Terra Preta in the news

[Michaelangelica]

I no engineer but have a look at the BEST Energies website and see if that helps
Also the thread hear on Pyrolysis
here are acouple of search results from agoogle search There are many others.

Australian pyrolysis technology leads the world in demonstrating ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
atmosphere) renewable energy production. the. collaborative research, development and. commercialisation program between bEst Energies and ...
http://www.greenhouse2007.com/downlo...ieAbstract.pdf

Adriana Downie talks about Best Energies pyrolysis gasifier and ...

3 Jun 2008 ... This morning on Beyond Zero we are interviewing Adriana Downey, Technical Manger at Best Energies. Her company is involved in pyrolysis, ...
Adriana Downie talks about Best Energies pyrolysis gasifier and making bio char (Terra Preta) | Zero Emissions Climate Change Global Warming Solution - 29k

[Michaelangelica]

Unprovoked Propaganda Campaign Against Biochar Unhelpful and Dishonest
Unprovoked Propaganda Campaign Against Biochar Unhelpful and Dishonest Global Climate Solutions

[erich]

TP in the News;

Egen Industries, who work with Danny Day and EPRIDA, .eGenesis Industries : HOME
told me that Time Magazine will be running a Biochar article next month.


NSW DPI News;

"Recent studies have found a 150 per cent increase in corn yield when biochar is applied at the rate of 20 tonnes to the hectare."

Biochar revolution to benefit climate and agriculture | NSW Department of Primary Industries


But none of us will have time to read the news because of the massive homework assignment that Ron's report just left us with. ( Ron Larson's IBI report on conference thread)

Cheerfully hitting the books
Erich

[Eclipse Now]

Cool! James Hansen is now supporting and specifically mentioning Biochar.
See my blog post here, where I've linked to an 18 page PDF people can download to get the context.

Eclipse Now: Climatologist James Hansen backs Biochar!

My only concern is that I don't have the time to read all the reports from the IBI... could anyone summarise the following questions for me?

The questions I wish would be answered by the IBI at the conference.

1. What volumes of CO2 can Biochar really remove from the atmosphere?
2. With what crops?
3. How quickly can the Biochar cookers be deployed and at what initial capital cost?
4. At what price will they run? Where does the carbon trading price need to be to make these viable in the long term?
5. How much gas or fuel could be generated for the rural communities, and what will agriculture use for fuel if they do not generate enough energy?
6. Can solar thermal power be used to generate the heat for the Biochar cooker so that ALL the syngas can be saved for farm use, instead of half being used in the next burn?
7. (Does anyone know if syngas itself can be used to drive a tractor, harvester, and other farm equipment, or do we have to spend more money and energy converting the syngas into synfuel?)

[Flying Binghi]

"Recent studies have found a 150 per cent increase in corn yield when biochar is applied at the rate of 20 tonnes to the hectare."

Does anybody have an average weight of a cubic metre of biochar ?

[erich]

About 550 lbs / m3 , depending on size of char particles

[Eclipse Now]

My fellow peak-oil activists thought I was claiming too much for Biochar, and so I've had to edit my 4-year disclaimer to include the following. I love Biochar, but don't want to see TOO much claimed for it. So after my previous 4 points in favour of Biochar, basically a round up of the summary pieces out there, I had to include point 5. It's mainly about the amount of energy Biochar could produce.

Cheers.

Eclipse Now: Replenish the soil

5. Not a Silver Bullet for peak oil
The reason I rave about Biochar so much is that I get frustrated when I see an important 'niche' solution being ignored by the mainstream press and policy makers. With some serious funding and implementation, it seems that Biochar could help at least rural communities adapt to a post oil world. If the economies of scale bring the price down I'm allowing myself to hope that we might one day at least have an agricultural sector that is oil free! However I have never presented it as the "Solution" to peak oil.

I do not believe even Eprida claim that they can supply all our liquid fuels in this manner. "10 tons of any woody or plant biomass and turns it into 1 ton of charcoal and 3.2 tons of diesel." That's about 3 tons of biomass for every ton of diesel. We are simply not going to grow that much biomass and turn it into diesel! Just a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows why.

We use roughly 85 million barrels a day of liquid fuel each day.
Divide by 7.33 (barrels / ton) = 11.596 million tons of fuel a day.

According to the figures above, we need 3.125 tons of biomass to get 1 ton of diesel. That means we'd need to find 36.238 million tons of biomass to cook up each day, or 13.2 trillion tons of biomass a year to replace all our liquid fuel use from Biochar!! When one considers that the world grain harvest each year is only 2.2 trillion tons a year, even if the agriwaste volume is double the actual grain weight (in removed husks, corn stalks, plant mass etc), we're still going to fall short of our daily fuel needs. I haven't even counted the amount of energy this system takes to run. ABC's Catalyst informs us that about half the syngas created in one Biochar burn is used to power the next burn!

