Comment

Comment by Gunajit Brahma on February 18, 2011 at 10:32am

Toward Human and Environmental Symbiosis Using Biochar

http://www.biochar-international.org/APBCKyoto/2011

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A billion tons of biomass a viable goal, but at high price, new research shows
 February 16, 2011

A new study from the University of Illinois concludes that very high biomass prices would be needed in order to meet the ambitious goal of replacing 30 percent of petroleum consumption in the U.S. with biofuels by 2030.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-billion-tons-biomass-viable-goa...

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Echo Energy Group out of South Carolina has four models of Gasifiers to chose from;

http://echoenergygroup.net/gasifier.php

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From The Durango Herald, the new director of the Mountain Studies Institute

Providing ‘science people can use’

"Mountain Studies currently is researching, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and other organizations, a new method to reclaim mine-scarred land, Bidwell said. The technique involves mixing biochar, a charcoal produced from slash left over from forest-thinning projects, with soil in areas disturbed by mining,"

Comment by Erich J. Knight on December 19, 2010 at 1:02pm

May I suggest to your readers ;
The Biochar Solution : Carbon Farming and Climate Change
by Albert Bates
His work knits Orellana's story with the New Genetic / demographic data, Cutting edge Satellite research, Archeological / Paleoclimate data that leaves your jaw on the floor.
The missing pieces of Anthropogenic Climate Change fall into perfect order.
Albert puts you in the canoes, fearing the next woman warrior attack or wondrous visionsof plenty.
It ‘s main focus however is Biochar soil technology at Big, medium & small scale, here there and everywhere.

 

In the “Annals of the Association of American Geographers”,
I’m glad this work by Dr. Dull is getting attention. Together with Dr. William Woods and citing Bill Ruddiman’s work at UVA, the pieces of anthropogenic climate change fall into place.

The Columbian Encounter and the Little Ice Age: Abrupt Land Use Change, Fire, and Greenhouse Forcing

The implications are really important. Dull, et al, argue that the re-growth of Neotropical forests following the Columbian encounter led to terrestrial biospheric carbon sequestration on the order of 2 to 5 GtC, thereby contributing to the well-documented decrease in atmospheric C recorded in Antarctic ice cores from about 1500 through 1750. While the paper does not extend to the medieval maximum, from charcoal in lake bed studies it documents increased biomass burning and deforestation during agricultural and population expansion in the Neotropics from 2500 to 500 years BP, which would correspond with atmospheric carbon loading and global warming 1100 to 650 years BP.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content….608.2010.502432

The charcoal & pollen evidence is hard to ignore.

Dr. Dull's work infers that the kayopo TP people, with their aristocracy and slash&char Ag were nearly as exploitive and carbon positive as the balance of world agriculture of the time. So the pleasing conception I once held of an Ag system that was C-neutral or negative, is false.
However, not as exploitive as our plows & deforestation, there were no

"Carbon Nobel Savages" here.

 

This NASA will settle how many acres of TP there are and thus ..How many people!
NASA’s Space Archaeology; $364K Terra Preta Program
http://archaeologyexcavations.blogspot.com/2010/08/time-traveling-v...

Comment by adam john on December 19, 2010 at 9:23am

Welcome friends

I have good news for you; I found the best book about biochar with a special holiday price http://biochar-books.com/TBRsale

It is a truly biohar bible.

I believe this is the most beautiful holiday gift for your loved ones.

A real deal at a great price

Comment by landboy09 on December 19, 2010 at 7:31am

I heard about biochar a few months ago from a friend of mine. I never thought that something as simple as charcoal could do so much for the soil and the environment.

I was amazed after reading "The Biochar Revolution" from

http://biochar-books.com/The_Biochar_Revolution.

They have a great discount for Christmas on the book at the moment.

Check it out. It was a great help in opening my mind to issues that affect us all.

Comment by Sauman Das Gupta on October 9, 2010 at 6:17pm

How much cost and carbon are avoided?
"In the SynGest system, the production rate of anhydrous ammonia is sufficient to replace the typical high-intensity farming fertilizer application rates – of around 180 pounds per acre – associated with fossil-based anhydrous ammonia.

The cost can vary from $47 per acre this year as much as $104 per acre in the height of the oil price bubble in 2008. Given that we are producing about 10 percent surplus bioammonia per acre, we are producing between $50 and $110 in new value per acre.

In addition, with the SynGest process, which produces biochar as well as anhydrous ammonia, our community of farmers can move from using a carbon-bleeding source of fertilizer (fossil fuels), to a carbon-negative source."

http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/09/29/the-biorefinery-projec...

