This site has been created to facilitate the establishment of a South East Asian biochar interest group. BIG-SEA could provide communication and linkage between biochar researchers, farmers, related industry and supporting organisations, interested in tropically focused biochar industry development. Please get in touch if you are interested in supporting or participating in this effort.
International Biochar Initiative - Educational Webinar Series
Stockholm Biochar Project
June 28, 2017 • 1:00- 2:30pm ET
The Stockholm Biochar Project was one of the winners of the Mayors Challenge funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Prize money has helped fund the 1st of 5 planned facilities to convert urban green waste into heat and biochar which opened earlier this year. Once all five plants are operational, the city will be producing 7,000 tons of biochar per year while contributing heat to the city's district heating system. City residents will be able to get bags of biochar in exchange for taking their organic waste to the processing facilities.
Mattais Gustaffson is the Project Manager and will provide an overview of the project to date as well as lessons learned and recommendations for others interested in replicating their efforts in other cities - to date they have had inquiries from nearly 100 other cities interested in carbonizing greenwaste.
Cost?
Free to IBI Members or $40 for non-members
To Register:
Registration includes access to the slides and a recording of the webinar.
IBI Members register here (go to the upcoming webinars section). Your event link will be emailed to you after successful confirmation about your membership status.
Mattias Gustafsson works as a consultant in biochar and renewable energy through his own firm EcoTopic. Ongoing assignments include project management, technical expertise and lectures both in Sweden and internationally. At the moment Mattias is the project manager for the Stockholm Biochar Project.
Moderator: Kathleen Draper
Kathleen is a member of the IBI Board and Chair of IBI's Information Hub. She is also the US Director of the Ithaka Institute for Carbon Intelligence. The Institute is an open source network focusing on beneficial carbon sequestration strategies which simultaneously provide economic development opportunities both in the developed and developing world. She is an editor and writer for The Biochar Journal, sponsored by the Ithaka Institute. Kathleen also works with various different universities and individuals on projects that are investigating the use of biochar in cement and other building and packaging products to develop products with lower embodied carbon which can be made from locally available organic waste. She has written extensively about various topics related to biochar and is a co-author of the book "Terra Preta: How the World's Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger".
For more information:
For more information or if you have any questions about registration please email Vera Medici at vmedici@ttcorp.com.
Want to become an IBI member? Visit our membership page to help support IBI.
The following link leads to my post to ABE website on a new article published by The Biochar Journal. The article is focused on temperate climate urban planting in Sweden but I think it is still highly relevant to urban tree planting in the tropics.
Click above to link: http://soilcarbon.org.nz/biochar-urban-trees/
A Malay language newspaper has recently included an article on biochar based around work emanating from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The online article is in Malay here. I've used an online translation service that provides a rather poor English translation.
The article describes UPM work with biomass from the palm oil industry and product development activities leading to trial product sales at a horticulture event last November. I'm sure we will hear more about this at the biochar workshop (previous post).
"The estero running through Block 5 in Daang Tubo (a community inside the UP Campus) is on its way to being clean. GMA Network and its partners, the Philippine Mine Safety and
Environment Association, the Philippine Biochar Association and the
Sagip Ilog Pilipinas, collaborated on the Clean River Zone Biochar
Community initiative. The Kapuso Network and its partners signed a Memorandum of Agreement
in early 2014 to clean up the said estero using bokashi balls (bokashi
balls are made from dried mud and other organic materials, including
biochar, and are used to clean bodies of water that have high
concentrations of sludge and slime)." ...
The December issue of the IBI monthly newsletter has now been released. It profiles an article that I've written with Dr Francis Ng, on his biochar work at Bandar Utama township, KL, Malaysia over the past 12 years.
A direct link to the profile on the IBI website is here.
This is a slightly edited version of the original article. If you like to read the original, then please scroll down to my earlier release via google docs.
The link below is to an article that has been submitted to IBI for publication in their monthly newsletter.
I am hoping it will appear in the December issue.
Coming to a city near you in SEA soon (hopefully)... Stockholm, Sweden: Biochar – for a Better City Ecosystem "Stockholm, like many global cities, is confronting the effects of climate change. Stockholm will create a citywide program that activates citizens as front-line change agents to curb this escalating problem. Together, the city and its residents will produce biochar, an organic substance that increases tree growth, sequesters carbon, and purifies storm water runoff. Citizens will bring their green waste to locations across the city for conversion to biochar and, ultimately, redistribution." http://soilcarbon.org.nz/1million-euro-for-stockholm-biochar-project/
I've been collaborating with Dr Francis Ng and Alfred Cheong on an article describing the historical and ongoing use of biochar in Bandar Utama, a township within Kuala Lumpur. Biochar related activities began in Bandar Utama in 2002 culminating in the Secret Garden opening in 2009 and ongoing commercial applications in urban landscaping. Hopefully the article will be completed in August.
During my visit yesterday, I was introduced to some of Dr Ng's extensive plantings that I had missed on previous visits. The photo below finds Dr Ng next to a very healthy looking camellia sinensis or tea bushes. Also nearby were arabica, robusta and liberica coffee plants... all happily living with their feet in 50% carbon.
Dr Francis Ng beside his roof-top tea plantation
A new brochure has been printed for the Secret Garden and this now provides back-ground details on the biochar soils that have been used in the garden. You can access a scan copy of the brochure / guide from here.
Looking past the unfortunate terminology describing biochar as "fertilizer", this article should be of interest for urban environments...
