Bamboo biochar research - regional cooperation

https://www.ugm.ac.id/en/news/17773-ugm.develops.bamboo.for.biochar

"Faculty of Agriculture UGM established a consortium with Universitas Syiah Kuala, Universitas Andalas, Universitas Udayana Ghent University, Belgium, to do research in using bamboo as biochar. Biochar is active charcoal use to improve soil and reduce agricultural environmental pollution. It is also potential to maintain soil fertility.

The cooperation that lasts for three years started this year with the Flemish Interuniversity Council Belgium and promoter Prof. Stefaan De Neve from Ghent University and Dr. Benito Heru Purwanto from UGM.

Heru Purwanto said the research had started since November 2018 by inviting representatives from five universities. In March a discussion, workshop and field visit were made at Sidorejo village in Ngablak, Magelang. “Alongside the event we held a discussion that was attended by an internal tim project and doctoral students conducting biochar research at UGM,” said Heru in a release sent on Wednesday (20/3).

Heru explained although still preliminary, the biochar research cooperated with researchers from research agencies in the country as well as biochar experts from Balai Penelitian Tanah Bogor and Balai Penelitian Tanaman Rawa South Kalimantan.

“We also invited farmer groups to do biochar making practices,” he said."

Rice husk biochar and urea - 2yr study

Effects of biochar and nitrogen fertilizer on soil physicochemical properties, nitrogen use efficiency and upland rice (Oryza sativa) yield grown on an Alfisol in Southwestern Nigeria

Received: 24 March 2018 / Accepted: 12 February 2019 © The Author(s) 2019

Abstract

Purpose

Biochar and inorganic fertilizer when co-applied have been reported to increase crop yield and enhance soil fertility. However, studies on this complementary effect on soil properties and rain-fed upland rice performance in Sub-Saharan Africa are still scanty.

Methods

Field factorial studies conducted over 2 years was set up to investigate the interactions between rice husk biochar and inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on a sandy clay loam Alfisol. A two-factor (4 × 4) in RCBD where rice husk biochar was incorporated at four doses, 0, 3, 6, and 12 t/ha−1, inorganic N fertilizer (urea) at four rates, 0, 30, 60 and 90 N kg/ha−1, and their combinations was adopted.

Results

Results showed that combination of biochar and N fertilizer exerted significant (P > 0.05) interactive effect on rice harvest index, grain and straw yield and N-use efficiency. Interaction between biochar and N fertilizer increased agronomic efficiency by 140% and grain nutrient recovery by 191% over 2 years. Combination of biochar and N fertilizer reduced soil bulk density, increased water holding capacity and soil chemical status such as pH, N, P, K, Corg, Ca, ECEC and base saturation, all within the top 10 cm depth of the soil.

Conclusions

Overall, the results established that rice husk biochar can be used as a soil conditioner to enhance upland rice yield on an Alfisol. The combined dose of 3–6 t/ha−1 biochar and 30 kg/ha−1 of N fertilizer is thus recommended for upland rice farmers in the study area.

Three year study on biochar & bamboo in Indonesia

The following news was posted to the IBI February newsletter:

"A good deal of research on biochar comes from Indonesia, but much of it misses mainstream academic publications. A new three-year project is underway led by Ghent University, Belgium to help the Indonesian scientific community obtain better worldwide standing using their bamboo biochar industry as a sample case."

From the website:

"This networking project in essence addresses the problem of low soil fertility and related food security issues in Indonesia by harnessing the potential of bamboo derived biochar for soil improvement. Given the high scientific and societal impact of biochar research, notably in soil science, the production and use of bamboo biochar (in a limited number of field experiments) will allow us to address probably the main challenge in academic research in Indonesia, namely the limited international impact. Within this project, biochar will be used as a case study to very significantly increase the international impact of the participating universities, through the organisation of workshops on hypothesis testing, on experimental set-up and on scientific writing with impact, through bringing the Indonesian partners into contact with non-Indonesian research institutes with internationally successful biochar research, and through the sharing of experiences and the learning process over the entire project duration. The inclusion of diverse universities from Java, Bali, West Sumatra and Aceh will maximize the overall project impact.ic community obtain better worldwide standing using their bamboo biochar industry as a sample case."

