organophosphates?

or

recycling bodies instead of 'formaldehyding' them?

An average adult human contains a little less than 1 kg of phosphorus, about 85% of which is present in bones and teeth in the form of apatite, and the remainder inside cells in soft tissu

e

 

Phosphorus was discovered by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1674 or 1675.

Working in Hamburg, Brand attempted to distil some kind of "life essence" from his urine, and in the process produced a white material that glowed in the dark.[4]

The phosphorus had in fact been produced from inorganic phosphate, which is a significant component of dissolved urine solids

Phosphorus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Piss that glows in the dark.

Black phosphorus is the least reactive allotrope and the thermodynamic stable form below 550 °C. It is also known as β-metallic phosphorus and has a structure somewhat resembling that of graphite.[15][16]

graphite=carbon???

twenty-three isotopes of phosphorus are known

 

lots of potassium is found in piss too!

 

History of production

 

Historically, niter-beds were prepared by mixing manure with either mortar or wood ashes, common earth and organic materials such as straw to give porosity to a compost pile typically 1.5 meters high by 2 meters wide by 5 meters long.[3] The heap was usually under a cover from the rain, kept moist with urine, turned often to accelerate the decomposition and leached with water after approximately one year. The liquid containing various nitrates was then converted with wood ashes to potassium nitrate, crystallized and refined for use in gunpowder.

 

Urine has also been used in the manufacture of saltpetre for gunpowder. In this process, stale urine placed in a container of straw hay is allowed to sour for many months, after which water is used to wash the resulting chemical salts from the straw.

The process is completed by filtering the liquid through wood ashes and air-drying in the sun.[3] Saltpetre crystals can then be collected and added to sulfur and charcoal to create black powder.[4] Potassium nitrate could also be harvested from accumulations of bat guano in caves.

This was the traditional method used in Laos for the manufacture of gunpowder for Bang Fai rockets.

 

The earliest known complete purification process for potassium nitrate is described in 1270 by the Arab chemist and engineer Hasan al-Rammah of Syria in his book al-Furusiyya wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya ('The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices'), where he first described the use of potassium carbonate (in the form of wood ashes) to remove calcium and magnesium salts from the potassium nitrate.[5]

 

During the 19th century and until around World War I, potassium nitrate was produced on an industrial scale, first by the Birkeland–Eyde process in 1905, and then later from ammonia produced by the much more efficient Haber process.

The latter process came online during World War I, and supplied Germany with nitrates critical for the warfare that it otherwise had no access to because the deposits of natural nitrate in Chile were in British hands.

It is assumed that this prolonged World War I. Today practically all nitrates are produced from the oxidation of ammonia made by the Haber process.

Potassium nitrate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

sewerage

no I don't get it either. Our best fertiliser goes to grow sea weed

Some say it contains heavy metals. But i can't see why unless industry is discharging waste illegally into the sewrage system. ?

Surely human urine is full of phosphorus,(?) as is pig's (where the Chinese used to get it for firecrackers)

,100 L of urine to make about 60 g of phosphorus

Wiki.

How much urine does a city of a million people produce?

The Importance of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium Recovery from Urine for Solving Global Environmental Problems Linking between Water and Agriculture.

Accession number;02A0070800

Author;MATSUI SABURO(Kyodai Daigakuinkogakukenkyuka Kankyoshitsuseigyose)

Journal Title;Energy and Resources

Journal Code:Z0986A

ISSN:0285-0494

VOL.22;NO.6;PAGE.407-414(2001)

Figure&Table&Reference;FIG.6, TBL.1, REF.5

Pub. Country;Japan

Language;Japanese

Abstract;

Science Links Japan | The Importance of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium Recovery from Urine for Solving Global Environmental Problems Linking between Water and Agriculture.

 

:evil: :evil: :evil:

 

Such waste

NSW sugarcane burn-off trials to continue

Monday, 24/08/2009

NSW Cangrowers will continue to burn off their crop under trials conducted by the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative.

The co-operative's CEO, Chris Connors, says burning off will continue until it establishes a viable process for converting green energy over the next few years.

Mr Connors says the co-op is currently testing processing methods such as taking all crop in the field, burning with and without extractors, and green cane harvesting.

"Certainly within the next three to four years, the target is to take all of that crop," he says.]

"So we will be looking to ensure growers aren't burning.

"We can't stop them, but at the end of the day, I think as long we get the economics right, I think we'll get the right outcome."

NSW sugarcane burn-off trials to continue - 24/08/2009

 

this is off-topic?, but fun

Not sure where it should go in hypography, but it should go somewhere.

Intersting comment that potasium is radio-active. IDKT.

