[erich]

UN Climate Change Conference: Biochar present at the Bali Conference

UN Climate Change Conference: Biochar present at the Bali Conference | Terra Preta

[erich]

Dynamotive to build fully commercial fast-pyrolysis biofuel plant in Missouri
12/05/07


"200 tons per day of wood by-products and residues from nearby sawmills into 34,000 gallons per day of bio-oil "

I'm guessing the char would be about 30 tons / day?

In Argentina, $50 million for 15.7 Megawatt Plant, a bit costly per Megawatt;

"Each complex will be comprised of a 15.7 megawatt electricity generating station powered by the majority of the fuel output of two 200-ton-per-day modular plants producing bio-oil from wood waste and residues from nearby forests and other biomass residue. Excess bio-oil produced at these facilities will be sold into commercial and industrial fuel markets"

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa



Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar@aol.com

[Michaelangelica]

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

United Nations Climate Change Conference - Bali, 3 - 14 December 2007

All eyes on Bali for a crucial breakthrough on climate change
Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC Executive Secretary:
Bali, the “island of the Gods,” is a prime example of the beauty of our natural environment. At the same time, Indonesia has first-hand experience of the extreme weather events caused by climate change. Bali is therefore a poignant setting for the forthcoming crucial international negotiations on the way forward to save our planet from the devastating effects of global warming.
more

[Michaelangelica]

The Barli conference
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Methods & Science

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

[erich]

UNCCD: Sustainable land management for adaptation to climate change
Presented by the UNCCD

A brief report on the UNCCD side event that featured the biochar
presentations at Bali can be found at:

ENBOTS @ United Nations Climate Change Conference - Bali, Side Events convened on Thursday, 13 December 2007

Hopefully the presentations will be available soon at the UNCCD website or
from the authors.

Excerpt:

"Goodspeed Kopolo, UNCCD Secretariat, presented on the potential role of
biochar, a type of charcoal produced from biomass, to enhance sustainable
land management and sequester carbon. He listed benefits of biochar as a
carbon sink under the CDM, noting that additionality and permanence of
sequestration are assured, and the baseline is simple. He described actions
required for biochar to be recognized under the CDM, namely: revision of
the additionality test and of LULUCF rules to include biochar; and the
engagement of all stakeholders to ensure its inclusion in a post-2012
climate regime.

Wolfgang Zech, Bayreuth University, Germany, emphasized that land
degradation affects all continents. He described the positive effects that
charcoal, used in conjunction with mineral fertilizers, can have on
improving soil organic matter and land productivity, and sequestering
carbon.

Christoph Steiner, University of Georgia, US, stressed that use of charcoal
as a soil amendment is not new. He highlighted research and development
into the production of biochar as a by-product of gasification, with
simultaneous sustainable land management and carbon sequestration benefits.
He noted that a CDM market could make biochar widely available.

Participants discussed strategies for ensuring inclusion of biochar within
the CDM in a post-2012 regime."

More information
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Contacts
Goodspeed Kopolo <gkopolo@unccd.int>
Wolfgang Zech <w.zech@uni-bayreuth.de>
Christoph Steiner <csteiner@engr.uga.edu>

[erich]

Hi All,
These folks are working in association with Danny Day and Virginia Tech . They are talking of having products and equipment out this year!


Genesis Industries, as the current licensee of Eprida technology, provides you with a carbon negative Eprida energy machine at the same cost as going direct to Eprida. Through our technical support staff we also provide you with the information to obtain the best utilization of the biocharcoal that is produced by the machine. Recent research has shown that Eprida charcoal can increase plant productivity as it sequesters carbon in the soil, thus helping reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.

eGenesis Industries : HOME


Seeing the film background of their executives , I sent a post imploring the production of a Wee Beastie animation of TP soil and their benefits.

THE CAST:
In E. O. Wilson's "The Future of Life" he opens the book with a letter to Thoreau updating him on our current understanding of the nature of the ecology of the soils at Walden Pond.


