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Congo Biochar Initiative Receives Major Funding

Jason — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:08:14 +0000

Democratic Republic of the Congo

re:char friends The Biochar Fund recently won a €300,000 grant from the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) to impliment the biochar concept in 10 villages in the Equateur Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Biochar Fund team believes the project provides further scientific validation of the biochar concept, and will help to reduce deforestation, poverty and food scarcity in the Congo Basin. From Mongabay:

“We are very excited about our successful selection by the CBFF,” said Laurens Rademakers, managing director of Biochar Fund. “It means that the biochar concept is scientifically sound and may help alleviate multiple environmental, social and economic crises amongst the world’s absolute poorest people, while at the same time protecting a unique ecosystem that serves humanity as a whole: the rich forests of the Congo Basin. Moreover, our strategy is innovative because it does not force people out of their traditional livelihoods in the name of conservation, as some other concepts do.”

We wish The Biochar Fund team the best of luck in this venture. The biochar concept presents some of the greatest hope for improving the lives of the millions of people living far below the poverty line in the Congo Basin.

Technorati Tags: Africa, biochar, biochar fund, Congo, grant

Terra Preta de Indio

Jason — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:08:49 +0000

By re:char fellow Lou Gold

“What we do in the next two to three
years will determine our future. This
is the defining moment.”

– Rajendra Pachauri,
director of the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change

The story that defines what we might do has been
emerging from Brazil.

It’s a golden opportunity.

First, the story…

Once upon a time, way back in the sixteenth century, the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana was the first European explorer to travel up the Amazon River and into the Rio Negro, a huge tributary, upriver from present-day Manaus. The exploration reached perhaps some 1500 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. For Orellana and his unfortunate companions it was a terrible trip plagued with every kind of adversity which, in the end, left him as the sole survivor to return to the Court of the King of Spain to tell the story.

But what a story it was. We might even speculate that Orellana survived the ordeal in order to complete his mission of telling of having found Eldorado — fantastic golden cities in the heart of the forest of the New World. Orellana reported something even more unbelievable than gold — there was an advanced indigenous civilization with many high density human settlements. Huge Indian populations were living along the waterways of Amazônia and, according to Orellana, at one place there was a city of continuous side-by-side houses stretching for twenty miles. His tale was both fantasic and fabulous. I doubt that the Spanish Court could really embrace the thought of a civilization more advanced than their own but they sure could imagine the gold.

Gold lust inspired many later adventures across the New World but none could find the fabled Eldorado. It was nearly a century later that missionaries came to the region explored by Orellana, but they reported finding only small nomadic bands of hunter-gathers roaming the forest. The obvious conclusion was that Orellana had fabricated a great tale to mask his own failed expedition. And, much later, a whole generation of modern scientists confirmed the implausibility of an Eldorado in the forest by noting that the nutrient poor Amazon soils could not have supported a large-scale agriculture which is the prerequisite of civilization.

But this “well etablished view” that the Amazon basin could not have contained large human populations has started to crumble. First with new research in Bolivia and, more recently, in central Amazõnia, scientists are discovering tell-tale signs of ancient large-scale populations. The indians appear to have figured out how to transform the nutrient-poor yellowish soils into deep deposits of an extremely fertile dark earth called terra preta de indio. What are these tell-tale signs? Terra preta soils are loaded with pottery sherds and charcoal. The pieces of ceramic are in the contour of large pots and vessels that could have been used only by stationary populations. And the charcoal — apparently char from cleared forest — has been ground into small pieces indicating that these soils were “made” by the local residents.

The resulting soils are amazingly fertile — sometimes producing nearly 800% more plant growth compared with nearby untreated soil — and clearly capable of supporting a large-scale agriculture. Also anthropologists have found at least one small tribe with an hierarchical cultural structure suggesting a distant past of living among large sedentary populations and not always as nomadic hunter-gathers.

Recent efforts to map the areas of terra preta soils along the Tapajos River have unearthed esquisite 2000 year-old pottery. Carbon dating of soils in some other areas suggest that they may be 2500-4000 years old — and still fully fertile which is extraordinary in the Amazon where heavy rainfall typically leaches the nutrients out of the soils rather quickly. Interestingly, the mapping efforts are revealing a close correspondence with the Eldorado areas talked about by Orellana.

