Meaning and Mantra
Among other things, the term biochar means regenerated forests, good food, and a thousand small power producers replacing fossil coal, oil and fertilizer with competitive renewable alternatives. In short, it stands for building a restorative economy that leaves Pacific Northwest kids with a place to call home and really mean it.
Biochar is a form of charcoal with a unique chemistry, morphology and Carbon locking ability known to stimulate the kind of microbial activity in soils that promote plant growth and disease resilience.
Why is this important? Because dark black carbon rich earths (some known as "Terra preta") of anthropogenic origin are being found in several countries that do amazing things for soil viability, nutrient conservation, water retention and crop yields.
Biochar's recalcitrant black Carbons resist decay in the ground for over 1000 years. Because each handful of biochar put in the ground removes CO2 from the atmospheric Carbon cycle, biochar could become one of the most valuable greenhouse gas abatement tools available to everyone.
It's production and use in soil puts Pacific Northwest farmers, ranchers, forest owners, agribusiness, gardeners and other land management stakeholders at the forefront of a sustainable food and fiber industry intent on mitigating climate change.
What is the potential benefit from crops grown in soils that permanently subtract carbon from the air? Well, you get to decide by choosing to purchase products grown by those investing in this new carbon-negative economy.
How It's Made
Biochar is made through a process called pyrolysis, where biomass is "baked" with little oxygen under controlled temperatures and pressures. This releases a highly useful volatile gas and leaves a charred material that is 95% Carbon. (OK, it's just charcoal at this point, and to truly become biochar, it must be put in the soil.)
A small fraction of the gas is used to perpetuate the production process and the remainder can be used to generate carbon subtractive electricity, heat for adjacent buildings, hydrogen gas, bio-crudes for oils and fuels, and Nitrogen for bio-fertilizers.
Feedstocks can come from farm, forest and urban biomass waste streams. They include materials like hay, nut shells, wood chips, manures, old tires, and construction debris.
Instead of maximizing throughput for any single output, the biochar biorefinery optimizes the process for multiple beneficial outcomes.
A C-Minus Certification
Not all biochar carbons do the job, so the good ones deserve an "A+" for performing C-Minus work. Your purchases make you part of an international effort to certify and validate biochar products on proven results. In addition to recognition under programs like OMRI and LEED, a new "Sequestered Carbon" certification is needed for consumer protection or to validate carbon credits in the Carbon Market.
There are many kinds of char and environmental black carbons, but not all are toxin free, beneficial to plants or able to sequester carbon.
Chars with partially preserved plant chemistry and morphology are thought to play an important role in improving the soil foodweb. They are known to preserve the carbon-nitrogen balance, improve tilth, increase cation exchange, retain moisture, prevent nutrient loss, reduce acidity and provide a home for the beneficial microbes necessary for plant growth.
But, despite good intentions to use char for soil fertility, not all kinds of carbon stay in the ground for long - many become food for soil microbes and are released back into the air as CO2. Only refractory carbons can guarantee climate change mitigation by endure for hundreds of years.
Carbon Balancing Economics
New biochar manufacturing facilities create green jobs of every collar. The bioenergy and soil fertility products from these investments can help stimulate local markets and add to the list of green product exports that bring capital into the region.
Even more significant, though, is how the production and use of biochar for soil fertility and preservation can be the foundation of a bioregional economy that thrives on capturing carbon from the atmosphere and sinking it in the ground.
Vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, timber, pulp, nursery stocks and other plant materials that are grown in managed biochar soils can qualify as "Sequestered Carbon" products.
And just as Organically Grown and Forest Stewardship Council certifications support exemplary practices in the making of farm, range and forest products, an equivalent kind of certification will help support those food and fiber producers choosing to mitigate climate change by adding many layers of stable carbon chars to their soils.
Products labeled with a "Sequestered Carbon" certification will empower all kinds of consumers to save the planet with their purchases, regionally, nationally and beyond. Imagine being able to choose between a conventionally grown apple and a certified Organically Grown and "Sequestered Carbon" apple. Which would you buy?
The Long View
Many answers to the present convergence of worldwide economic, energy, security and climate change crises are banking on the expected long-term availability of biomass resources. Consequently, nations built on oil and coal, like ours, will be compelled to become nations built on soil and char to survive.
