The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported Biochar as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets. The negative emissions that can be produced by Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Annual net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide could be reduced by a maximum of 1.8 Pg CO2-C equivalent (CO2-Ce) per year (12% of current anthropogenic CO2-Ce emissions; 1 Pg=1 Gt), and total net emissions over the course of a century by 130 Pg CO2-Ce, without endangering food security, habitat or soil conservation. Wikipedia

Science

The Science of Biochar

Biochar science news

18 September 2012

The Secret of El Dorado

Written by Chris Machens, Posted in Biochar, FAQ, Science, Video

The discovery of Biochar

The Secret of El Dorado
A decade ago Scientist discovered what is known by the Indios as Terra Preta or Black Earth and turned out be a part of instruments at our disposel to combat climate change. A incredible BBC documentary from 2002 reveals this story.

18 April 2012

Drought: how to adapt in the garden

Written by Chris Machens, Posted in News, Biochar, Howto, Science, Soil

Bunny Guinness advises how to tend to your garden in the drought / water ban

Drought: how to adapt in the garden
Bunny Guinness from the Telegraph: We’re nation of weather watchers, and the gardeners among us are getting extremely concerned. Even if we get a drenching this month, the hosepipe ban in many areas looks set to stay for the summer. It’s time for a rethink about the way we use water in the garden.

07 April 2012

Gardeners should end their love affair with peat

Posted in News, Biomass, Science, Soil

Mining peat unlocks stored carbon into the atmosphere, and there are far better alternatives to help your garden grow

Gardeners should end their love affair with peat
The Guardian writes:
There has been a huge effort to phase out the use of peat by both amateur and professional gardeners. Defra has been at the forefront, with support from B&Q. So it is surprising that B&Q is increasing the use of peat this year and more so given that it is a member of the Horticultural Trades Association's Growing Media Initiative and ran its own peat-free campaign last year.

29 March 2012

How Homegrown Charcoal May Get Your Garden Through A Drought

Posted in Biochar, News, Science, Soil

Biochar will really improve the soil's capacity to hold water

Eliza Barclay from NPR writes:
You've probably heard of compost – that thick chocolate-colored stuff that's an organic gardener's best friend and supplies plants with all kinds of succulent nutrients.

But what about biochar? It's another ancient farming material made from slow-burned wood (also known as charcoal) that holds nutrients and water into soil without them draining away. And lately it has enjoyed a certain revival because it can also pull and store the carbon in greenhouse gases from the air. Everyone from California grape growers to home gardeners on YouTube is trying it out.

29 March 2012

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

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

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

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

19 March 2012

Current state of biochar progress

Written by Imogen Reed, Posted in Biochar, News, Policy, Project, Science, Soil, Technology

The Latest Biochar Projects in the Developed World

Current state of biochar progress
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.

13 January 2012

Climate Change Mitigation from Pyrolysis

Posted in Biochar, News, Science

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?

13 January 2012

Geoengineering: A Potential Biochar Application?

Posted in Biochar, News, Science

Geoengineering: A Potential Biochar Application?
Could biochar potentially be used to fix nutrients to sustain and increase C Storage in thawing - decompositioning soils?
Higher temperature and decompo- sition rates can also increase nutrient availability, which often has a greater effect on plant growth than temperature (Chapin and Shaver 1996). Decomposition of soil C (in- cluding thawed permafrost C) with concomitant nutrient release could actually increase total ecosystem C storage if low C:N soil organic matter is replaced by higher C:N plant biomass (Shaver et al. 2000). http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/resources/Schuur.pdf

Soil amendment

Biochar can be used as a soil amendment to improve yield, improve water quality, reduce soil emissions of greenhouse gases, reduce nutrient leaching, reduce soil acidity, and reduce irrigation and fertilizer requirements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

Related Nitrous oxide emission reduction in temperate biochar-amended soil (2011)
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