So what happened to these lost civilizations? No one knows for certain. There’s little hard evidence because there is no stone in the area and the wooden structures were quickly reclaimed by the tropical forest. But the best speculation is that the first European expeditions carried in diseases — smallpox, measels, flu, even the common cold — to a population that had so harmoniously co-evolved with its niche that it had no disease … and no need for immunity. After a catastrophic die-off there were only a few survivors who had devolved back into hunter-gathers. The sole legacy of the civilization remained hidden in the soil.

Today, in some areas, terra preta is harvested and sold as potting soils. If a limited amount (about 20 cm deep) is retained and the area then left fallow it will grow back to full depth in about 20 years. Apparently — get this! – terra preta soils develop into organic communities that are capable of growing like a biotic culture as in sourdough bread or yogurt, truly a living earth.

Five years ago, England’s BBC did a special TV documentary called The Secret of Eldorado that concluded with these words: “So there is a true irony to the story of the hunt for El Dorado. There was once a great civilisation in the Amazon, one the Europeans destroyed even as they discovered it, but the Amazonians may have left us a legacy far more precious than the gold the Conquistadors were seeking. That black earth, the terra preta, may mean a better future for us all.”

A golden opportunity.

At the time of the 2002 BBC documentary, a better future was understood as gaining the ability to BOTH save the rainforest and feed more people. But, now, global warming has added an incredibibly important new dimension — the need to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it somewhere. This is exactly what terra preta does because 1) plants that grow faster, also remove CO2 from the atmosphere faster and 2) if the agricultural waste (unused portions of the plants) are made into charcoal, it can be used to renew the soil and sequester carbon.

The result of such a system would mean better soil, more food, cleaner fuel, less deforestation and, if Kyoto is revised to include payment for carbon negative sequestration in the soil, developing countries like Brazil and poor farmers everywhere will be paid to save the earth, while growing both food and fuel. This is why terra preta is being called the “new black gold”.

Everyone, who thinks of Brazil, knows of its gifts of samba and soccer which are world renown. But Brazil is also the place where the gift of light emerges out of darkness. When gold was discovered in the state of Minas Gerais, it was given the name ouro preto (black gold) because the nuggets had a dark coating. Later, when a statue of the Virgin with dark skin was discovered in a river bed, it was named, Nossa Senhora Conceição de Aparecida (Our Lady of Conception who Appeared) because it appeared to have wish-granting and healing powers. And, for me, this image is one of the great symbols of the fertility and abundance of Mother Earth.

This Black Madonna became the patroness of Brazil and the center of the largest healing shrine in the world. Perhaps She is also a powerful symbol for the possibility of healing the earth.

Nowadays, we have the rediscovery of an empowering dark earth brew called terra preta, along with speculation of an ancient and highly advanced Indian civilization. Perhaps terra preta will be Brazil’s greatest gift yet to the world. Perhaps we can all spread the story about how there once was a time when large numbers of people lived in a bountiful harmony with the earth in a place called Eldorado and that, with love and care and attention, we can repeat the performance.

Here are links to more information:

Australian Broadcasting Company video (11 min) about the global terra preta movement.

GREAT BBC Documentary “The Secret of El Dorado” (49 min video)

Full transcript of BBC El Dorado documentary.

Easy to read primer on Terra Preta.

Expandable Google map of Terra Preta sites.

Pdfs of the best magazine articles.

Continuous updates of all relevant links.

How biofuels can become carbon-negative and save the planet.

US Senator introduces bio-char legislation.

Research confirms bio-char in soil increases yields.

Biopact on the IPCC bio-fuel recommendations.

UPDATE: This post has been linked in a roundup by Global Voices Online, and translated to Portuguese here.

