Terra Preta Web Site at;
Terra Preta | Intentional use of charcoal in soil
It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal, M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of G. I. T. , Dr. Antel of U. of H., Several Virginia Tech folks and many others who's back round I don't know have joined. Registration has averaged one or two per day over the last few weeks.
ABOUT;
Welcome to the Website for the Terra Preta Discussion List:
terrapreta@bioenergylists.org
This new addition ("Terra Preta") to the suite of bioenergy lists is going to strive to be the primary world web location for technical discussions on a new possible important use for biomass (that is described below). We have chosen the term "Terra Preta" (hereafter TP to save typing) as most of your search hits on these words will return valuable information. The term fits well-enough with the five other biomass-oriented discussion lists (bioenergy, stoves, gasification, bioconversion, anaerobic digestion) – all of which have the world-wide audience that we hope the Portuguese words for “Black Earth” will also connote. However, the topics to be discussed here are also known as "biochar" and "agrichar". Still other names will certainly appear and perhaps cause us to rename this site -which we are starting this day so that there is a convenient single site for dialog of the type found on the other "bioenergylists".
I have agreed to be the primary Terra Preta list coordinator at the request of Tom Miles and Ron Larson. Tom has been in this biomass discussion-list business since 1994 (mostly paying for everything out of his own pocket – Thanks Tom). I feel comfortable taking on this task because of the quality of Tom’s work and because the quality of the many list discussions have been apparent to me for many years. Ron and I have communicated a bit on Terra Preta topics for several months. I also agreed to take on this task because of words of encouragement that came out of Ron’s six-seven years as the first Coordinator of the successful “Stoves” list for which Tom has recently been the primary Coordinator. A recent TP paper by Ron from “Solar Today” magazine has been up on the “gasification” website for a few months –and now is as well on the TP web site. Ron reports that the TP topic was under discussion on “stoves” about 4 years ago – because of Ron’s own continuing interest in charcoal-making. One (two?) of my own recent internet letters is also up now on our own TP site– courtesy of Ron and Tom. The third Coordinator is >>>>>>
What does “TP” denote? By this term, I mean the intentional placement of charcoal in soil. Surprisingly, it is now becoming apparent that doubling and tripling of soil productivity can result. Surprising also that TP’s invention and proof of productivity improvements dates back several thousand years in Brazil. We hope that soil scientists around the world will contribute to this list with soil answers needed by those others of us interested in a very different aspect of TP soils. That different aspect is that the sequestered charcoal is taking CO2 out of the atmosphere – apparently at a lower cost than any other means of doing so. Hopefully, a large percentage of submissions to this new list will concentrate on TP’s climate benefits (and costs).
Lastly, on this list especially we expect to see a lot on production of charcoal – the third main aspect of TP needing your input. We expect some reading this to be skeptical that a fuel that worldwide is more popular than wood should be dumped in the ground at a time when we are hoping biomass can slowly replace our dwindling fossil fuels. Making this case, or disproving it, is the purpose of this discussion list. Let us hear from you. My job, which Tom and Ron say is easy, is to keep us on topic. They have committed to supply me a whole slew of TP questions that they feel are not yet well enough answered. Let us all hear your questions – and answers.
Erich Knight, Terra Preta List Coordinator
Ron Larson, Associate Coordinator
Tom Miles, Bioenergylists Administrator tmiles at trmiles.com
Erich J. Knight
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