Comment by Sauman Das Gupta on October 9, 2010 at 6:15pm

Too Much of a Good Thing: Human Activities Overload Ecosystems with Nitrogen


Resulting ecological damage is serious, but could be reduced by wider use of more sustainable, time-honored practices



At Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, excess nitrogen promotes algae growth, which leads to eutrophication.
Credit and Larger Version


October 7, 2010


Humans are overloading ecosystems with nitrogen through the burning of fossil fuels and an increase in nitrogen-producing industrial and agricultural activities, according to a new study. While nitrogen is an element that is essential to life, it is an environmental scourge at high levels.

According to the study, excess nitrogen that is contributed by human activities pollutes fresh waters and coastal zones, and may contribute to climate change. Nevertheless, such ecological damage could be reduced by the adoption of time-honored sustainable practices.

Appearing in the October 8, 2010 edition of Science and conducted by an international team of researchers, the study was partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Nitrogen Cycle

The nitrogen cycle--which has existed for billions of years--transforms non-biologically useful forms of nitrogen found in the atmosphere into various biologically useful forms of nitrogen that are needed by living things to create proteins, DNA and RNA, and by plants to grow and photosynthesize. The transformation of biologically useful forms of nitrogen to useful forms of nitrogen is known as nitrogen fixation.

Mostly mediated by bacteria that live in legume plant roots and soils, nitrogen fixation and other components of the nitrogen cycle weave and wind through the atmosphere, plants, subsurface plant roots, and soils; the nitrogen cycle involves many natural feedback relationships between plants and microorganisms.

According to the Science paper, since pre-biotic times, the nitrogen cycle has gone through several major phases. The cycle was initially controlled by slow volcanic processes and lightning and then by anaerobic organisms as biological activity started. By about 2.5 billion years ago, as molecular oxygen appeared on Earth, a linked suite of microbial processes evolved to form the modern nitrogen cycle.

Human Impacts on the Nitrogen Cycle

But the start of the 20th century, human contributions to the nitrogen cycle began skyrocketing. "In fact, no phenomenon has probably impacted the nitrogen cycle more than human inputs of nitrogen into the cycle in the last 2.5 billion years," says Paul Falkowski of Rutgers University, a member of the research team.

"Altogether, human activities currently contribute twice as much terrestrial nitrogen fixation as natural sources, and provide around 45 percent of the total biological useful nitrogen produced annually on Earth," says Falkowski. Much of the human contributions of nitrogen into ecosystems come from an 800 percent increase in the use of nitrogen fertilizers from 1960 to 2000.

Another problem: Much of nitrogen fertilizer that is used worldwide is applied inefficiently. As a result, about 60 percent of the nitrogen contained in applied fertilizer is never incorporated into plants and so is free to wash out of root zones, and then pollute rivers, lakes, aquifers and coastal areas through eutrophication. (Eutrophication is a process caused by excess nutrients that depletes oxygen in water bodies and ultimately leads to the death of animal life.)

In addition, some reactions involving nitrogen release nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. Nitrogen oxide is a greenhouse gas that has 300 times (per molecule) the warming potential of carbon dioxide. In addition, nitrogen oxide destroys stratospheric ozone, which protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation.

Methods to Reduce Nitrogen Overloading

"Natural feedbacks driven by microorganisms will likely produce a new steady-state over time scales of many decades," says Falkowski. "Through this steady state, excess nitrogen added from human sources will be removed at rates equivalent to rates of addition, without accumulating."

But meanwhile, the Earth's population is approaching 7 billion people, and so ongoing pressures for food production are continuing to increase. "There is no way to feed people without fixing huge amounts of nitrogen from the atmosphere, and that nitrogen is presently applied to crop plants very ineffectively." says Falkowski.

So unless promising interventions are taken, the damage done by humans to the Earth's nitrogen cycle will persist for decades or centuries. These promising interventions, which would be designed to reduce the need to use fertilizers that add nitrogen to ecological systems, could include:

•Using systematic crop rotations that would supply nitrogen that would otherwise be provided by fertilizers;
•Optimizing the timing and amounts of fertilizer applications, adopting selected breeding techniques or developing genetically engineered varieties of plants that would increase the efficiency of nitrogen use;
•Using traditional breeding techniques to boost the ability of economically important varieties of wheat, barley and rye to interact favorably with the microbial communities associated with plant root systems and do so in ways that enhance the efficiency of nitrogen use.
"While the processes of eutrophication have been recognized for many years, only recently have scientists been able to begin placing the anthropogenic processes in the context of an understanding of the broader biogeochemical cycles of the planet," says Robert Burnap, an NSF program director. This is an important article because it concisely develops this understanding and also provides reasonable predictions regarding the economic and policy dimensions of the problem."

