Historians tell us that the ancient gladiators consumed barley for energy. Now, in the best tradition of "everything old is new again," some scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are turning to barley as an energy source — but they're not eating it, and they're not even using the grain.

Instead, they're utilizing the byproducts of barley—the straw and hulls, as well as dried distillers grains (DDGS) made from barley — to produce an energy-rich oil called bio-oil. This bio-oil could be used either for transportation fuels or for producing heat and power needed for the conversion of barley grain to ethanol.

The straw, hulls and DDGS are leftovers from the fermentation of barley grain for ethanol, a biofuel option that's slowly gaining ground in the Mid-Atlantic States and in the Southeast, where farmers could cash in on the production of winter barley crops while continuing to raise corn and other food crops in the summer.

Not only would this give farmers a chance to boost their income from their acreage, but it also could help reduce soil erosion and nitrogen leaching in the soil, which is a major concern for farmers in some areas, including the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. So there's a definite agricultural advantage to using barley in this way.

But would it work with our current fuel infrastructure? The scientists say yes, that bio-oil from barley leftovers could potentially be refined, stored and distributed with the same infrastructure that's already in place for the petroleum fuel industry.

So how, precisely, does one go about turning seemingly worthless barley straw and hulls in energy-rich oil?

The ARS scientists used a process called "fast pyrolysis," an intense burst of heat delivered in the absence of oxygen. With this method, they say a kilogram of barley straw and hulls will yield about half a kilogram of bio-oil with an energy content about half that of Number 2 fuel oil.

The energy content of bio-oil made from barley DDGS (including DDGS contaminated with mycotoxins, which means those DDGS can't even be used for livestock feed) was even higher, about two-thirds that of Number 2 fuel oil. But the barley DDGS bio-oil is a bit more problematic, because it's more viscous and has a shorter shelf-life than the bio-oils made from the straw or hulls.

The fast pyrolysis process also produces a solid substance called "biochar." A familiar example of biochar is the activated charcoal used in aquarium filters. The biochar from fast pyrolysis of barley byproducts could be added to soils to improve their nutrient content and water-holding capacity.

And there's another advantage as well: Soils with biochar added can sequester carbon from the atmosphere for centuries, slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases and thus mitigating global warming.

Where do we go next? The scientists suggest that co-locating fast-pyrolysis units in commercial barley grain ethanol plants could be a win-win proposition for farmers in the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. It sounds to me like putting this ancient crop to work as an energy source could be a win-win proposition for the rest of us, too!

Read more http://www.swnewsherald.com/online_contentcrf/escience/es020711jan4biooil.php

Dr.James Lovelock: "I said in my recent book that perhaps the only tool we had to bring carbon dioxide back to pre-industrial levels was to let the Biosphere pump it from the air for us. It currently removes 550bn tons a year, about 18 times more than we emit, but 99.9% of the carbon captured this way goes back to the air as CO2 when things are eaten. What we have to do is turn a portion of all the waste of agriculture into charcoal and bury it.

Consider grain like wheat or rice; most of the plant mass is in the stems, stalks and roots and we only eat the seeds. So instead of just ploughing in the stalks or turning them into cardboard, make it into charcoal and bury it or sink it in the ocean. We don't need plantations or crops planted for biochar, what we need is a charcoal maker on every farm so the farmer can turn his waste into carbon. Charcoal making might even work instead of landfill for waste paper and plastic."

Incidentally, in making charcoal this way, there is a by-product of biofuel that the farmer can sell. If we are to make this idea work it is vital that it pays for itself and requires no subsidy. Subsidies almost always breed scams and this is true of most forms of renewable energy now proposed and used. No one would invest in plantations to make charcoal without a subsidy, but if we can show the farmers they can turn their waste to profit they will do it freely and help us and Gaia too.

Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/24/biochar-earth-c02

Biochar has always sounded like a whimsical climate solution that's too good to be true. Simply stir a little charcoal into the soil and—voila—it's supposedly possible to suck thousands of tons of carbon-dioxide out of the air. Sounds suspicious, no? And yet it just might work. A new study in Nature Communications finds that the world could, in theory, sustainably offset a whopping 12 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions by producing biochar.

Source - http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-vine/76943/yes-biochar-really-might-be-magical

About eight years ago, Glenn Albrecht began receiving frantic calls from residents of the Upper Hunter Valley, a 6,000-square-mile region in southeastern Australia. For generations the Upper Hunter was known as the “Tuscany of the South” — an oasis of alfalfa fields, dairy farms and lush English-style shires on a notoriously hot, parched continent. “The calls were like desperate pleas,” Albrecht, a philosopher and professor of sustainability at Murdoch University in Perth, recalled in June. “They said: ‘Can you help us? We’ve tried everyone else. Is there anything you can do about this?’

Residents were distraught over the spread of coal mining in the Upper Hunter. Coal was discovered in eastern Australia more than 200 years ago, but only in the last two decades did the industry begin its exponential rise. Today, more than 100 million tons of black coal are extracted from the valley each year, primarily by open-pit mining, which uses chemical explosives to blast away soil, sediment and rock. The blasts occur several times a day, sending plumes of gray dust over ridges to settle thickly onto roofs, crops and the hides of livestock. Klieg lights provide a constant illumination. Trucks, draglines and idling coal trains emit a constant low-frequency rumble. Rivers and streams have been polluted.

Albrecht, a dark, ebullient man with a crooked aquiline nose, was known locally for his activism. He participated in blockades of ships entering Newcastle (near the Upper Hunter), the largest coal-exporting port in the world, and published opinion articles excoriating the Australian fossil-fuel industries. But Albrecht didn’t see what he could offer besides a sympathetic ear and some tactical advice. Then, in late 2002, he decided to see the transformation of the Upper Hunter firsthand.

3-SAT: Forscher der Fachhochschule Bingen haben ein Verfahren entwickelt, mit dem sie Biokohle erzeugen. Sie bindet Kohlendioxid und kann als mineralienhaltiger Dünger der Natur wieder zugeführt werden.

http://stream-tv.de/sendung/1286690/nano-biokohle-zum-duengen-und-kohlendioxid-binden