Biochar from paper?

[Knothead]

I have been experimenting with making biochar from just about everything dry that I can get my hands on, including newspaper.

By folding a section in thirds and then rolling it tightly it's just high enough to fit into my Toucan. It is rather difficult to get going, but once it is burning, it works very well. It burns cleanly for about thirty minutes.

I have used shredded paper for a cover material for my humanure bucket and wonder if the paper biochar wouldn't work just as well or better. It's very easy to powder and it works very well in preventing odors in my bottle urinal.

 

Here's my question. Are there any reasons that this is a bad idea? I know that newspaper is commonly recycled so I wonder if it's a bad practice to utilize it in this manner.

[Knothead]

Perhaps I didn't frame the question right.

What I'm wondering is whether it's more carbon friendly to turn newspaper into biochar than it is to let the city pick it up and recycle it. I suppose that a few more trees will be saved by recycling, but at what cost? How much energy does it take to make it into blank paper again? What kind of chemicals are used in the process?

Just curious.

[mavrickjohn]

I do not know what the energy requirements for recycling paper is but I do know that shredded documents can be processed to make pellets that can be used in place of wood pellets. and these should make great bio-char. YouTube - Make FREE wood pellets from recycled junk mail to run your pellet stove. - Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whH_E2fI2Cw

 

Using these paper pellets to make bio-char seems to me the best way to recycle the shredded documents.