-NSF-

Comment by Sauman Das Gupta on October 8, 2010 at 7:12pm

The APL workshop will be open and free of charge for any drop bys during 350.org's Sunday global day of action.

Comment by Sauman Das Gupta on October 1, 2010 at 2:15am

List:



1. Yesterday, a well-known geoengineering analyst (Ken Caldeira) announced a new paper that (almost) mentions biochar. I recommend it for your reading. It is free at:


http://www.issues.org/27.1/caldeira.html



2. Here is an excerpt, where they (almost) mention Biochar.


' Increasing carbon storage in biological systems. A number of approaches have been suggested for increasing carbon storage in biological systems. These approaches include encouraging the growth of forests and promoting the use of agricultural practices, such as “no-till” agriculture, that foster the storage of carbon in soils. DOE, USDA, and NSF have supported research on some of these methods, and this approach has received some attention in international climate negotiations. However, biological systems are relatively inefficient in their ability to capture CO2. It is estimated that it would take approximately 2.5 acres of crop land to remove the CO2 emission from just one U.S. resident—an impractical requirement. But even though these approaches are unlikely to play a leading role in climate mitigation, some techniques may prove cost-effective, especially when the land can be used for multiple purposes or when other benefits may accrue.


It also has been suggested that the biomass accumulated in plant matter could be buried, either on land or at sea, in a way that would ensure long-term storage. Advocates of such methods argue that they would confer a considerable advantage over, for example, growing a forest and leaving it in place. With biomass burial, the same land could be used repeatedly to capture CO2, whereas a forest grows only once and does not significantly increase its carbon store after it has reached maturity. Farm waste might be another source of material that might be suitable for burial. Overall, however, current evidence suggests that it would make more environmental sense not to bury biomass but to use it in place of coal in electric power plants, which are notorious CO2 emitters."

Comment by Sauman Das Gupta on September 27, 2010 at 8:09pm

Biochar influence on nitrous oxide emission.
“The influence of biochar on nitrogen (N) transformation processes in soil is not fully understood.”1
Researchers from Forest Science Centre, Industry and Investment NSW, Beecroft, New South Wales, Australia; have presented an article titled: “Influence of biochars on nitrous oxide emission and nitrogen leaching from two contrasting soils.”
The researchers from Forest Science Centre, Industry and Investment NSW, Beecroft, New South Wales, Australia; have also noted:
“This study assessed the influence of four biochars (wood and poultry manure biochars synthesized at 400 degrees C, nonactivated, and at 550 degrees C, activated, abbreviated as: W400, PM400, W550, PM550, respectively) on nitrous oxide (N2O) emission and N leaching from an Alfisol and a Vertisol.”
“Repacked soil columns were subjected to three wetting-drying (W-D) cycles to achieve a range of water-filled pore space (WFPS) over a 5-mo period.”
“During the first two W-D cycles, W400 and W550 had inconsistent effects on N2O emissions and the soils amended with PM400 produced higher N2O emissions relative to the control.”
“The initially greater N2O emission from the PM400 soils was ascribed to its higher labile intrinsic N content than the other biochars.”
“During the third W-D cycle, all biochar treatments consistently decreased N2O emissions, cumulatively by 14 to 73% from the Alfisol and by 23 to 52% from the Vertisol, relative to their controls.”
“In the first leaching event, higher nitrate leaching occurred from the PM400-amended soils compared with the other treatments.”
“In the second event, the leaching of ammonium was reduced by 55 to 93% from the W550- and PM550-Alfisol and Vertisol, and by 87 to 94% from the W400- and PM400-Vertisol only (cf. control).”
“We propose that the increased effectiveness of biochars in reducing N2O emissions and ammonium leaching over time was due to increased sorption capacity of biochars through oxidative reactions on the biochar surfaces with ageing.”

(1) Singh BP, Hatton BJ, Balwant S, Cowie AL, Kathuria A: Influence of biochars on nitrous oxide emission and nitrogen leaching from two contrasting soils. J Environ Qual. 2010 Jul-Aug;39(4):1224-35.
http://biotech.sujanani.com/news/?p=22004111

Comment by Erich J. Knight on September 25, 2010 at 10:27am

Biochar current Developments in Research, Reports, Legislation & Data Base :

Recent NATURE STUDY;
Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n5/full/ncomms1053.html

Not talked about in this otherwise comprehensive study are the climate and whole ecological implications of new , higher value, applications of chars.

