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  • From: Marty Kraft <martyk AT allspecies.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Charcoal Production - Was: Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling
  • Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:31:30 -0600

I just returned from Seattle where i met with Art Donnelly who founded Seachar. He has a neat design using any size barrel surrounded by corrugated metal. The fire is started in the top of the main chamber and when it gets burning the vent at the bottom is closed and a dome top with stack is put on. It burns clean. I am going to build one asap. http://seachar.org/

Also there is David Yarrow's site. http://www.carbon-negative.us/

Also go to
http://www.biochar-international.org/

Marty Kraft
Kansas City
On Oct 30, 2009, at 8:02 AM, Wiener, Benjamin L CPT NG NG FORSCOM wrote:

Horticultural charcoal is basically good for pore space and surface area for bacterial and fungal colonization. It has a tendancy to bind up nitrogen initally. Biochar IS horticultural charcoal. Sometimes it is not as completely converted to char, but all nonchared portions will breakdown anyway.

I have been toying with a retort design using 4ft diameter concrete culverts and two 55 gal barrels (and maybe one 40 gal. if I can make it fit) fired with wood. The intent would be to produce biochar to replace perlite/vermiculite in container strawberry production. Biochar is made at hundreds of degrees F, perlite and vermiculite are made at thousands of degrees F (i.e more energy). local waste reuse vs mined material trucked in. It will have to wait until I return from deployment.

for restoring large areas, mulching, composting or tilling in organic waste is more economical. Shredded tree waste, spread on the surface and left to breakdown will soon be overrun with early successional plants (or weeds if you prefer that name). I have a wonderful wild blackberry patch that was the bottom of a wood chip pile. The wood chips were from powerline trimming and I used 5 truckloads in my yard and garden. Great for composting poultry carcasses for those of you who home process your food.

Ben Wiener

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
Date: Friday, October 30, 2009 14:34
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Charcoal Production - Was: Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>


Allan

No I do not. I am trying to write up some proposals to prove that
its
a viable substitute for certain agriculture amendments but I am
way
out of my element and am looking for contacts to work with.

I saw your post on one of the biochar forums and would be curious
to
hear what sort of feed back you got. I've been looking for folks
but
not getting much in return. They all seem focused on the
developing
world.

In a nut shell I have a 45 acre dry gravel pit that has just be
reclaimed. The soil is no longer stable, being a mix a clay,
shale,
and orginal farm soil overburden and I am looking at ways to bring
it
back into Ag use. Right now its seems the best way to go is cover

crops and animals, cover crop, mow and subsoil...repeat.

Biochar looked interesting, especially given our Emerald Ash borer

problems here. Its estimated that our county alone will lose 10
to
12% of ALL trees (which happen to be ash) and we need to have a
couple
options on what to do with that organic matter.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com
rstewart AT zoomtown.com



On Oct 29, 2009, at 10:41 PM, Richard Stewart wrote:

Tom

That does not mean making biochar is not impossible. There are
lots
of thoughts on the matter including several commercial ventures.
It
is possible to produce char without the polluting gasses in the
quantities discussed here.

Again, I am no expert on this and have not yet tested anything.

http://news.cnet.com/greentech/?keyword=biochar

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com
rstewart AT zoomtown.com



On Oct 29, 2009, at 1:20 PM, TMcD wrote:

--- On Wed, 10/28/09, Wiener, Benjamin L CPT NG NG FORSCOM <>> > wrote:

Tom, what do you intend to use as a
heat source to char the wood that doesn't use carbon?
Nuclear? solar? hydro? At best, in the most efficient
designs, 40% of the carbon used in the process remains as
biochar. then add in the fuel costs for transporting
the wood and then distributing the char, and then you can
see that it really isn't as "green" as you imagine.



Thank you very much for replying to my post. I had no sooner
posted my first message when I realized that someone would probably
mention the CO2 emissions from the fuel used to heat the wood. I
can't argue with that. Also, I've since found out that the fuel
used is often produced from the pyrolysis of the wood, so the CO2
emissions from the fuel burning actually do come from the wood
itself. This pretty much reduces my post to a technically true
statement from a narrow point of view that fails to be helpful to
anyone.

Sorry if I have wasted anyone's time. I'll do way better in the
future, I promise.

Thanks to Richard Stewart and Ben Wiener for their very astute
responses.

Tom






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  • Re: [Market-farming] Charcoal Production - Was: Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling, Marty Kraft, 11/04/2009

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