Thanks to Geoff for this quick synopsis, I was expecting great news, but this multi-confirmation on GHG soil emissions is overwhelming.
WOW!..............I was impressed with the 6 cobs of Nikolaus Foidl previous work, 4 on the stalk & 2 on side shoots, but 15 ..unreal! Let me guess......9 on the stalk & 6 on the side shoots?
Give your char an Aspirin and call me from the County Fair with the Blue ribbon.
Holly Cow!....Sacred Trees .... Char raises the Dead ....Maybe we should form this into a religion
"grumbled about throwing eggs" .......make sure they are stinky eggs.
This is not just more research "ammo", it's an arsenal.
Erich
On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:19 AM, teraniageoff <teraniageoff@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all
Sorry I have been so slow to post about the conference but I've been busy with cleanup after our big wet event.
Lotsa biomass around... just floats past...
Anyone thinking they can grok biochar without being a generalist, cross-disciplinarian, and a gardener for your own food needs, gentle reality check re-aligning.
The abstracts of the conference are at
http://www.anzbiochar.org/AP%20BioCh...ence-may09.pdf
now I believe.
I will try to do a more detailed referenced account, but below are those of 64 presentations which i would have to say, except for one*, just unequivocally supported each other under an umbrella of collaborative rigorous scientific investigation, proceeding at a fearsome pace.
Below this I paste my arrangment of the items in the pdf in areas of interest to Biochar.
Taster 1
1. A characterisation technique has emerged using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and SEM microprobes, that has lead to a characteristic positive ID of TP qualities, from say HYDROCHAR (Max Planck Inst), which appears to be good C sequestration and useless biochar. The C-rings in graphene sheets resonate as ring currents that can be 'easily' detected.
2. The same techniques have been applied to "Terra Preta Australis", found in cooking pit/mounds in Victoria, which matched the Amazonian twin peak aromatic peak profile. These TPA soils were radiocarbon dated, at 600 - 1300 y. C still present in large percentages.
3. Nikoluas Foidl in Brazil has got 15 cobs to a plant, 250% growth in yield, 180% sorghum, and 32 cm sunflower heads, with windrow TP including torrefied wood which was colonised by small applications of salycylic acid (natural plant hormone in willow bark) in the biochar to stimulate hyphae growth.
4. Japanese organic farmer of 5 years found his chickens dead and threw his biochar on them in grief and frustration and they revived ( an hilarious presentation, won the best award:"no don't laugh not funny... really happened.." ) At 28 days he now deliberately induces the disease and then fasts them and goes 100 % char day one, 75%, 50%, and then 1% thereafter. His eggs are odourless and now command premium prices at 250% x current price. Feeding a charcoal ration to cows, and pigs and hoomans also works. nono not funny true.
5. Japanese professor presenting conclusive results in tree doctoring some sacred pines with DIEBACK, by a ring of BC at the dripline inoculated with azobacter, which then stay sequestered, as well as the C.
6. Evelyn Krull showed extraordinary results of ratios of char in estuary sands at Fitzroy as high as 50%. ( leading to a huge discussion about whether the regime of top burning without incorporating into the soil has steadily sequestered our biomass hard C on the continental shelf)
7. DPI Wollongbar showing results (peer reviewed) of 90 - 97% N2O sequestration (280 x CO2 equiv.) in the field trials.
*Different oral, but same results from Lincoln University NZ.
*Same again from DPI Pennant Hills with incubation trials
[ I asked Josh Rust why this utterly ground-breaking ag news didn't have a press gaggle after it. He's a bit puzzled too. It's huge news. I will find out.
8. Dept Ag WA found decreased need for fert in wheat crops with biochar.
9. NNSW cane farmer Robert Quirk found the same for his cane and is doing a nil fert crop
next year.
NON-SCHIZOPHRENIC LIST OF BIOCHAR'S APPLICATION AREAS
Preamble.
Please be assured that all the presentations listed were showing a positive outcome for biochar, some extraordinary, [for eg Foidl's findings of 250% increase in maize yields].
2 presentations by Steel makers, a presentation showing Hydrochar (58 bar) inferior to slow pyrolysis low pressure biochar, and presentations relating to organisations supporting kiln design and biochar application processes have been omitted.
# denotes the page number in the pdf and the programme, which also became defacto poster location number.
* denotes that I consider these very significant presentations and am in process of writing a detailed summary sheet of the key findings and important outcomes presented orally (in my notes) and omitted from the written abstracts, for example Hirokawa's gave us his exact formula, and his chicken life-saving episode has HUGE implications for livestock health and auto BC dispersal, Ogawa's sacred tree-saving techniques has HUGE implications for dieback and forestry, and Foidl's 15 cob to the plant corn, is gob-smacking.
1. NOx reductions, Methane and GHG - C sequestration
*#66 Annette Cowie NSW DPI Pennant Hills, Greenhouse gas mitigation benefits of biochar as a soil amendment
#68 Yoshiyuki Shinogi Nat Inst for rural engineering, Japan, Estimation of of net carbon sequestration potential with farmland application of bagasse char with life-cycle analysis through a pilot pyrolysis plant.