First,
the in situ remediation of a vast variety of toxic agents in soils and sediments.
Biochar Sorption of Contaminants;
http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010/conference-agend...

Dr. Lima's work; Specialized Characterization Methods for Biochar http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010/conference-agend...
And at USDA;
The Ultimate Trash To Treasure: *ARS Research Turns Poultry Waste into Toxin-grabbing Char
http://www.ars.usda.gov/IS/AR/archive/jul05/char0705.htm

Second,
the uses as a feed ration for livestock to reduce GHG emissions and increase disease resistance.

Third,
Recent work by C. Steiner showing a 52% reduction of NH3 loss when char is used as a composting accelerator. This will have profound value added consequences for the commercial composting industry by reduction of their GHG emissions and the sale of compost as a nitrogen fertilizer.


Since we have filled the air , filling the seas to full, Soil is the Only Beneficial place left.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.

WorldStoves in Haiti ; http://www.charcoalproject.org/2010/05/a-man-a-stove-a-mission/ and
The Biochar Fund
http://biocharfund.org/ deserves your attention and support.
Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon

NSF Awards $1.6 million in grants;
BREAD: Biochar Inoculants for Enabling Smallholder Agriculture
http://iapnews.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/cornell-university-wins-bio...



Biochar Soils.....Husbandry of whole new Orders & Kingdoms of life

Biotic Carbon, the carbon transformed by life, should never be combusted, oxidized and destroyed. It deserves more respect, reverence even, and understanding to use it back to the soil where 2/3 of excess atmospheric carbon originally came from.

We all know we are carbon-centered life, we seldom think about the complex web of recycled bio-carbon which is the true center of life. A cradle to cradle, mutually co-evolved biosphere reaching into every crack and crevice on Earth.

It's hard for most to revere microbes and fungus, but from our toes to our gums (onward), their balanced ecology is our health. The greater earth and soils are just as dependent, at much longer time scales. Our farming for over 10,000 years has been responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to carbon dioxide, Methane & Nitrous oxide began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel. Agriculture allowed our cultural accent and Agriculture will now prevent our descent.

Wise Land management; Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,

Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, ( living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.

Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration (= to 1 Ton CO2e) + Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels = to 1MWh exported electricity, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.

Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw;
"Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes;
"Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !".
Free Carbon Condominiums with carboxyl group fats in the pantry and hydroxyl alcohol in the mini bar.
Build it and the Wee-Beasties will come.
Microbes like to sit down when they eat.
By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders & Kingdoms of life.
( These oxidised surface charges; carbonyl. hydroxyl, carboxylic acids, and lactones or quinones, have as well a role as signaling substances towards bacteria, fungi and plants.)

This is what I try to get across to Farmers, as to how I feel about the act of returning carbon to the soil. An act of penitence and thankfulness for the civilization we have created. Farmers are the Soil Sink Bankers, once carbon has a price, they will be laughing all the way to it.
Unlike CCS which only reduces emissions, biochar systems draw down CO2 every energy cycle, closing a circle back to support the soil food web. The photosynthetic "capture" collectors are up and running, the "storage" sink is in operation just under our feet. Pyrolysis conversion plants are the only infrastructure we need to build out.

To me, in the long run, the final arbiter / accountancy / measure of sustainability will be
soil carbon content. Once this royal road is constructed, traffic cops ( Carbon Board ) in place, the truth of land-management and Biochar systems will be self-evident.

A dream I've had for years is to base the coming carbon economy firmly on the foundation of top soils. My read of the agronomic history of civilization shows that the Kayopo Amazon Indians and the Egyptians were the only ones to maintain fertility for the long haul, millennium scales. Egypt has now forsaken their geologic advantage by building the Aswan dam, and are stuck, with the rest of us, in the soil C mining, NPK rat race to the bottom. The meta-analysis of Syn-N and soil Carbon content show our dilemma;
https://www.agronomy.org/publications/jeq/articles/38/6/2295


The Ag Soil Carbon standard is in final review by the AMS branch at USDA.
Read over the work so far;
http://www.novecta.com/documents/Carbon-Standard.pdf

In my efforts to have Biochar's potential included, I have recruited several to join the list, briefed the entire committee about char when issues concerning N2O & CH4 soil GHG emissions were raised, fully briefed a couple of the 100 members when they replied individually to my "Reply all" briefs. The members cover the full spectrum of Ag interest.