Since the renewability of these natural resources depend almost entirely on how well soils are husbanded, attention given to improving farm, ranch, forest and urban soils is attention given to the stability of any country.
In many ways, it is soil that feeds, clothes and structures your confidence in the future. These soils are the roots of green jobs and natural capital. They are the sustainable reserves of fuel for mobility and exploration. And they just happen to be the best, most economical and ubiquitous place to stash excess atmospheric carbon.
By using biochar, you will be applying one of those straightforward "silver buckshot" solutions that can succeed where single shots at a solution fail. You will help pull away from the currents of these worldwide crises, as by conditioning your soils for the long haul.
The Stuff of Sustainability
Farms and forests, both rural and urban, are vital to the health of both city and countryside. From the intention to capitalize on subtracting carbon from the air come opportunities to improve the condition of these environments and grow more renewable natural resources.
The most viable energy production and soil preservation practices possible. This project represents an investment in creating those conditions.
Energy is the source of all economic activity. The livability and economic stability of our cities will depend on investments in the vitality of rural communities. The continued greening of urban infrastructure is essential, but these improvements alone are unlikely to provide the surplus of energy or reduction in carbon footprint necessary to sustain a thriving urban community. More energy, food, and water resources are needed than urban buildings, streets and farms can provide. The magnitude of change needed has never been so great.
The vitality of rural resources is a natural solace for these urban needs. Rural communities have played the role of urban guardian for centuries. In the move to a biological age absent of fossil fuels, cities will rely indefinitely on the long-term stability of farmlands for their large scale renewable energy production and carbon sequestration need
Random Goodness
Fuel Crops - trees, grasses other woody plant materials are expected to be grown specifically for the purpose of becoming fuel and biochar. In the Willamette Valley in particular, feedstock can come from agriculturally degraded lands, preserving prime farmland and habitat areas.
Small is Adaptable - a biorefinery at the 1 to 2 ton per hour scale, feedstock can come from livestock manures, tree crops, crop waste, hazelnut shells, mill waste, pulp or any other material within a low energy footprint radius. This can allow the biochar refinery to access and succeed with where other biorefineries cannot.
Competitive Process - liquid biofuels derived from fields with a mixture of grasses and perennials can provide as much usable energy, greater greenhouse gas reductions, and less agrochemical pollution per acre than food crops used for ethanol or biodiesel.
Double Carbon Credits - conifers are known to remove CO2 from the atmosphere faster than any other tree in the world. With the country's largest stock of conifers, Not only do old conifer forests soak up carbon for the standing lifetime of the trees, but if the trees are then select harvested for energy and biochar production, the carbon could be locked up for decades longer. That's a double carbon credit-making process.
Building the Soil Food Web - biochar has a very porous supportive micro structure, with a lot of surface area for nutrients to hold onto. This provides an essential environment for the growth of beneficial microbes, which feeds new life in fields and pastures. Microbes like to have at least 2% organic carbon in the soil to live, and as the microbes "breathe", the gases are collected in the biochar chambers, increasing root respiration. This greater tilth reduces demands for supplemental fertilizer and water.
Reducing Agricultural Greenhouse Emissions - adding up to 4 tons of biochar per acre will reduce field carbon dioxide loss, while increasing weight and biomass. Emissions of nitrous oxide, the more serious greenhouse gas, can be reduced five-fold.
Step 2: Pyrolize for energy
Step 3: Sequester biochar in the "garden"
Step 4: Build soils rich in stable carbon
Step 5: Repeat to solve climate crisis
Step 1: Grow plants to capture CO2
"Linked problems cannot be solved in isolation "
Chris Martenson
QUICKLINKS
THE SIMPLE BASICS
Chaff to charcoal in five easy steps.
Because there's a big problem,
Because it's the right thing to do,
Because it does a world of good.
Biochar ...
is made for climate mitigation.
"Biochar may represent the single most important initiative for humanity’s environmental future ... it allows us to address food security, the fuel crisis, and the climate problem, and all in an immensely practical manner."
Tim Flannery - Copenhagen Climate Council
Copyright 2009 Cascadia Biochar. All rights reserved.
