P.S. Our readers ask for things to do. Action: If you haven’t yet made those calls to support biochar, here is some help to know how to explain what is needed. And then there is another need to get the Department of Agriculture to get moving, too. Both these requests came in the International Biochar Initiative which you can receive, too.  - Editor

Biochar in US Cap-and-Trade Legislation
International Biochar Initiative (IBI) has been working with members of Congress to incorporate appropriate language on biochar policies within pending cap-and-trade legislation. The most important thing you can do right now is to educate members about biochar, and why it should be included in US cap-and-trade legislation.

Action:  Contact your national representatives to urge them to include biochar as an eligible offset within cap-and-trade legislation. Offsets within cap-and-trade legislation provide valuable GHG emissions reductions from uncapped sectors of the economy (in this case, the agricultural and forestry sectors), and provide cost-containment for the entire cap-and-trade program, while also offering income generation opportunities for the agricultural sector and rural economies. Biochar offers significant potential GHG emissions reductions and income generation opportunities, if the appropriate supportive policies are included in legislation.
News from the International Biochar Initiative
August 21 2009
 
1 page fact sheets http://www.biochar-international.org/publications  inc

AND
Biochar R&D Program in the 2008 Farm Bill: 

IBI worked with members of the US Congress to include a new high-priority research program that became law in the 2008 Farm Bill. The Biochar R&D Program is in the Research Title of the Farm Bill, and the language is as follows:

“Grants may be made under this section for research, extension, and integrated activities relating to the study of biochar production and use, including considerations of agronomic and economic impacts, synergies of co-production with bioenergy, and the value of soil enhancements and soil carbon sequestration.”

This language authorizes this new program in law, but USDA has not yet created the program or sought funding for it.

Action:  Urge USDA to request funding for biochar in their budget, and urge lawmakers in the House and Senate to appropriate the funds to implement this important R&D program.

Deceptively familiar looking biochar from Biochar Engineering Corporation’s $100,000 equipment

- What is the antidote to feeling overwhelmed by the continuously worsening news about climate change? Go to a biochar conference! Four days of non-stop mingling with over 320 excited and determined biochar enthusiasts at the first- and fabulous- North American Biochar conference held in Boulder, Colorado August 9-12, 2009 was truly electrifying. Of course, the understood backdrop in everyone’s mind was, as one leader said, “The Earth will not wait.” The urgency and seriousness provided not depression but adrenaline for open and optimistic exchanges for the one real solution to pull carbon safely and naturally out of the atmosphere- biochar.  And adding on the co-benefits of increased soil fertility that grows better plants, the potential for using the gases and volatiles for biofuels, the ability to utilize this technology from large scale forest projects to cooking a pot of rice in a sustainable manner, the reduction of multiple kinds of wastes, and more, makes the list of reasons for biochar long and powerful!

With days of lectures from chemists, soil scientist, government projects, business enterprises, universities, environmental groups, international activists, and even our Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack, and demonstrations from large expensive equipment to a soda can sized stove, the task of summarizing really needs to boil down to our sense of the bottom line-

This is our chance to safely and naturally pull carbon out of the atmosphere- the only real mechanism to get back to a maximum of 350 parts per million in our atmosphere.
Even with the best projections, this still means that we must stop putting carbon into the atmosphere. Biochar can help us go backwards,
 but it can’t succeed if we continue to pump carbon into the atmosphere.

And

We all need to get involved and create projects in every city and farm,
using a variety of wastes, working with various methods and feedstocks, using the char to expand local food production and local energy as well as sequestering carbon, and conducting valid research to determine the best solutions including a life-cycle analysis. Now.

You might ask about growing trees as the best way to sequester carbon naturally. This could be true in a world with a stable climate, but when forests around the world are currently dying (we were told at the conference in Colorado alone, there are one to two million acres of dead trees already because of current climate change), and with the world’s climate expected to change rapidly with various tipping points, such as the Artic ice disappearing, which will end a major reflective surface that has functioned as the world’s air conditioner for thousands of years, then we need to take reforestation claims very, very cautiously. Dead trees, however, could function as a feedstock for biochar, which would free up agricultural land for food, rather than growing switchgrass or other potential biomass sources on precious farmland.

The conference was put on by the Center for Energy and Environmental Security at the University of Colorado Law School in the new LEED certified building. Congratulations to Jonah Levine who did an amazing job at handling an ever-growing number of participants far beyond expectations and smoothly handling the logistics of this conference. Find them at http://cees.colorado.edu/  Proceedings will be available on-line within a month. Here are some photos.

Here is the intermediate size biochar machine just developed, costing $100,000. It is on a trailer so can be moved into forests and other places, avoiding the expense and emissions of hauling large amounts of biomass to a biochar machine.

 
Creating biochar requires some fine-tuning- this is not just regular charcoal. This machine operates at a maximum of 600 degrees. The computer screen provides readings of variables allowing the operator to control reactions. Some people at the conference believe that temperatures should be lower- around 250 degrees.

