Biochar: It’s elemental my dear Watson

An article I posted on newsvine.

It just occurred to me why I find Biochar so interesting.

First let’s review what Biochar is. Basically you burn something woody without air and you get charcoal. This isn’t the charcoal you buy in the store. It’s the charcoal you find at the bottom of a campfire. Basically if the hot coals don’t get air they cool off and become charcoal.

This thing about Biochar is, it is microporous (it has a bunch of cavities in it like a sponge, but not soft like a sponge). That allows it to store water, create a home for microbes safe from worms, and allow certain soil chemistry process work faster. It the right conditions it promotes growth like a fertilizer but it is not a fertilizer, it is a soil amendment. Most of the time it stays in the soil for long periods as evidenced by charcoal produced from ancient volcanoes, south American agriculture, and even northern American industrial revolution ironworks. It not part of the ecosystem it is a catalyst for it.

Besides that description why are people so drawn to it?

I hope I don’t offend anyone by saying I don’t believe in the mystical elemental forces of earth, wind, fire, and water. But to a certain extent we all have these very basic concepts in the back of our minds. The wind (air) part of our thoughts is attracted to removing the carbon from the air and returning it to the ground(earth). The fire in our mind’s eye gets to come out to play in the creation of Biochar. The water in our imaginations gets to stay in the earth a little longer. And the earth soil part of ideas is happy to make a home for water and fire to support the roots of life and draw more carbon from the air back into itself.

A bit mystical? Perhaps. But it’s on the same line as why to red cars sell better? Simply because most people like red. It doesn’t make them work better.

However Biochar does work under the right conditions. In addition to that it does multiple things at once. Even if you do not belive that CO2 in the air is causing an issue, Biochar also helps plants to simply grow better with less help. That help being water and fertilizer. Also there are ways to make Biochar that produce usable energy rather than use energy. That activates the love of multiuse items (swiss army knife) part of our brains.

Just like anything else that is practical it has limits. Certain soils are helped more and certain woody things make better Biochar. Also harvesting every last tree in the world isn’t an option. Old growth forests have much more value than the lumber they contain.

However Biochar is one of those things that can work off of non-prime material. In other words it doesn’t have to be the best wood in the world to have use as Biochar. Now not anything will work but there is far more scrap biomass that is not used today. Take for instance forests (and grasslands) that are prone to wildfires. Those random woody leftovers could be good for Biochar. Those weedy invasive plants growing in highway medians could be useful. Actually any invaisve is a candidate. Harvest the invasive plants and replace with native ones. Also yard waste is another candidate. We have to remember that leaving wood rot in a forest is part of the ecosystem as well and that compost and mulch have their uses. But there is room here to do something helpful.

Biochar can also provide work for many people. While there is a high-tech part to Biochar production, simple Biochar can be made the way it was made over a thousand years ago. The key to labor in this time where we find it difficult to keep all working is to provide way where work can do multiple things at once.

5th Grade Biochar

Above are some graphs from a 5th grade "biochar" project.

OK. It doesn't say biochar in the report and we used AMMO-CARB (a fish aquarium charcoal/zelolite mix). The detailed data is here.

It didn't "win" but is caught some attention.

No copyright (just don't plagerize).

This site is only monitored rarely (doesn't that happen to them all). I'll try to answer questions if I get back here.