Let's eliminate this problem by "just assuming" that the whole world uses solar thermal heat to cook the Biochar so that all the synfuel can be saved for energy use. Where else might the fuel be needed?

As one peak oiler I respect said:

Or as Rob from Transition Culture put it:

If Biochar can help us develop a more sustainable post-oil agricultural revolution (combined with many other drastic changes to agriculture), and reduce some of our Co2 burden, shouldn't we just be thankful? Complaining that it does not also completely replace oil as well seems a bit unreasonable. One problem at a time please! I see Biochar as one of many solutions to the oil and climate crisis, and when I say 'solution' I do not mean that the transition will be pain free! (I still see a Great Depression as pretty much unavoidable).

Biochar will not solve peak oil. We will still need to REZONE our cities around New Urbanism and cycling, rebuild RAIL that runs on renewable electrons, REDESIGN industry around "Cradle to Cradle" recycling systems to reduce our dependence on raw materials and chemical feed stocks, RESTORE local ecosystem services and lastly, REDUCE population by creating a worldwide demographic transition. These things are achievable using a wide range of policy measures, but I'd hate anyone to misrepresent my enthusiasm for Biochar as some kind of 'cure all' for every crisis we face. I don't think I can be any clearer.

[Eclipse Now]

What about those that argue we'll never have the fuel to collect all the agri-waste from the farm paddocks, haul it 200 km's to the nearest Biochar plant, drive the 200km's back with the Biochar, and then use even more fuel spreading it all back out over the soil?

Are any Biochar agricultural enthusiasts looking at the fuel issues in all this, or is fuel just assumed? Imagine you live in a country that in about 5 to 10 years may not be able to import oil for agriculture. (See the Export Land Model). If 10 tons of biomass produce only 1 ton of fuel, how efficiently are we going to be able to collect it? Has anyone considered redesigning the combine harvester to collect both the grain AND agriwaste at the same time to save fuel, then divide it later at a collection point and truck the grain one way and Biomass the other?

These integrated system approaches are what nations need to be considering NOW so that we can have a truly sustainable post-oil agriculture, that and closing the one way nutrient flow from our farm soils to food to our tables and toilets then out to sea.

Any thoughts on how viable Biochar will be on any massive scales in a post-oil world?

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Eclipse Now

What about those that argue we'll never have the fuel to collect all the agri-waste from the farm paddocks, haul it 200 km's to the nearest Biochar plant, drive the 200km's back with the Biochar, and then use even more fuel spreading it all back out over the soil?

Are any Biochar agricultural enthusiasts looking at the fuel issues in all this, or is fuel just assumed? Imagine you live in a country that in about 5 to 10 years may not be able to import oil for agriculture. (See the Export Land Model). If 10 tons of biomass produce only 1 ton of fuel, how efficiently are we going to be able to collect it? Has anyone considered redesigning the combine harvester to collect both the grain AND agriwaste at the same time to save fuel, then divide it later at a collection point and truck the grain one way and Biomass the other?

These integrated system approaches are what nations need to be considering NOW so that we can have a truly sustainable post-oil agriculture, that and closing the one way nutrient flow from our farm soils to food to our tables and toilets then out to sea.

Any thoughts on how viable Biochar will be on any massive scales in a post-oil world?

While this is off-topic to the thread, I can't resist a reply.

I partially agree with you Eclispe Now, but I also think that you might be viewing it in overly-complex ways.

To get activated char, it's quite likely that you would need a big facility for that, to produce it in any meaningful amounts for a community. But AC is not necessary for agriculture. From the best of my knowledge, low-temp char is actually best for ag. This can be done locally. For example, farmers growing corn could use the same machinery they currently use, but instead of throwing away, grinding and mulching, or burning the "waste product", they could put it through pyrolysis and locally create a char product with very little capital invested.

Also, let's not forget that biofuel is a byproduct of pyrolysis. This should help with transportation factor, yeah?

[Eclipse Now]

Maybe I should start a thread on how much biomass a road-train can carry, how much fuel they burn carrying the biomass to the Biochar plant, and... everything to do with farm fuel consumption, trucks, trucking, and other Biochar to fuel efficiency measures.

We only have a few years before the terminal decline of oil production sets in. That means globally maybe 3% less oil forever, but regionally and nationally — can you imagine what will happen when oil hits $300 a barrel? Have we all visualised the very nasty and unequal way 3% global oil decline will play out? Basically when peak oil hits a country they stop exporting oil way before they stop producing oil. They can go from their maximum oil exports to importing oil very quickly. (6 years in the UK from 'peak exports' to becoming a net oil importer!)




So if we are tempted to think "Ha, 3% oil decline is EASY to manage" think again. It simply will not play out like that in countries like Australia and America that import so much of our oil. If Australia was suddenly forced to rely on domestic production, we'd hit a Greater Depression overnight... and face the worst kind of oil rationing.

I'm at the point where I'm wondering if we have enough oil to transition smoothly into the post oil world? Do we actually have the time to build all these biochar factories?