Spend a minute in a test tube with David Suzuki

When David Suzuki first showed up on Canadian television in 1971 there were 4 billion of us on the planet. 40 years later our population is closing in on 7 billion.
And, like Twitter, more people keep signing-up every single second.
But it's not just our population that's growing. It's our insatiable appetites. We're consuming more than ever before. And you have to wonder if we can carry on like this forever?
Suzuki doesn't think so. To make his point he likes to share a common scientific observation.

Farm biochar flowchart

Farm biochar flowchart
I am hopeful that small affordable energy recovery pyrolysis systems are on the way so that this farm scenario can have an 'off-grid' energy loop as well. There are a number of interesting alternative energy systems (other than internal combustion) at various stages of development. Some could use the waste heat from pyrolysis and others, the syngas or bio-oil...

• fuel cell (example... Bloom Energy)
• external combustion
• heat pumps
• organic rankin cycle (Turboden)
• further reading... http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/distributedenergy/rd.html

Biochar project funding

A new biochar related group has been initiated...

"Biochar Funding": This is the home for discussion devoted to funding opportunities for biochar-related work, at all scales, and anywhere on the planet.

It also intends to serve as a place where you can advertise your current, past and future biochar projects where (a) other biochar practitioners can learn more about your work and/or contact you for collaboration, and (b) donors can learn about what work really is being done in the biochar world, together with success stories and lessons learned.

The idea is to have a place on the internet where practitioners and donors can openly discuss each others' requirements and limitations... hopefully leading towards successful funding opportunities :)

GEK Workshop in Philippines

This workshop is more about energy production but there is potential and interest for BEK as a biochar research tool in the region.

Jim's report from Tuwa the Laughing Fish, an ecovillage a bit north of Manila in the Philippines

Some easily digested biochar results from tropical Hawaii

Josiah Hunt - Biochar in Hawaii Description and Photos
and I would guess that Hawaii's young volcanic soils are much more naturally fertile than than our ancient local soils in SEA.

The only results coming out in this part of the world are based on rice husk char, with its low fixed carbon and high ash content. So much work still to be done...

Lucia Stove demonstration

Nathaniel Mulcahy gives a great demonstration of the LuciaStove.
In six parts - make sure you see them all...

http://www.youtube.com/globeforum#p/u/5/wI0NvG5EAJg

ISU Biochar Conference papers now available...

Lots of the latest on biochar research here...

http://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/events/biochar2010/conference-agenda/agenda-overview.html

Also, the North American  Biochar Conference in August last year is covered in depth here,

http://cees.colorado.edu/northamericanbiochar.html

Yunnan biochar study

Back from a week in Kunming, where we finalised an agreement with the Yunnan Green Environment Development Foundation (YGF) to provide local support for the study. They are a small NGO associated with the Yunnan forestry department. Kunming seems like a nice place to live. Wide, clean streets with lots of planting. Parks, lakes & rivers. The climate is moderate all year and air seems clean. The streets are very quiet... lots of motorbikes but almost all are electric... way ahead of the pack on this front.

All the hotels seem to offer good quality, free internet connections but one problem we have found is the indiscriminate blocking of websites. As an example this blogger site is not accessible. Nor is google sites, where we have located our project collaboration wiki. This problem should be considered before you set up sites, if you plan to collaborate in China. I was unable to access a number of other sites, including worldstove! I wonder how you get off the black-list or through the not-so-great firewall of China. Some trip photos...

Willie Smits TED talk on reforestration in Borneo

Johannes Lehmann video presentation

Here is your chance to sit in on a recent 1 hour presentation on biochar by Dr Lehmann...
http://www.youtube.com/stanford#p/u/7/pX3zhZ6ETWI
"Johannes Lehmann, Associate Professor of soil biogeochemistry at Cornell University, discusses the characteristics of naturally occurring terra preta including its agricultural and carbon sequestering benefits and then turns to considering the factors involved with implementation industrial biochar systems for large-scale carbon sequestration and energy provision."

Assessing Opportunities for Biochar in Yunnan, China and the Greater Mekong Sub-region

I have submitted the following announcement to IBI for their June newsletter:

Biochar Systems Ltd (BSL) and SaafConsult have commenced a biochar related study for FAO-RAP in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) under the GMS Economic Cooperation Program. The objective of this study is to examine opportunities to use biochar for the benefit of rural communities with a focus on Yunnan Province, China. Yunnan is one of two southern China provinces in the GSM. A Yunnan based study participant organisation is still to be finalised.

Planned outputs from the study include a report, project proposals and a GSM workshop. The study group will be seeking biochar community support related to the preparation of proposals for follow-up projects that will be presented as part of the study. A further announcement will be made on this very soon.
Trevor Richards, BSL (febiochar@gmail.com)
Bryan Hugill, SaafConsult BV (bhugill@saafconsult.com)

IBI report from Sarah Carter (UKBRC)

The biocharm project funded through the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change is focused on multi-locational biochar field trials in India, Philippines and Cambodia. Partners include ARTI India, IRRI, SME Cambodia and the University of Edinburgh's UK Biochar Research Centre. A mid-term project meeting was recently held in India, which included a trip to the maize trials which are being managed ARTI at their field station in Phaltan.

Back in Cambodia, since the rainy season is approaching, trials for rain fed paddy field rice are being prepared. Control plots, and plots amended with 40t/ha biochar will be set up (a similar design to the trials in the Philippines). Dry season rice has already been tested with biochar application, and showed a good response, the biochar which was applied in December 2009 is still visible in the soil and these plots will be monitored again this season. Yields are being measured and soil and biochar has been analysed to assess benefits to the soil.

As well as field trials, pot trials with lettuce and cabbage have already yielded results at the research farm of the APSARA Authority in Cambodia. Amendments of between 20 and 120t/ha were used in combination with additions of compost and lake sediment.

Different methods of biochar production are being used for the trials, using feedstocks of rice husks, sugar cane leaves and maize trash. In Cambodia biochar for the trials is produced from rice husk in a 150KW continuous feed gasification unit.

For more information please see the project blog: http://biocharm.wordpress.com/

Video from Rob Flanagan presentation - CBRC May 2010

Rob Flanagan has sent me these video links. 
In two parts to accommodate YouTube 10min limit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pMud-NBUu0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxjxsw52nn8

Sad to say that that no one in China can access YouTube...

Indonesia says degraded land key for palm expansion

Indonesia says degraded land key for palm expansion

Biochar Bazaar

"Biochar Bazaar is a public online database registering biochar trials conducted all over the world. These trials are stored in a uniform format that simplifies the comparison between the protocols and the results, and facilitates the objective interpretation of the true influence of biochar on these results.

Anyone can query the database and find the biochar trials which correspond to a set of precise search criteria. Moreover, a map of the registered users as well as a map of the existing biochar trials can be consulted on the website"