Marc Gunther from GreenBiz.com writes:
So says Robert Brown, a professor of engineering at Iowa State University and a leader of the university’s Initiative for a Carbon Negative Economy and its Bioeconomy Institute. Those are interdisciplinary campus efforts to develop ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by growing plants or algae, making them into fuels and burying their carbon residues in soil -- and make money doing it.

The notion that we can generate wealth and remove CO2 from the air is obviously appealing. As atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rise and climate risks grow, so does the need for carbon-negative technologies that pull CO2 from the air, as plants do, and then store it underground or deep in the ocean.

The use of Biochar to act as a carbon sink is causing quite a stir among environmentalists and scientists alike. This ancient technology of burning organic matter then burying it in the ground to fertilize crops may have been around for over 3000 years in the Amazon Basin, but the research that shows that this method of fertilization will also absorb some of the carbon in the atmosphere means that this could be a really viable solution to the long term problem of carbon over production.

Ahmad M, Soo Lee S, Yang JE, Ro HM, Han Lee Y, Sik Ok Y.
Source - Biochar Research Center, Department of Biological Environment, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Republic of Korea.

Abstract
Bioavailability and bioaccessibility determine the level of metal toxicity in the soils. Inorganic soil amendments may decrease metal bioavailability and enhance soil quality. This study used mussel shell, cow bone, and biochar to reduce lead (Pb) toxicity in the highly contaminated military shooting range soil in Korea. Water-soluble and 1-M ammonium nitrate extractions, and a modified physiologically based extraction test (PBET) were performed to determine Pb bioavailability and bioaccessibility in the soil, respectively. Active C in the soil was also measured to evaluate the effects of the amendments on biological soil quality.

The Pb contaminated soil was diluted in serial with uncontaminated soil for the bioassays. Seed germination and root elongation tests using lettuce (Lactuca sativa) showed increases in germination percentage and root length in soil treated with the amendments. Biochar was most effective and increased seed germination by 360% and root length by 189% compared to the unamended soil.

Up to 20% soil dilution resulted in more than 50% seed germination. Bioavailability and bioaccessibility of Pb in the soils were decreased by 92.5% and 48.5% with mussel shell, by 84.8% and 34.5% with cow bone, and by 75.8% and 12.5% with biochar, respectively, compared to the unamended soil. We found that the Pb availability in the military shooting range soil can be reduced effectively by the tested amendments or soil dilution alternately, thereby decreasing the risk of ecotoxicity. Furthermore, the increasing active C from the amendments revitalized the soil contaminated with Pb.

Source Release PubMed

New South Wales, Australia based waste to energy technology developer, Pacific Pyrolysis (PacPyro), is seeking to raise between $2.2 million and $4 million from an initial public offering and then list on the Australian Securities Exchange, according to a report in The Australia.

According to the report the company eventually hopes to utilise used nappies to generate energy, but is currently focused on processing organic waste with it pyrolysis based waste treatment technology. PacPyro is developing and commercialising its slow pyrolysis technology under which organic material such as green waste or chicken manure is heated at high temperatures until it decomposes and creates a gas and a "biochar", the report said.

Waste Farmers collects organic waste and creates organic agricultural products like fertilizer, potting soil, biochar, and compost tea.

The United States has a topsoil problem. About 75 percent of it is gone, primarily because the large, single-crop farms that dominate American agriculture rely on chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to produce their harvests, depleting natural soil systems in the process. John-Paul Maxfield thinks compost can help solve this problem. Environmentalists love compost for several reasons, including that it helps divert waste from landfills – the world's largest source of human-produced methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Base Load Electricity from Biomass Creates Useable Heat and Sequesters Carbon Capital Investment on Available Capacity Comparatively Low to Solar and Wind

POTSDAM, N.Y., Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Inc. (ZeroPoint) today announced that its biomass gasification solution produced carbon negative heat and power for the last half-month of its 2011 operations in Germany.

David D. Burstein writes at Fast Company (Jan 4, 2012): Re:char is a pioneering company that sells kilns to farmers in Kenya that allow them to convert their farm waste into what's known as biochar, which can then be used for cooking. As an enterprise, Re:char seeks to deliver a "triple bottom line," expanding the uses of sustainable alternatives for energy, providing a cost-effective solution for farmers in an effort to combat poverty, and stemming deforestation in Africa by encouraging use of biochar as cooking fuel instead of cutting down trees for firewood.

Jason Aramburu, the CEO of re:char who works in Bungoma, in the Western Province of Kenya, spoke to us about the emerging area of biochar and a grant that re:char just received from the Gates Foundation to develop a system to transform human waste into biochar.

Abstract
In the report 2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that climate could warm by as much as 10º F over the next 100 years and we already observed a warming of about 1º F since 1900. Therefore, how to mitigate the greenhouse gas effect is a very important issue since it affects everyone alive and not born.
This paper mainly discusses the impacts of greenhouse gas emission that affects people the most. This paper mainly discusses the following questions:
1) what factors lead to the greenhouse gas effect?
2) How can pyrolysis become a potential source to mitigate the greenhouse gas effect and what are the choices we may have?