With the Obama administration funding an inter-departmental climate effort of NASA, NOAA, USDA, & EPA, and now even the CIA is opening the data coffers, then soil carbon sensors may be less than 5 years away. I'm told by the Jet Propulsion Lab mission specialists responsible for the suite of earth sensing satellites, that they will be reading soil carbon using multiple proxy measurements in 5 years. Reading soil moisture to 3 foot dept in two year with SMAP, Reading GHG emissions and biomass from the tree tops down next year when the Orbital Carbon Observer (OCO, get it:) is rebooted, to 1 Ha resolution.

Then, any farmer can click "Google Carbon maps" to see the soil carbon accounted to his good work, a level playing field to be a soil sink banker.
The Moon Pie in the sky funding should be served to JPL

Sowing Seeds With New Agricultural Carbon Accounting Tool Carbon dioxide emissions from agricultural activity in the United States can now be tracked with unprecedented resolution because of a method developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory team led by Tristram West. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06 /100602131436.htm

Major Endorsements:

Senator / Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar has done the most to nurse this biofuels system in his Biochar provisions in the 07 & 08 farm bill,
http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegisl...

NASA's Dr. James Hansen Global warming solutions paper places Biochar / Land management the central technology for carbon negative energy systems.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf

Dr. James Lovelock (Gaia hypothesis) says Biochar is "The only hope for mankind"

Charles Mann ("1491") in the Sept. National Geographic has a wonderful soils article which places Terra Preta / Biochar soils center stage.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text

Al Gore got the CO2 absorption thing wrong, ( at NABC Vilsack did same), but his focus on Soil Carbon is right on;
http://www.newsweek.com/id/220552/page/3

Tony Blair & Richard Branson in the UK and conservative party opposition leader John Turnbull and Abbott in Oz.




Research:

NASA’s Space Archaeology; $364K Terra Preta Program
http://archaeologyexcavations.blogspot.com/2010/08/time-traveling-v...

This is the finest explanation I have read on the process of biochar testing. Hugh lays it out like medical triage to extract the data most needed for soil carbon sequestration. A triage for all levels of competence, the Para-Medic Gardener to the Surgeon Chem-Engineer.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/Characterizing_Biochars

The Ozzie's for 5 years now in field studies
The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20090211-20142.html

Phosphorous Solution;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/nishio

The Japanese have been at it dacades:
Japan Biochar Association ;
http://www.geocities.jp/yasizato/pioneer.htm

UK Biochar Research Centre
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/sccs/biochar/

ICHAR, the Italian Biochar Association
http://www.ichar.org/

Field Trial Data Base; The new version of BiocharDB has been released! To see it, please visit http://biocharbazaar.org.

Virginia Tech is in their 4 th year with the Carbon Char Group's "CharGrow" formulated bagged product. An idea whose time has come | Carbon Char Group
The 2008 trials at Virginia Tech showed a 46% increase in yield of tomato transplants grown with just 2 - 5 cups (2 - 5%) "CharGrow" per cubic foot of growing medium. http://www.carbonchar.com/plant-performance

USDA in their 2 nd year; "Novak, Jeff" , & "david laird" ,
There are dozens soil researchers on the subject now at USDA-ARS.
and many studies at The ASA-CSSA-SSSA joint meeting;
http://a-c-s.confex.com/crops/2009am/webprogram/Session5675.html

Nikolaus has been at it 4 years. Nikolaus Foidl,
His current work with aspirin is Amazing in Maize, 250% yield gains, 15 cobs per plant;
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/content/trials-maize-reactivat...

My 09 field trials with the Rodale Institute & JMU ;
Alterna Biocarbon and Cowboy Charcoal Virginia field trials '09
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/node/1408


Most recent studies out;
Imperial College test,
This work in temperate soils gives data from which one can calculate savings on fertilizer use, which is expected to be ongoing with no additional soil amending.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1755-1315/6/37/372052/ees9_6_372052.p...

The BlueLeaf Inc./ Dynamotive study are exciting results given how far north the site is at 45 degrees, and the low application rates. I suspect, as we saw with the Imperial College test, the yield benefits seem to decrease the cooler the climate. In 2008, a 20% increase in grain yield was shown and for a forage mixture in 2009 a 100% increase in fresh biomass was obtained. Other parameters showing increases with CQuest Biochar included earthworm, nematode and mycorrhizal root colonization, supporting the hypothesis that biochar may serve as a refuge for soil microbes. Surface soil water infiltration was also greater in biochar amended soil.
http://www.biofuelsjournal.com/articles/BlueLeaf_Inc__and_Dynamotiv...





