Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Biochar

Biochar is "obtained from pyrolysing biomass." Being able to way the amount of biochar one has, makes it an accurate form of carbon sequestration. Additionally, it can restore soil nutrition, offering an alternative to slash and burn techniques. 

There are a lot of claims going on with this product, which for me has resulted in information overload and that sounds too good to be true. So, I'll start by breaking it all down. Firstly, pyrolysis is the subjugation of organic compounds to very high temperatures [thank you dictionary.com]. How Biochar amend soil nutrition, is not fully explained on the website. From my best understanding, it is stable in the soil, lasting for hundreds of years [sounds kind of like plastic]. I'm still out on a decision, though since I found out about it through Treehugger, I'm leaning towards Biochar being a good thing. Still have research more at Biochar Fund and Beyond Zero Emissions Podcast.

Found via Treehugger

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Here is another resource that might help you: http://biochar.info

We've been studying biochar for over a year now, and it still looks like it all holds together, creating some very supportive synergies between the agricultural, bioenergy and climate change mitigation sectors.

Nathan said...

Wow, thank you both, you've given me a lot of research to look into. I'll definitely look into it closer. Hopefully I can follow up with either of you if I have further questions.