" These arthropods are the giants of the microcosm (if you will allow me to continue what has turned into a short lecture). Creatures their size are present in dozens-hundreds, if an ant or termite colony is presents. But these are comparatively trivial numbers. If you focus down by a power of ten in size, enough to pick out animals barely visible to the naked eye, the numbers jump to thousands. Nematode and enchytraied pot worms, mites, springtails, pauropods, diplurans, symphylans, and tardigrades seethe in the underground. Scattered out on a white ground cloth, each crawling speck becomes a full-blown animal. Together they are far more striking and divers in appearance than snakes, mice, sparrows, and all the other vertebrates hereabouts combined. Their home is a labyrinth of miniature caves and walls of rotting vegetable debris cross-strung with ten yards of fungal threads. And they are just the surface of the fauna and flora at our feet. Keep going, keep magnifying until the eye penetrates microscopic water films on grains of sand, and there you will find ten billion bacteria in a thimbleful of soil and frass. You will have reached the energy base of the decomposer world as we understand it 150 years after you sojourn in Walden Woods."



Certainly there remains much work to just characterize all the estimated 1000 species of microbes found in a pinch of soil, and Wilson concludes at the end of the prolog that
"Now it is up to us to summon a more encompassing wisdom."

I have been researching Metagenomic work with soils, a DNA assay technique which allows study of entire microbe communities, Metagenomics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'm Way over my head, sending emails to convince these guys to support a Metagenomic Project for Terra Preta Soil Technology.

We have been groping in the microbial dark for a very long time, now with tools like Metagenomics, we will see the light of our symbiotic relationships with weebeasties in our health as well as our soils.
I sent off my TP post & links to all the contacts on the soils studies on this list ;
http://www.genomesonline.org/gold.cgi?want=Metagenomes

Cheers,
Erich

[diazotrophicus]

Hi,
in case someone gets near Sherwood Forest:
Exchange Morning Post
diazotrophicus

[erich]

From the IBI web page:
New Information and Upcoming Events and Conferences

October 5 - 8, 2008: Houston Texas

The 2008 SSSA/CSSA/ASA Annual Meetings will held jointly with the Geological Society of America (GSA). The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is holding a session on black carbon/biochar. Click on the following prospectus for more information.


SSSA Session: Black Carbon in Soils and Sediments



March 10, 2008:

Conference on the Ecological Dimensions of Biofuels
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Washington, DC, March 10, 2008

On March 10, 2008, The Ecological Society of America will host a one-day conference on the Ecological Dimensions of Biofuels. 500 attendees will have the opportunity to hear invited presentations by leading scientists on:
- sustainable development and use of biofuels;
- social, bio-geographic, land use, and biodiversity considerations;
- ecological dimensions of alternatives for crop selection and production, harvest and transport of product to refinery, and refining of liquid fuels and other co-products.

Full details, including an agenda, confirmed speakers, and sponsorship opportunities, are available at ESA Meetings > Conference on the Ecological Dimensions of Biofuels

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI)

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by erich

On March 10, 2008, The Ecological Society of America will host a one-day conference on the Ecological Dimensions of Biofuels. 500 attendees will have the opportunity to hear invited presentations by leading scientists on:
- sustainable development and use of biofuels;
- social, bio-geographic, land use, and biodiversity considerations;
- ecological dimensions of alternatives for crop selection and production, harvest and transport of product to refinery, and refining of liquid fuels and other co-products.

Full details, including an agenda, confirmed speakers, and sponsorship opportunities, are available at ESA Meetings > Conference on the Ecological Dimensions of Biofuels

I so wish I could make it to this. Alas, not this year. I hope to one day be an ESA member.
Thanks for the info!

[Philip Small]

Originally Posted by erich

October 5 - 8, 2008: Houston Texas

The 2008 SSSA/CSSA/ASA Annual Meetings will held jointly with the Geological Society of America (GSA). The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is holding a session on black carbon/biochar.

SSSA Session: Black Carbon in Soils and Sediments

I'm going.