Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Marty Kraft <martyk@allspecies.org>]

John

That 25 pounds of CO2 for every one pound of charcoal sounds high. I 
know that carbon has an atomic weight of 12 and oxygen is 16 and O2 
would be 32 with a total of 44 but that still sounds high. When i look 
at the retort videos on youtube they are charring quite a bit more wood 
than they are using for fuel. Then there is the factor that all the 
carbon that is char is being taken out of the cycle for a long time. The 
CO2 that goes into the air is then cycled back into wood where we have 
another crack at making char later. Right now i'm only using the 
charcoal from my fireplace insert for char. That means i'm using the 
energy to heat my house. Messy process but i think it's worth it. Where 
did you get that one to twenty five figure?

Marty

On 12/14/10 2:52 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
> I think a study by Johannes Lehmann found that charcoal added to
> temperate soils didn't add much if any productivity. However if
> productivity stays the same and i can sequester carbon by adding it to
> the soil i will do it. I figure if we can mitigate global warming in
> this way we humans might survive to garden in the future.
>
> The part i don't like about making biochar is the waste of energy when
> the wood is burned. We need stoves designed to make charcoal AND heat
> our homes and businesses.
> Marty
>
> <<<For every pound of charcoal you make you produce at least 25 pounds 
> of CO2 gas. You really figure that is going to help global warming? 
> Glad you seem to see that yourself.
> john
>
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