Chicago landscapers turn to ancient Amazonian fertilizer
... “It seemed like a beautifully ecological and non-chemical fertilizer,” Jacobs said. He had seen evidence that biochar improved agricultural productivity, but nothing for landscaping. “We took a leap of faith.” In
the first year the honey locusts grew 24 inches, or about twice what
Jacobs expected. Two years later, “They have continued to grow like... weeds,” he said. Urban soils often lack carbon and
struggle to sustain the diverse microbial communities that are essential
to plant growth. Essentially charcoal, biochar is loaded with carbon
and fosters microorganisms so well that it has been called a coral reef for soil. Jacobs
is quick to note that every site is different, and that his project
isn’t a scientific study. But the cost difference is negligible, he
said, and “something is making those trees grow better.” He now uses
biochar in most of his downtown landscaping projects, as well as in his
own garden. ... http://www.wbez.org/blogs/chris-bentley/2013-06/chicago-landscapers-turn-ancient-amazonian-fertilizer-107645
Dr
Subhadip Ghosh, researcher from Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology
of National Parks Board, Singapore has conducted a research on using
local char materials for urban soil management. Following is the
abstract of the paper published in ‘Soil Use and Management’. This paper
reports on the 1st phase of biochar related research from Singapore.
Phase 2, utilising Black Earth biochar imported from Australia, is
also completed and further larger scale research plans are in place. "Abstract: Urban soils are a key component of the urban ecosystem but little research has considered their quality and management. The use of char or partially combusted char products as a soil amendment is becoming popular worldwide because of perceived benefits to fertility and the potential for increasing carbon sequestration. In this study, we assessed the effect of applying coarse and fine char material on the quality of four different types of soil-based root-zone mixes typically used for turfgrass and general landscaping in Singapore: clay loam soil, approved soil mix (ASM, 3 soil:2 compost:1 sand), 50:50 (sand ⁄ soil) and 75:25 (sand ⁄ soil). Char briquettes made from sawdust were mixed thoroughly at rates of 25, 50 and 75% by volume with the soil mixes. Results showed that addition of char (both coarse and fine) significantly enhanced the carbon content of the mixes, with the largest increase being associated with the 50% and 75% additions. Soil nutrients (total N, extractable P, K, Ca and Mg) and mean weight diameter of aggregates were also significantly increased following the application of char. The clay loam and the 50:50 and 75:25 soil mixes were more responsive to the addition of char than was ASM."
S. Ghosh, D.Yeo, B.Wilson & L.F.Ow 1 Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology, National Parks Board, Singapore 259569, Singapore, 2 School of Environmental and Rural Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia, 3 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore, and 4 Office of Environment and Heritage, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Soil Use and Management (In Press). doi: 10.1111/j.1475-2743.2012.00416.
The Gaza Makeover
-
*"What could possibly go wrong?*"
*Regular followers of the posts *that appear on *The Great Change* will be
well aware that we have a tendency to ge...
Nurtured by and dedicated to te reo Māori
-
Te reo Māori is Dr. Anaha Hiini’s life purpose. Raised by his grandparents,
Kepa and Maata Hiini, Anaha of Ngāti Tarāwhai, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue
descen...
Biochar for gardeners
-
Biochar is charcoal used to improve the quality of soil for growing plants.
Biochar particles mixed into soil will make the soil loose and friable for
bett...
maccybiochar is in business!
-
Please find below a summary recently issued by maccybiochar: maccybiochar
is a not-for-profit volunteer group set up to convert tree litter from
local hous...
Is Mahogany the Answer?
-
Is Mahogany the Answer?
True Mahogany or “Genuine Mahogany” is of the Swietenia genus. The Khaya
genus is “close enough” however Shorea genus or Philippi...
Morels! - Waterman and Hill-Traveller's Companion
-
Morel Mushrooms
Morels are mycorhizal fungi, that is, they live symbiotically on the roots
of some species of trees. Apples, elms, poplars and ashes are ...
Hoverboards – Which one should You Choose?
-
As we’ve seen these past year, hoverboards have become very popular and
look super cool. Today, there is a variety of different types of
hoverboardsavbaila...
Save the Arctic
-
*by Renaud de Richter*
*Links*
- This idea was proposed by Denis Bonnelle,
'Solar Chimney, water spraying Energy Tower, and linked renewable en...
Delivering on the promise of soil carbon credits
-
[This is a test. Just emerging from a fog. What did I mist? Back to work.
Carbon Farmers of Australia is committed to making the first soil carbon
methodo...
Updates:
-
Well, things have changed over the last year and at the moment I'm up in
British Columbia having gotten married at the first of the year. All is
well, life...
-
*Cody's Corner*
[image: family4.jpg]
Big Profits
We practice a method of agriculture here at Real Farm Foods that is old as
the earth and made more acces...
Adoption of Niger Seed
-
In 2010, an ECHO Asia Notes article entitled *The Recent Introduction of
Niger Seed (Guizotia abyssinica) Production in Northern Thailand* described
how t...
TAKING THE STEP
-
Yup! I'm starting a new walk. I've been toying with the thought for awhile.
I liked my previous retreat from the Internet and I'm doing it again, this
tim...
Installing the ONIL Stove in Guatemala
-
Last year I had the good fortune to link up with a small NGO in Panajachel,
Guatemala - Mayan Families - and they were kind enough to let me help them
inst...
Posts
Mattias Gustaffson
The article describes UPM work with biomass from the palm oil industry and product development activities leading to trial product sales at a horticulture event last November. I'm sure we will hear more about this at the biochar workshop (previous post).