 
Outside demonstrations of small-scale cookers creating biochar were fascinating. Here are two of the world leaders in small-scale biomass cookers.  Paul Anderson (on left) demonstrates larger cookers made with cheap materials, including paint cans, using what he calls TLUD- Top-Lit UpDraft. Nathanial Mulcahy of World Stove demonstrates a very small cooker, using a soda can with a stainless steel insert (see below). All of these devices have double layers and holes placed in critically important places to control the gases correctly. Both men have traveled the world spreading the use of these simple but important cookers, in many sizes, not just the small ones shown here.

A simple soda can for a cheap biochar camping stove with its stainless steel insert.

Here’s a demonstration showing one way a biochar stove differs from a regular fire.
This piece of ordinary paper dropped into the flame does not ignite immediately. It stays as paper for quite awhile until it turns to charcoal. It does not burst into flames.

Minimal data available suggest biochar has 500-1000 year half life.
 
 Biochar is carbon-negative bio-energy.
 
 Terra Preta soils in the Amazon show man-made biochar from 800 to 7,000 years ago.
 
 Chemical composition of remaining biochar does not change over long periods of time.
 
 Biochar has multiple benefits- it can mitigate climate change, be a powerful waste management
 tool, provide energy, and improve soils. All these are powerful, but sometimes multiple benefits  confuse people about what biochar really is and who should claim it. Thus far, it tends to get lost in  policy discussions. Biochar also can reduce the health-damaging effects of home cook stoves used  in developing countries and reduce deforestation caused by using wood for cook stoves.

 Biochar can be created through different methods and different feedstocks and thus can be
 adapted to provide benefits to different kinds of soils as tailored chars. One needs to do some  research to determine what is best for particular soils. Even alkaline soils can benefit when done  appropriately. Biochar can be treated once made to have specific qualities.

Biochars are not all the same. They can be made from temperatures of 200 to 700 degrees Celsius  and take from 1 hour to 168 hours, and be made from a wide variety of feedstocks.
Secretary Vilsack:” Biochar is one of the best opportunities we’ve seen in a long time for rural  development.”  The 2010 budget was done in just 4 weeks and regrettably did not include much  money for research.

The most economically viable biochar production is with distributed systems which reduce the  impacts of transportation. One Life Cycle Analysis from cradle to grave found that yard wastes as  the feedstock had the highest net energy benefits.

A wide variety of projects are going on around the world- 20 tons a week in South Africa from  macadamia shells, 14 tons a week in British Columbia, a new manufacturing plant in China making  small stoves, simple cooking stoves from cookie tins designed for herdsmen in Manchuria, and a  new plant in Dunlap, Tennessee which will have the capacity to create 8,000 lbs an hour.
 
 The advantages of biochar are real, vital, and expanding rapidly. Expansion could occur even faster  if the U.S. carbon credits come into place with cap and trade. The fledgling businesses are mostly  not profitable yet.

 It is best when biochar manufacturing occurs in combination with heat capture/electricity  generation, and the creation of biofuels- bio-gas and bio-oil, as well as returning the biochar to  soils for amendment.

 Ties are being built with international programs fighting desertification because biochar can help  restore recently destroyed drylands. See http://www.unccd.int/

 The National Labs in Italy want to work on desertification and were offered 2 choices- a very big  scale project or “10,000 stoves.” Recognizing the barriers to transporting biomass long distances  to a big plant, they chose the stoves! Four African countries are now creating the Lucia stove, Lucia  stove invented by entrepreneur Nat Mulcahy of WorldStove  with local manufacturing.
 Indonesia has biochar offsets, with the “greening proceeds” being reinvested in green projects.
 
 A strong educational campaign is needed, from school children, the public and policy makers.

ACTION: The Senate version of the energy bill coming up in the next few weeks needs to include biochar. It is not in the House bill. Contact your Senators asap to let them know including biochar is very important. With the government’s current concerns, we can emphasize that this has the potential to create jobs and energy, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, as well as sequester carbon.

ACTION: With about 100 days left until the Copenhagen Climate Conference, we need to assure  that biochar is included. Use all your connections to promote inclusion. Inter-sessional meetings  will occur in Bangkok in September, Barcelona in November, and the final in Copenhagen Dec 7-18,  2009. Also, donations to the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) will help support knowledgable  participation.

To buy:

 Get the ball rolling in your area by buying a simple stove. One place is http://worldstove.com/products/  The  Beaner Backpacking Stove is the one that fits into a soda can. You can also get free plans to make your  own- http://worldstove.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/LuciaStove_price_list_7_29_2009.pdf and  http://www.bioenergylists.org/files/Construction%20Plans%202009-03-11.pdf
 A biomass grill and more are available at http://www.chipenergy.com/brochuregrillcart.htm