10 August 2012

Must Watch - Solve for X: Mike Cheiky on negative carbon liquid fuels

Posted in News, Biochar, Energy, Geoengineering, Project, Technology, Video

Talk by Mike Cheiky, President and Founder of CoolPlanet Energy Systems, which is developing carbon negative fuels with Biochar.

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19 April 2012

Waste not, want not

Written by Chris Machens, Posted in Biochar, News, Market, Project, Technology

An Oxnard organic recycling company redoes soil enrichment, reduces greenhouse gases

Agromin of Oxnard has created biochar, which is made from organic biomass, or plant waste, and has several environmental benefits, including carbon sequestration.

From VC Reporter by Shelby Maloney:
In the race against the clock to find new ways to fight climate change, Agromin, an Oxnard-based organic recycling company, plans to aid in the effort to modernize an ancient soil enhancement technology by developing its own version of a charcoal-like soil amendment known as biochar. Biochar is produced from organic biomass, or plant waste, and is known to have several environmental benefits, including carbon sequestration, the act of taking carbon out of the atmosphere.

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17 April 2012

How One Startup Sold $6,000 Worth of Charcoal on Kickstarter

Written by Chris Machens, Posted in Biochar, News, Market, Project, Technology, Video

Produce 200% more food every crop season if they mix their soil with specially-designed charcoal

Mashable:
Big Idea: Utilize organic waste to create carbon-negative charcoal, a substance that pulls CO2 from the air and helps crops grow taller and stronger.

Why It’s Working: Re:char’s mission is about providing farmers — both at home and in developing countries such as Kenya — with conservation-oriented soil-boosting complexes that can double food output compared to traditional farming methods.

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07 April 2012

Grow More Food & Fight Climate Change: Black Revolution

Posted in Biochar, News, Climate , Project, Technology, Video

"Biochar is an excellent way of getting a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere."-- Sir Richard Branson

ReChar: Climate Action - Black Revolution

ReChar started a Kickstarter project funding:
Black Revolution is a soilless growth media for plants containing biochar, coconut husk and compost. Biochar is a charcoal soil amendment made from waste that improves nutrient retention, offsets CO2 and has the potential to help feed our growing planet. Black Revolution is the world's first carbon-negative replacement for soil made entirely from waste. It's lighter than traditional soil, so it works great in rooftop or urban environments. The potting soil and chemical fertilizer industries are traditionally some of the most environmentally destructive in the world.

Chemical fertilizers require massive amounts of fossil fuels and pollute our rivers and streams. Potting soils contain peat moss and vermiculite: non-renewable resources mined from endangered areas around the world.

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07 April 2012

Increase in U.S. Funding to Drought Relief in the Horn of Africa

Posted in Biochar, News, Policy, Project, Soil, Technology

Address the root causes of hunger and food insecurity by improving agricultural systems in the Horn of Africa under the Feed the Future initiative

The U.S. State Department announced:
The United States continues to be deeply concerned by the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa, and particularly the hard-hit Somali population. Despite the end of famine conditions in February, nearly 10 million people in the region still require humanitarian assistance. For this reason, the United States Government is providing an additional nearly $50 million in aid for refugees and drought-affected communities in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya in addition to what we have already provided.

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30 March 2012

Australia: Biochar enters the marketplace

Posted in Biochar, News, Market, Technology

After years of research and development, the coproduction of biochar and bioenergy in a modern slow-pyrolysis facility, is coming closer to commercial reality in Australia.

Pacific Pyrolysis: Modern slow-pyrolysis facility, is coming closer to commercial reality in Australia

By Dr Adriana Downie for Eco Generation magazine March/April 2012.

Pacific Pyrolysis (PacPyro) has been offered $4.5 million by the Victorian Government to pilot a commercial-scale production facility in Melbourne. The project will demonstrate PacPyro’s proprietary technology’s ability to deliver a solution for urban green and wood waste by converting it into renewable electricity and biochar.

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29 March 2012

New Soil Reef and Organic Mechanics Blend Creates the Perfect Soil Amendment

Posted in News, Biochar, Biomass, Market, Project, Soil, Technology

One of the most important things a gardener can do to boost crop productivity and reduce the amount of water and fertilizers needed is create rich, porous soil

From PR Web: Worm condos. Terra Preta. Black Gold. Whatever it’s called, healthy soil is the most important tool in successful gardening. With the new Soil Reef™ blend being launched this spring, gardeners can create a healthy, organic and permanent home for beneficial organisms living in the soil.

The new blend combines OMRI-listed compost and worm castings from Organic Mechanics® with biochar, adding a unique porous carbon to the soil to create a habitat for life to thrive. How does it work? Soil Reef creates a network of nearly permanent, natural carbon structures throughout your soil, which hold onto water and nutrients, and create homes for microorganisms.

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29 March 2012

Is a carbon-negative economy a practical possibility or a pipe dream?

Posted in News, Climate , Biomass, Energy, Market, Policy, Project, Science, Soil, Technology

Let’s not simply reduce the CO2 emissions going up into the atmosphere. Let’s draw them down

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.

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