Technorati Tags: amazon, amazonia, biochar, re:char fellows, terra preta

The Great Biochar Debate (con’t)

Lou Gold — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:10:00 +0000

THE GREAT BIOCHAR DEBATE (con't) By re:char fellow Lou Gold

Planting trees for a carbon offset project in Kenya. Growing trees is one way of stocking carbon out of the linked ocean-atmosphere system. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty

Peter Read says, The emissions reductions gospel is failing – we need something more. NGOs who oppose geo-engineering are running the risk of climatic catastrophe. by Peter Read in the Guardian.UK Go to Original Article Interviewed last week, John Holdren, President Obama's chief scientific adviser, said that drastic measures should not be "off the table" in discussions on how best to tackle climate change and that geo-engineering could not be ruled out. Making clear these were his personal views, he said: "It's got to be looked at. We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table." He's right. We don't have that luxury – not only because the Kyoto protocol's first phase, running to 2012, is manifestly failing, but because the emissions reduction approach that it embodies cannot succeed. It is manifestly failing because emissions are going ahead faster than even the worst scenarios considered by the IPCC, which provides scientific assessments to the UN Climate Convention and because many rich countries are on course to fall short of their emissions reductions commitments. Research since the IPCC's last assessment reveals that the threat of climatic disaster is more serious than previously supposed. Several threats exist but the most imminent is probably a collapse of substantial areas of land-based ice into the oceans, as studies of ancient climates show happened in previous warming phases. This seems likely to be due to the lubrication of Greenland's ice floes by water that accumulates year after year, with warmer summers melting the surface and rivers of melt-water flowing down crevasses to the bedrock, making the underside of the ice increasingly mushy and prone to slip down towards the ocean. Reports from Greenland, of increased frequency of "ice-quakes", suggest that areas of the ice cover have slipped and bumped into other areas that are still stuck. When the last bit gives way there may be an unstoppable rush of ice into the ocean, as with ancient warming phases, raising ocean levels by several metres over a few decades. "Probably"? "Likely"? "Suggest"? "Maybe"? Yes, all is uncertain and the models are inadequate. But you don't drive full-speed down a twisty lane on a foggy winter's night hoping there's no ice round the next bend. A measure of the threat is the accumulation of warmth from successive summers, which is making the glaciers' undersides increasingly mushy. Even a deeply implausible reduction of emissions to zero in 25 years sees that measure treble over the next half-century with no end in sight. So something more than emissions reductions is needed. We must take CO2 out of the atmosphere or prevent some of the sun's radiation from reaching the surface. But geo-engineering is usually thought of as shielding the earth from solar radiation by whitening clouds and by putting reflectors in space between earth and sun. The latter seems difficult to reverse and perhaps a very last resort. But whitening clouds can be quickly halted. It involves putting sulphur aerosols into the clouds in amounts that are trivial compared with the effects of either volcanic eruptions or coal burning worldwide. Or injecting saltwater micro-particles into ocean clouds which, whitened, then rain slightly salty water back into the oceans. Amazing though it may seem, these apparently hopeful options are opposed by NGOs that seem more willing to run the risk of climatic catastrophe than deviate from the emissions reductions gospel. Their concern seems to be that geo-engineering will result in relaxed pressure to reduce emissions, which neglects the reality that more ambitious commitments will obviously go with increased capability to mitigate. They even oppose research, unlike Holdren's "it's got to be looked at". The British researcher Tim Lenton uses the term geo-engineering to mean any way of cooling the earth that is not emissions reductions (even growing trees, which is included under the Kyoto protocol). His definition puts me – somewhat to my surprise – among the ranks of geo-engineers, as I have long advocated widespread tree-planting programmes, such as those initiated by the Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Muta Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30m trees across Kenya. Growing trees is one way of stocking carbon out of the linked ocean-atmosphere system. Others advocate fuelling power stations with energy crops and capturing CO2 from flue gases and piping them into deep saline aquifers. A third option is biochar, current darling of the policy community, which promises not only to store carbon in the soil but to provide rural energy supplies and raise soil productivity as the basis for sustainable rural development. Yet even this win-win-win prospect is rejected by 129 NGOs who have declared "Biochar – a new big threat to people land and ecosystems". I would rather listen to the 1,500 poor subsistence farmers in Kumba, south-west Cameroon, who are already experiencing its benefits and who deny rich-country NGO claims that civil society in the developing world rejects biochar. • Peter Read is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Energy Research, Massey University, New Zealand [Note: My thoughts (submitted as a comment) are: Peter, I agree that tree plantations for charcoal feedstock is an excellent idea with one IMPORTANT caveat — there must be a firm incontrovertible rule against cutting natural forests for feedstock and/or triggering land use changes that result in increased deforestation. If this is not done, the sequestration gains of biochar will be negated by losses in the natural forest carbon sink. Geo-engineering is a scary term because because it often focuses on single variable in reductionist and non-holistic ways. This might be corrected if the the grand schemers were to demonstrate how they are going to preserve natural ecosystem services such as those provided by remnant standing forests.]

