Here's a presentation on Terra Preta given during a seminar at Cornell. It gives a good overview of the current research & knowledge, although the contents are probably familiar to those following this forum.
Terra Preta to Bio-char : strengthening links between a model system and practical applications
http://ciifad.cornell.edu/activities...eill110806.pdf
I found slide 27 interesting as it shows some of the questions that still need to be answered...
Quote:
Biochar: obstacles and opportunities
• What will be the feedstocks?
• Can large amounts of uniform biochar be produced or is it so feedstock sensitive that each batch will be different?
• How can production be scaled to small or large operations.
• Are the economics of its production understood?
• Support – ethanol or biochar?
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From the previous forum post
here, we can see some initial research indicating that the type of feedstock does matter, at least when comparing peanut shells to woody biomass.
As for "ethanol or biochar", both processes may in the future be complementary. The bio-oil produced during pyrolysis can be gasified and made into synthesis gas, which can then be converted into ethanol through synthesis gas fermentation (
Biomass Program: Synthesis Gas Fermentation) or a fischer-tropsch process (
http://www.cseng.org.uk/pdf/Liquid%2...erview.prn.pdf see page 5).
