17 April 2012
How One Startup Sold $6,000 Worth of Charcoal on Kickstarter
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.
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.
How do you convince longtime traditional farmers that they could produce 200% more food every crop season if they mix their soil with specially-designed charcoal? For Jason Aramburu and his company re:char, talking Kenyan farmers into using its “biochar” product proved to be a major challenge.
The benefits of this charcoal are twofold: The chemical makeup of the biochar pulls carbon dioxide from the air and then feeds it back in the soil. In short, biochar can actually help reduce chemical emissions from pollution while producing crops in newly-enriched soil.
“It’s hard to get them to do anything out of their routine because it’s very risky for them, especially when you’re talking about their livelihood,” says Aramburu.But once they saw the bountiful corn stalks that re:char could grow on Kenyan soil, they began to listen. Aramburu, an entrepreneur with a soil science background from Princeton, operates his for-profit social enterprise stateside in Austin, Texas, and in the developing world in Bungoma, Kenya. There, Aramburu and his team begin the process of creating biochar. Using a special technique called pyrolysis, which burns material up to 400 degrees Celsius without oxygen, re:char converts agricultural waste, such as cornstalks and nut shells, into solid carbon-negative charcoal.
The benefits of this charcoal are twofold: The chemical makeup of the biochar pulls carbon dioxide from the air and then feeds it back in the soil. In short, biochar can actually help reduce chemical emissions from pollution while producing crops in newly-enriched soil.
“Instead of emitting CO2 into the world and accelerating climate change, this product captures and sequesters it,” Aramburu explains.It’s these green benefits that motivate Aramburu to make his product ubiquitous — not just as a solution for developing countries. The company’s newest product, “Black Revolution,” is a soil-less growth compound made up of biochar and other organic matter that was put up for presale on Kickstarter. The results were successful: Not only did re:char hit its funding goal of $5,000, but the company raised an extra $1,300 on pre-orders. These Kickstarter orders will be a part of a study that measures the effects that a biochar-based plant medium can have on plant growth all over the country. The 102 soil-purchasing funders will contribute their data periodically to re:char, which will then release a report. Aramburu explains that small bags of Black Revolution need no extra help to begin growing plants.
“It’s ready to go right out of the bag,” Aramburu says. “You could drop seeds in the bag and get vegetables in about a month.”Aramburu explains that the compound is aligned with the future of agriculture, which emphasizes maximum output on minimal space. And that is what re:char is all about — giving those who have trouble growing anything a way to go green. As a for-profit company, re:char has received grant support from socially-conscious programs such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Echoing Green.
“I believe if you align your mission with what you’re doing, you can make money and do good,” Aramburu says.
- Item Tag: Biochar, Black Revolution, Product, Project, Technology
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