I wonder if the light/energy it emits helps any soil bacteria, fungi, plants?

Plants are the Strangest People: Mr_Subjunctive Explains Modern Retail Horticulture to a Time-Traveller From the Year 1860

[erich]

My contacts tell me that;

"The Economist" will be running a 1000 word biochar article in the science & Technology section. Now this may not get the 100 million eyeballs a month that we got with the Sept 08 NGM cover story, but is read by many movers and shakers.

 

The editors are responsible for the veracity of the stories content and the authors are not named. This gives them much inside access to the workings of business and government.

 

I sent the editor , who was at Boulder but didn't meet, my updates,

 

Erich

[erich]

As Promised;

 

 

A new growth industry?

 

Aug 27th 2009 | BOULDER, COLORADO

From The Economist print edition

Biochar could enrich soils and cut greenhouse gases as well

 

 

The virtues of biochar: A new growth industry? | The Economist

[Essay]

Wow Erich,

 

Great to see this biochar information mainstreaming so nicely.

Good going with your comments to the Economist's article; I'm still reading them....

 

I'll try to add some also, if I can fiind time this weekend.

 

Thanks for the notification here. I'll include this article with the biochar presentation, for a service organization, that I'll be preparing this weekend.

 

As Promised;

 

 

A new growth industry?

 

Aug 27th 2009 | BOULDER, COLORADO

From The Economist print edition

Biochar could enrich soils and cut greenhouse gases as well

 

 

The virtues of biochar: A new growth industry? | The Economist

[Michaelangelica]

Fascinating how something as simple as terra preta can flumox so many.

The latest victim?- the boffins at the illustrious-sounding Royal Society. Methinks the Pommies must of had too many G&Ts when they wrote this report

 

good things

?

Should temperatures rise to such a level where more rapid action needs to be taken, the following SRM techniques were considered to have most potential:

 

Stratospheric aerosols these were found to be feasible, and previous volcanic eruptions have effectively provided short-term preliminary case studies of the potential effectiveness of this method. The cost was assessed as likely to be relatively low and the timescale of action short. However, there are some serious questions over adverse effects, particularly depletion of stratospheric ozone.

 

Space-based methods these were considered to be a potential SRM technique for long-term use, if the major problems of implementation and maintenance could be solved. At present the techniques remain prohibitively expensive, complex and would be slow to implement.

 

Cloud albedo approaches (eg. cloud ships) the effects would be localised and the impacts on regional weather patterns and ocean currents are of considerable concern but are not well understood. The feasibility and effectiveness of the technique is uncertain. A great deal more research would be needed before this technique could be seriously considered.

 

bad things?

The following techniques were considered to have lower potential:

 

Biochar (CDR technique) the report identified significant doubts relating to the potential scope, effectiveness and safety of this technique and recommended that substantial research would be required before it could be considered for eligibility for UN carbon credits.

 

Ocean fertilisation (CDR technique) the report found that this technique had not been proved to be effective and had high potential for unintended and undesirable ecological side effects.

 

Surface albedo approaches (SRM technique, including white roof methods, reflective crops and desert reflectors) these were found to be ineffective, expensive and, in some cases, likely to have serious impacts on local and regional weather patterns.

Stop emitting CO2 or geoengineering could be our only hope

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Engineering Earth 'is feasible'

Bio-fuel-Watch: biofuelwatch-Royal Society has "significant doubts" over "biochar"

So, much better to put umbrellas in space than have a white road or roof . (?)

Biochar "needs more research'; always the cry of those who haven' bothered to look for it.

So get out your aerosls, stoke up that volcano, buy shares in NASA and "cloud ships"; much better than to trust a proven tecnology that is simple and has only been around for a few millennia.

 

(PS at the same time the RS is giving awards to "developing nation's" research on biochar. Perhaps biochar is the poor man's solution and we, in the W, get to play with clouds, aerosols and space. I wonder if anyone has read that research either ?)

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View

Royal Society Science Networking Award (Ghana-UK). Biochar-based soil management strategies for smallholder agriculture. Saran Sohi & Edward Yeboah ...

royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp?id=5897 -

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:qYcCCRlsTkoJ:royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp%3Fid%3D5897+Royal+society+biochar&hl=en

 

I will have more to say when I read the original article. Got to go now Stephen Fry is in the USA!

[Michaelangelica]

The Royal Society of New Zealand noted that the side-effects and consequences of many of the geoengineering schemes covered in the study are not well understood, but that some of them “deserve further attention from New Zealand”.

From the Royal Society of New Zealand paper:

On afforestation:

“Afforestation is the simplest way to remove carbon from the atmosphere and has a role to play for New Zealand.Using the wood to produce biochar and biofuels could be major new industries if it can be proven and verified that they reduce overall emissions of carbon.”

