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  • From: Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] if there were a benefit to deforestation...
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 09:48:51 -0500

A couple of notes on Bio Char:

In Tim Flannery's (The Weather Makers) new book, Now or Never, he dedicates an entire chapter to Pyrolysis as a tool for sequestering carbon to combat global warming with the side benefit of nutrient retention in soils. I highly recommend both of his books for elucidating the climate change issue which appears to be quickly reaching a critical point of no return. Biochar might be one of the best tools we have to turn back the clock on it.

Lots of folks are working on pyrolysis devices that provide domestic heat and hot water while yielding char and methane which is captured and utilized. At the NOFA Conference last year a New Hampshire Farmer presented on a system he was developing with the aid of a NRCS grant. Low pollution and high efficiency. Even dirtier systems are useful in sequestering carbon while the pollution generated is localized and short-lived compared to destructive greenhouse gasses.



Scott Vlaun Moose Pond Arts+Ecology Design Solutions for a Sustainable Future
450 Main Street, Studio 2, Norway, Maine 04268 • 207-739-2409

On Jan 8, 2010, at 8:51 AM, Steven & Margaret Eisenhauer wrote:

Hello,

Interesting thing about charcoal - it acts to sequester both anions and
cations - both negatively charged and positively charged soil
minerals/compounds, so it acts as a battery of sorts, helping to prevent
leaching of minerals out of the rizosphere yet offering them up to soil
microbes which then feed the plants. There is an article in The Natural
Farmer winter 2009-10 volume 2 #83 published by the Northeast Organic
Farming Association written by Mark Fulford - a consulting agronomist and
organic farmer in the great state of Main wherein he describes using biochar
in potting soil. He states that the plant roots envelope and penetrate the
charcoal to the point where when transplanting the plant roots can not be
separated from it. If the plants like it so much then my guess is they like
it. I don't think anyone is thinking char will replace organic material but
that it is another aspect of potential long term soil improvement that can
sequester atmospheric CO2 for 100s if not 1000s if years. It makes me
wonder if Amazonian char makers contributed to the ice ages.

I am located in the Champlain Valley of the Adirondacks New York USA where I
am working to restore a 1840s homestead that was a commercial apple orchard
until it went bankrupt in the early 2000s.


Steven Eisenhauer

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lawrence F.
London, Jr.
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:30 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] if there were a benefit to deforestation...

Mathew Waehner wrote:
Burning creates smoke, a pollutant

Proper biochar kilns produce very little smoke, because they consume
nearly
all of the combustion byproducts, similar to a rocket stove.

and materials burned should be cold composted and then returned to the
soil using appropriate tillage methods


That doesn't work well in the tropics, because soil organisms degrade the
humus and rain washes it away too quickly. Biochar lasts longer in soil.

I will have to politely disagree, Matthew. You want those hyperactive
soil microorganisms and the effect they have on raw biomass destined for
garden as an amendment to increase SOM. Compost that biomass in situ,
i.e. on the garden beds, in rotation, i.e. stip cropping; crop one bed
while the other is processing massive additions of compost as mulch
to be incorporated into the soil. Its not going to wash away, it will
leach into the garden soil as it breaks down, nothing lost.

As I understand it, the main *proven* benefit of biochar is that it
provides
cation exchange capacity. Some soils in temperate climates are in dire
need
of increased CEC, others have different needs.

That must be the adsorption factor that biochar adds significantly to
through its fine micropore structure.

From the pictures I've seen on your blog, Larry, you are working good
peidmont clay. That has good cation exchange capacity, but needs organic

Actually it is Georgeville silt loam, a red soil that is highly
permeable; won't hold water good enough to build a pond in it.

matter to build soil structure. Biochar probably wouldn't help much
there.

Maybe not. It would be interesting to try some on one bed.

But on the sandy soils of Eastern NC, biochar could enhancce soil
fertility
significantly by holding onto nutrients.

Absolutely, in that sandy loam in the Coastal Plain.

LL
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