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Posted the following to the Biochar group.
To touch on a few a few comments made in various threads it’s best to put things into a local context as solutions vary widely from place to place.
I’m in Northern Kentucky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Kentucky
Specifically Campbell County
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_County,_Kentucky
We range from urban at the north, to suburban in the middle, to rural in the south.
For inputs we have at least yard waste and Bush Honeysuckle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Honeysuckle
Bush Honeysuckle is an envasive species introduced over a century ago. While it’s advance is slow it has reached critical mass in the region. If you disturb 10 square meters of soil the birds will give at least one sprout within a year. Within 5 years the entire 10 square meters will be a mature honeysuckle. If cut to the ground each year thereafter it will grow back for years until it exhausts it’s resources.
“biomass input does not have to be trees” – The bush honeysuckle is a woody shrub. To use it UNsustainably would be a challenge and a goal. Stands of it could be thinned to allow other things like our endangered plants to grow in it’s shade. The roots would be left as they are needed to hold the soil in place until something else holds it.
Current alternatives to biochar are composting and landfilling with extensive landfill gas capture. One contributes to soil and the other produces energy. Neither does both.
“Carbon Credits” – We are in the carbon lawless west. “Kyoto? Is that the new SUV with the hot tub in the back?” Any carbon credit system operating now is voluntary. However regulation is coming soon.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-dioxide-auction
Both presidential candidates have stated they will do some kind of “cap and trade” arrangement.
The thing one has to remember about regulations is that they are limited to how they are written. If “cap and trade” regulates direct CO2 emissions only than capturing it in any form and sending into any non-regulated process avoids the emission. For example, creating Algae oil puts the carbon into the Algae which get turned into transport fuel which get emitted in an unregulated way (vehicles).
A law may contain certain kinds of inputs as being “Carbon Neutral” which would encourage conversion of biomass all the way down to ash to release all of it’s energy. It would be very hard to compete if the only value was not having an ash pit.
As far as energy output either the syngas would be used directly or electric generated from it. Since the electric peak is high in the summer afternoons which is the same time of year that biomass peaks that would probably be the target. Also peaking power is much more expensive than baseline power here since our baseline is coal.
If biochar doesn’t help well in the local soils then it could be used at the sewage plant possibly.
I’m in Northern Kentucky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Kentucky
Specifically Campbell County
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_County,_Kentucky
We range from urban at the north, to suburban in the middle, to rural in the south.
For inputs we have at least yard waste and Bush Honeysuckle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Honeysuckle
Bush Honeysuckle is an envasive species introduced over a century ago. While it’s advance is slow it has reached critical mass in the region. If you disturb 10 square meters of soil the birds will give at least one sprout within a year. Within 5 years the entire 10 square meters will be a mature honeysuckle. If cut to the ground each year thereafter it will grow back for years until it exhausts it’s resources.
“biomass input does not have to be trees” – The bush honeysuckle is a woody shrub. To use it UNsustainably would be a challenge and a goal. Stands of it could be thinned to allow other things like our endangered plants to grow in it’s shade. The roots would be left as they are needed to hold the soil in place until something else holds it.
Current alternatives to biochar are composting and landfilling with extensive landfill gas capture. One contributes to soil and the other produces energy. Neither does both.
“Carbon Credits” – We are in the carbon lawless west. “Kyoto? Is that the new SUV with the hot tub in the back?” Any carbon credit system operating now is voluntary. However regulation is coming soon.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-dioxide-auction
Both presidential candidates have stated they will do some kind of “cap and trade” arrangement.
The thing one has to remember about regulations is that they are limited to how they are written. If “cap and trade” regulates direct CO2 emissions only than capturing it in any form and sending into any non-regulated process avoids the emission. For example, creating Algae oil puts the carbon into the Algae which get turned into transport fuel which get emitted in an unregulated way (vehicles).
A law may contain certain kinds of inputs as being “Carbon Neutral” which would encourage conversion of biomass all the way down to ash to release all of it’s energy. It would be very hard to compete if the only value was not having an ash pit.
As far as energy output either the syngas would be used directly or electric generated from it. Since the electric peak is high in the summer afternoons which is the same time of year that biomass peaks that would probably be the target. Also peaking power is much more expensive than baseline power here since our baseline is coal.
If biochar doesn’t help well in the local soils then it could be used at the sewage plant possibly.
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