Make Your Own Biochar

Jason — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:31:24 +0000

Friend of re:char and biochar researcher Folke Günther provides handy and easy-to-follow instructions on how to construct a simple, two-barrel biomass pyrolyzer at home. Folke’s Simple Charcoal Retort consists of two nested steel barrels, and can be made using recycled or locally-available materials. While the system is not designed to produce fuel oil, it does provide sufficient heat to cook, and generates large quantities of biochar for soil amendment and carbon sequestration. To build your own, visit Folke’s website.

Technorati Tags: biochar, cooking, grill, How-to, pyrolyzer, retort, stove

Biochar gets a Cartoon

Jason — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:43:56 +0000

Our friends over at Worldchanging just posted a cartoon describing biochar and its benefits, created by cartoonist Andy Lubershane. The post alludes to some of the criticism surrounding industrialized production of biochar, and raises some interesting points of debate in the comments:

I have a belief that biochar can be employed wisely.It is up to the wall soon for all of us as these times demand answers. Lets hope the world’s scoffers provide sufficient cushion against abuse of scale ,ed P

We are glad to see blogs like worldchanging talking about biochar in a fair and biased way. Of course there will be detractors as the biochar movement grows– we in the biochar community must remember that sustainable growth is important above all.

More Confusion re: Biochar

Jason — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:58:32 +0000

Confusion continues to rein as bloggers and experts challenge many of the claims of the biochar community. We have previously posted about the Biochar Wars, and are alarmed by the lack of understanding demonstrated by many of these critics. Understandably, many are weary of a new ‘magic bullet’ solution to climate change, particularly after the rise and fall of 1st-gen biofuels. However, a recent posting by Jill Richardson on the blog “La Vida Locavore,” illustrates how quickly misinformation can snowball. Ms. Richardson reacts to the recent CNN Tech profile of biochar with questions and disbelief:

If the idea behind biochar is that we grow trees, burn them, and bury the resulting biochar in the ground to sequester carbon – then why bother with steps 2 and 3? Trees themselves sequester carbon. And when it comes to other materials that we can use as composts or mulches, I think I’d rather see them used as compost and mulch.

While we always appreciate those who question the news, we suspect Ms. Richardson, like many out there, may not understand the whole story of biochar. Current studies illustrate that biochar is a viable longterm storage mechanism for carbon in agricultural soils. While carbon present in biochar has a half-life of at least 1,400 years, the carbon sinks Ms. Richardson mentions do not. At best, organic material (trees, shrubs, mulch, compost) can act as a 100-200 year carbon sink. When organics are broken down, approximately half of the carbon present is respired by microorganisms as carbon-dioxide. Over time, the remaining carbon is respired as it passes through the soil food web. By contrast, the carbon present in biochar has been shown to resist degredation by microorganisms and leaching, generating a mean residence time that is an order of magnitude greater than that of organics.

We invite Ms. Richardson, and anyone else interested in the biochar concept and technology to reach out to us for clarification on these issues.

Technorati Tags: biochar, misinformation

Biochar Profiled on CNN

Jason — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:40:17 +0000

CNN Tech offers some of the first mainstream media coverage of the emerging biochar revolution. The segment includes both text and video and profiles the work of researchers Chris Steiner and Brian Bibens at the University of Georgia.