On ocean fertilisation:

“The addition of iron to help plankton grow, has been promoted optimistically and our easy access to the Southern Ocean suggests we could act as a staging point. However the limited research done so far shows that ocean fertilisation appears to be ineffective at locking away carbon from the atmosphere, suggesting that it does not offer the potential that some claim.”

 

On other geoengineering techniques:

“Proposals to reduce the heating of the planet by blocking or reflecting the sun’s energy include placing giant sunshields in space, increasing the reflectivity of the planet through planting reflective crops, placing reflectors in deserts, whitening roofs on buildings or paving, enhancing the reflectivity of clouds by spraying seawater from specially-constructed ships, or producing sulphate aerosols in the upper atmosphere.”

“These techniques could reduce global temperatures much more rapidly, if deployed on sufficient scale, but none are without side effects… these schemes could play a role as options of last resort.”

Further Information

Science Media Centre » Blog Archive » CO2 reduction favoured over untried geoengineering

The full text of the RS (bs?) article does not seem to be available on line.

[Michaelangelica]

The Guardian | 2009-09-08 | UK | Page: 37

Response Biochar is a good tool for climate mitigation

 

 

farmers to burn food surpluses. If those subsidies were spent on solar and other renewable sources of energy we would have more food and be less dependent on fossil fuels. There is a strong case for the responsible development of biochar as a tool for climate mitigation and for the restoration of agricultural land which has been degraded by decades of industrial agriculture. Simple and inexpensive modern equipment can capture 70% of the carbon in biomass as biochar, double traditional charcoal-making processes. Producing biochar from farm and forestry waste prevents it being burned or left to rot, both of which put 100% of the carbon back into the atmosphere as CO2 or methane. Biochar is made at farm scale and requires minimal management time. Small and medium farmers will be the main beneficiaries. The article quotes George Monbiot’s criticism of biochar: “The idea that biochar is a universal solution that can be safely deployed on a vast scale is as misguided as Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Backwards.” We sha

The Guardian | 2009-09-08 | UK | Page: 37

Response: Biochar is a good tool for climate mitigation | Comment is free | The Guardian

[Essay]

A new way to keep hydrogen: Plumage power | The Economist

 

 

 

Plumage power: A new way to keep hydrogen

 

Jul 2nd 2009 - From The Economist print edition

"Chicken feathers could provide a high-capacity store"

 

This article is talking about how to store hydrogen fuel in the "gas tank" of an H-powered car. Some porous material is needed to soak up the hydrogen like a sponge....

The fibres in feathers are almost entirely composed of keratin, a protein also found in hair and nails. When heated in the absence of oxygen (a process called pyrolysis), keratin forms hollow tubular structures six millionths of a metre across and riddled with microscopic pores, much like carbon nanotubes.

The researchers demonstrated how this can be done at the 13th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference, held recently in College Park, Maryland. To avoid melting the fibres and depriving them of their desirable structural properties, they first heat-treated the feathers to around 215°C. This strengthened their structure and allowed further heating to 400-450°C. At this point the material becomes more porous, increasing its surface area and its hydrogen-storing capacity.

 

Hello!? This is the recipe for creating biochar!

If they had more scientifically fluent writers/editors, maybe they would have pointed this out.

 

 

But whatever....

It's nice to know biochar has so many uses/qualities/potentials.

 

I've been telling people biochar is not really a "silver bullet," but that biochar is more like silver buckshot.

That went over very well at my presentation last Saturday. It was "talk like a pirate day" --and with the subject of bichaarrrrr, it was hard to pass up the obvious opportunity--but first impressions with a quasi-religious organization are not helped by obscure comedic references. Biochar itself is obscure enough.

===

 

Interesting chemistry with that recipe.... From what I've read, the ~215°C treatment would gently drive off the water and many volatiles and allow an amorphous "high-carbon lattice" to develop.

For hemicellulose, this temperature is where degradation begins--allowing more hydrogen and oxygen to escape. Anyone know about keratin? Is it coiled? ...hmmmm--collagen might generate an interesting pore pattern....

 

At the higher temperature mentioned in the recipe, microstructural rearrangement of the carbon lattice (as well as "re-condensation" of recently volatilized biomolecular fragments) would help build a more graphene-dominated lattice. That really increases the microporosity--but reduces the oils/functional groups content.

 

Producing that high graphene content in biochars is a goal when trying to maximize surface area/volume. In this case I'm not sure if they are going for that level of pore structure or some other pore structure that naturally develops in pyrolyzed keratin--or both.