[MTUbiochar]

I'm a mechanical engineering student at Michigan Technological University. For one of my humanities classes we just started studying biochar, that's the main reason I signed up here.

[freeztar]

Welcome to Hypography!

I must ask, how are you studying biochar in a humanities class? It sounds interesting.

[MTUbiochar]

Well our class is two-fold, really. It's only a 7 week summer course, so everything is accelerated. The name of the class is "Science, Technology, and Humanities II"...yeah, pretty vague. The first day he explained it as a look at what the world is currently doing to protect the earth, basically. We talked about sustainability, green energy, etc.

He left the direction of the course up to us. He said we could either pick a country and study what they're doing as far as sustainable methods, or we could investigate biochar. We picked biochar, and so we've been looking at two different aspects of it.

First, we're conducting a feasibility study. Looking at what goes into the process, what comes out, what you can do with it, and if there is a need for it.
Second, we're experimenting with it. We want to learn first-hand how to make it, how to use it, what it does for gardens, etc.

Just yesterday we had our first trial run. We managed to turn a barrel of sticks black, so I guess it worked.

What is your interest in Biochar?

[freeztar]

That is quite an odd course title for such a class. It makes me wonder if your teacher would have preferred to call it "Sustainability" or something similar but then hid it under the guise of a scientific/humanities/tech course to insure approval by the dean. I've seen that done before.

Anyhow, I learned about biochar from this site. There's so much info here that it will make your head spin.

My interest in biochar (or Terra Preta) is from an environmental standpoint. The idea that we can increase soil fertility while at the same time sequestering carbon, is very appealing. Furthermore, through pyrolysis, it is possible to turn waste into usable fuel. Imo, every environmentalist should be screaming "char!" at the top of their lungs. I'm hoping that it will become mainstream in the not so distant future.