*#69 Leo Condron, Lincoln U NZ, Biochar effects on Nitrous Oxide emissions from a pasture soil
*#71 Bhuperinderpal Singh NSW DPI W Pennant hills, Influence of biochars on Nitrous oxide emission and nutrient leaching from 2 contrasting soils.
*#74 Steve Kimber NSW DPI Wollongbar, Biochar holds potential for reducing soil emissions of GHGs
# 87Lukas van Swieten, Nitrogen use efficiency improves using greenwaste biochar.
2 Characterisation progress
*#33 Ron Smernik, A simple method of determining biochar condensation. U Adel.;
*#35 C Chia, Development of a synthetic TP characterisation
#36 William Aitkenhead Massey Uni NZ, Detailed characterisation of BCs from NZ feedstocks.
#38 Balwant Singh, U Syd., lab procedures for evaluation of biochars
#40 Michael Bird, James Cook U, Cairns, Black carbon characterisation to determine behaviour of BCs in depositional environments
#44 Marta Camps-Arbestain, Massey U, Characterisation of chars from different carbonisation processes.
#98 Marta Camps-Arbestain, Massey U NZ, Walking firmly on the ground; establishing characterisation and C accounting.
3 millenial soil residence time
# 27 Evelyn Krull, How stable and how accurately do we need to know? CSIRO , Glen Osmond SA.
#29 Bhupinderpal Singh, Turnover of BCs in soils. NSW DPI W Pennant Hills
#42 F X Yao Massey U NZ, Simulating the weathering of BC with a SOXHLET reactor
#57 Joe Herbertson Cucible Carbon, Carbon abatement potential and sustainability credibilty of rainbow bee-eater project.
4 Agricultural benefits+
Fertiliser reduction
#45 Lynn M MacDonald , CSIRO, A fundamental Understanding of Biochar: Implications and opportunities for the grains industry.
*#58 Lukas van Sweiten, NSW DPI Wollongbar, Agro-economic valuation of biochar using field-derived data
# 79 Katrina Sinclair, NSW DPI Wollongbar, Productivity and nutrient availability in a ferrosol; biochar and lime and fertiliser
*#80 Paul Blackwell, DAF WA Geraldton, Evidence for biochar saving fertiliser for dryland wheat production in WA
#83 Helen Free, Massey U NZ. Effects of biochar on maize germination.
#85 Paul Blackwell, Concepts of dryland farming systems incorporating biochar and and carbon-rich biological fertilisers
#86 David Waters NSW DPI Wagga Wagga, Soil nutrient retention under biochar-amended broadacre cropping soils in S NSW.
#89 Zakaria Solaiman U WA, Effects of biochar on mycorrhizal colonisation in subterranean clover and wheat toxicity reduction,
#41 Ajit Sarmah, Landcare Research NZ, Retention capacity for 3 types of BC for estrogenic hormones in dairy farm soils
*#48 Chris Williams SARDI, Assessment of yield , salt tolerance and and energy conversion for Arundo Donax for biochar feedstock
*#81 Tsuyosi Hirokawa, Int Charcoal cooperative association , Japan. Charcoal application for poultry farming.
#84 Yoshiyuki Shinogi, Nat Inst for rural eng japan, Effect of bagasse charcoal and digested slurry on sugarcane growth and physical properties of Shimariji-maji soil
Farm forestry
*#61 prof Makoto Ogawa, Osaka Inst Technology Japan Charcoal use in agriculture in Japan (dying sacred trees were saved by biochar trench application with Arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation/colonisation, at the dripline: has implications for Australian dieback reduction, Forestry)
#82 Chairil Siregar, Forestry Reseach and Devt Agency, Ministry of forestry Indonesia. Effect of biochar on on soil amelioration and growth of Ac, mangium, Michelia montana
Flood resistance
*#77 Robert Quirk canefarmer Duranbah, NNSW, The role of biochar in the agricultural landscape: a farmers perspective.
6 TP Australis and historic evidence
*# 32 Nikolaus Foidl, 20 yo Bolivian TP analysis, Venearth group USA [this presentation is agricultural also as it included use of Salycilic acid in biochar, as a hyphae stimulator to produce 32cm dia sunflowers and 15 cobs per corn plant.]
*#64 Adriana Downie BEST Energies Australia, discovering Terrapreta Australis: Rethinking the capacity of Australian soils to sequester C.
more as conditions allow
geoff
PS I have been contemplating that atmosphere of collaborative,
co-operative critiquing I was immersed in. THAT is what I wish this list and TP researchers generally would "get"
How to convey that picture?
Heinberg's boat analogy with some folks punching holes while others mend them and still others cut themselves adrift on rafts rather than go to the bottom with the idiots over there...
I like to think all parties will overcome the "ha ha your end of the boat is sinking" thing, and get on with Folke Gunther's dream of 90% powerdown and 2 Gt/year sequestered over 20 years. We can do it.
g
*Bluescope wanting char for steel carburising, many people went for
coffee and grumbled about throwing eggs.