Reports:

For those looking for an overview of biochar and its benefits, These authors have done a very nice job of distilling a great deal of information about biochar and applying it to the US context:

US Focused Biochar report: Assessment of Biochar's Benefits for the USA
http://www.biochar-us.org/pdf%20files/biochar_report_lowres.pdf

This PNAS report (by a Nobel lariat) should cause the Royal Society to rethink their report that criticized Biochar systems sequestration potential;
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Reducing abrupt climate change risk using
the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory
actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/09/0902568106.full.pdf+html

United Nations Environment Programme, Climate Change Science Compendium 2009 http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/PDF/Ch5_compendium2009.pdf

Congressional Research Service report (by analyst Kelsi Bracmort) is the best short summary I have seen so far - both technical and policy oriented.
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40186_20090203.pdf .
Recent Up Date;
http://environmental-legislation.blogspot.com/2010/02/biochar-examination-of-emerging-concept.html

This is the single most comprehensive report to date, covering more of the Asian and Australian work;
http://www.csiro.au/files/files/poei.pdf

Dr. Scherr's report includes biochar. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6124

I think we will be seeing much greater media attention for land management & biochar as reports like hers come out linking the roll of agriculture and climate.


US Legislation:

May 14, 2010, Important Biochar Provisions Included in the Amercian Power Act
IBI is pleased to announce that the American Power Act (APA), a plan to secure America's energy future, contains several important provisions to support deployment of biochar as a climate mitigation and adaptation tool. Senators Kerry and Lieberman released a discussion draft of the legislative plan on Wednesday.
The APA contains three specific provisions related to biochar. The first provision is under the domestic offset program, under Title II, Subtitle A - Global Warming Pollution Reduction. Under Part D - Offset Credit Program for Domestic Emission Reductions, Section 734 lists projects that are eligible for offsets. This list includes "projects for biochar production and use".

The second and third biochar provisions fall under Title II, Subtitle C - Achieving Fast Mitigation, Part II - Black Carbon.

Section 2211, Report On Black Carbon Sources, Impacts, And Reduction Opportunities instructs the EPA produce a report that includes a section on "research and development activities needed to better characterize the feasibility of biochar techniques to decrease emissions, increase carbon soil sequestration, and improve agricultural production, and if appropriate, encourage broader application of those techniques".

Section 2214 under the same Part II, titled Enhanced Soil Sequestration, authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a grant program to "conduct research, develop, demonstrate, and deploy biochar production technology for the purpose of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere." The program can fund up to 60 facilities and states that the Secretary "shall ensure that facilities receiving grants under this section represent a variety of technologies and feedstocks and are geographically dispersed."


Senator Baucus is co-sponsoring a bill along with Senator Tester (D-MT) called WE CHAR. Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration Act!
WashingtonWatch.com - S. 1713, The Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act of 2009


The Clean Energy Partnerships Act of 2009
The bill is designed to ensure that any US domestic cap-and-trade bill provides maximum incentives and opportunities for the US agricultural and forestry sectors to provide high-quality offsets and GHG emissions reductions for credit or financial incentives. Carbon offsets play a critical role in keeping the costs of a cap-and-trade program low for society as well as for capped sectors and entities, while providing valuable emissions reductions and income generation opportunities for the agricultural sector. The bill specifically identifies biochar production and use as eligible for offset credits, and identifies biochar as a high priority for USDA R&D, with funding authorized by the bill.
To read the full text of the bill, go to:
http://www.biochar-international.org/sites/default/files/END09F94.pdf.

Biochar systems for Biofuels and soil carbon sequestration are so basically conservative in nature it is a shame that republicans have not seized it as a central environmental policy plank as the conservatives in Australia have; Carbon sequestration without Taxes.

Biochar data base;
TP-REP
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node

Disscusion Groups;
The group home page location, General orientation:
Biochar (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
Biochar POLICY;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-policy
Biochar Soils;
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-soils/
Biochar Production;
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-production/

Earth Science Terra Preta Forum, Great for students;
Terra Preta - Science Forums
http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/

Given the current "Crisis" atmosphere concerning energy, soil sustainability, food vs. Biofuels, and Climate Change what other subject addresses them all?

This is a Nano technology for the soil, a fractal vision of Life's relation to surface area that represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.

Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.
Cheers,
Erich

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