Biochar is considered by many scientists to be the “black gold” for agriculture.

Its high carbon content and porous nature can help soil retain water, nutrients, protect soil microbes and ultimately increase crop yields while acting as natural carbon sink – sequestering CO2 and locking it into the ground.

Congratulations to the team at UGA. We hope to see more segments like this in the coming months. Viva la Revolución Terra Preta!

Technorati Tags: biochar, CNN, mainstream, UGA

Microwave Pyrolysis Claims Challenged

Jason — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:28:33 +0000

UK-based Carbonscape and its founder Chris Turney were recently profiled in the Guardian UK regarding its nascent “Black Phantom” microwave pyrolyzer. Based on limited information, it appears the Black Phantom uses heat from microwaves to dry and eventually pyrolyze wood and other biomass. According to the article:

Turney’s idea to use a microwave, which he found could lock away up to 50% of the wood’s mass, came from a cooking accident when he was a teenager, in which he mistakenly microwaved a potato for 40 minutes and found that the vegetable had turned into charcoal.

The article goes on to state that Carbonscape can produce biochar for $65/ton in the UK, making the technology economically viable under a carbon credit scheme.

However, some have questioned the accuracy of these claims. Members of the Biochar Listserv have noted that an average microwave is typically only 64% efficient, compared to an electric heater which is generally 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat. Furthermore, list members have noted that Carbonscape is not clear on whether they have taken into account the carbon footprint (and cost) of powering such a large microwave. We support innovation in the low-cost pyrolyzer technology space, and hope that Carbonscape will answer these very valid concerns.

Technorati Tags: carbonscape, microwave, pyrolysis, pyrolyzer

Biochar Shows Little Evidence of Degradation in Agricultural Soils

Jason — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:06:03 +0000

A recent article in the scholalry journal Soil Biology and Biochemistry provides more evidence to the significant longevity of solid carbon in agricultural soils. Researchers Yakov Kuzyakov, Irina Subbotina, Haiqing Chen, Irina Bogomolova and Xingliang Xu at the University of Bayreuth produced biochar samples from perennial ryegrass. These samples were labeled with a radioactive carbon isotope and mixed into soil samples. Soil samples were allowed to incubate for 3.2 years, and were subjected to various treatments intended to stimulate the decomposition of biochar. Despite these treatments, which included addition of glucose and intensive mixing of soils, biochar was not found to contribute significantly to overall carbon flux, indicating minimal leaching and degradation of black carbon in agricultural soils. Based on their experiments, the researchers conclude that black carbon has a half-life of at least 1400 years, and a mean residence time of at least 2000 years in agricultural soils. Given the relatively short duration of their experiment, the researchers postulate that this residence time could be even longer.

For the biochar community, this news is potentially huge. One of the strongest criticisms of biochar has been the lack of multi-year soil studies. Given the relative novelty of the biochar concept, this long-standing review will only support biochar in the face of increasing challenges.

Technorati Tags: bayreuth, biochar, degradation, half-life, longevity, Research, residence time, soils

Terra Preta Tradition in India

Jason — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 07:43:40 +0000

Biochar researcher and enthusiast Dr. Nakka Sai Bhaskar Reddy reports of evidence of a biochar tradition in India, similar to the Amazonian tradition of Terra Preta. According to Dr. Reddy, the Mundal tribes of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal states have a tradition of fertilizing marginal soils with charcoal:

They mix charcoal with farm yard manure (pellets of small ruminants / cattle dung) and add to the red lateritic soils, which are other wise less fertile. They cultivate vegetables and green salad in the well fenced plots of about 1 acre in size. The biochar is mostly a byproduct from the biomass cook stoves in use(most often three stone stoves / simple clay earth stoves). They have access to wood from the jungles, which is used as fuel.

If Dr. Reddy’s claims are correct, this story implies that the biochar tradition may my significantly older than previously thought. In addition, Reddy’s account indicates that indigenous communities worldwide may rely on some for of biochar fertilization. More images of Dr. Reddy’s startling discovery are available here.

Technorati Tags: biochar, field, India, terra preta, tradition