 

Microwave pyrolysis in Malaysia

Self-purging microwave pyrolysis: an innovative approach to convert oil palm shell into carbon-rich biochar for methylene blue adsorption

Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 2019

BACKGROUND: Oil palm shell (OPS) is a biomass widely available from palm oil mills. Self-purging microwave pyrolysis (SPMP) was performed to produce carbon-rich biochar from OPS for the adsorption of methylene blue dye. The effect of feedstock amount on the pyrolysis temperature, yield and characteristics of the biochar were investigated.

RESULT: The amount of feedstock was directly proportional to the final pyrolysis temperature. The pyrolysis reached a maximum final temperature of 760 ∘C when ≥300 g of OPS was loaded into the reactor without microwave absorbent. A heating rate of up to 105 ∘C min−1 was recorded, producing a yield of 40wt% of biochar at a short processing time of 20 min. The biochar obtained at 700 ∘C showed relatively low volatile matter (24wt%), higher fixed carbon content (66wt%), carbon (78.5 wt%), oxygen (17.7 wt%), a highly porous structure with high BET surface area of 410m2 g−1 and pore volume of 0.16 cm3 g−1, and recorded a methylene blue dye adsorption efficiency of 20mg g−1.

CONCLUSION: The SPMP approach showed exceptional promise to produce biochar with low H/C ratio (0.5) and O/C ratio (0.2), which indicated a high degree of carbonization and stability of the biochar to act as a durable agent in wastewater treatment.

Biochar & mushroom cultivation - Malaysia & China

Microwave vacuum pyrolysis conversion of waste mushroom substrate into biochar for use as growth medium in mushroom cultivation

Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 2019

BACKGROUND: Spent mushroom substrate (SMS), largely produced as an agriculture waste from mushroom cultivation, was transformed into biochar via microwave vacuum pyrolysis under different ratios of SMS to microwave absorbent (1:1, 1:2, and 1:3). The biochar was then examined for its potential to be re-used in mushroom cultivation as a growth medium added to conventional mushroom bag log (plastic bag with mushroom seeds and culture substrates containing rice straw, sawdust, lime and water), with emphasis on its ability to form mycelium – a fungus that grows into mushroom from its seeds.
RESULT: The pyrolysis generated up to 36 wt% biochar yield with a large adsorption area (up to215m2 g-1) and less water (4 wt%), indicating that many adsorption sites are available on which mushroom seeds, nutrient and water can be adsorbed onto in order to form mycelium (and subsequently mushroom). The biochar added to grow mushroom in bag log recorded a higher water retention percentage (up to 59%), a higher mycelium colonization length in 8 days (6.3 cm), coverage area (up to 259 cm2) and total mycelium growth volume (317 cm3), and resulted in a higher yield of mushroom (200 gmonth-1) than that recorded for the conventional bag log without biochar (160 gmonth-1).
CONCLUSION: The results indicated that biochar produced from SMS using microwave vacuum pyrolysis shows great potential in retaining water and nutrient that in turn promotes the formation of mycelium that leads to increased growth of mushroom in its cultivation.

Bauxite mining remediation - more

Here is another report that should be of interest to Malaysian federal and Kuantan state govt. agencies.

Bauxite mining remediation

Should this be of interest to Malaysian federal and Kuantan state govt. agencies. But does anyone care about soil and land restoration in Kuantan?

Aged biochar alters nitrogen pathways in bauxite-processing residue sand: Environmental impact and biogeochemical mechanisms

Abstract

"Low nitrogen (N) content and retention in bauxite-processing residue sand (BRS) disposal areas pose a great challenge to the establishment of sustainable vegetation cover in this highly alkaline environment. The budget and fate of applied N in BRS and its potential environmental impacts are largely unknown. We investigated the effect of combined application of biochars [aged acidic (AC) vs alkaline pine (PC)] and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser on ammonia (NH₃) volatilisation, nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission and N retention in a 116-day glasshouse study. The application of AC to BRS decreased pH (≈0.5 units) in BRS, while PC biochar increased pH (≈0.3 units). The application of AC reduced NH₃ volatilisation by ca. 80%, while PC by ca. 25%. On the other hand, the AC treatment increased N₂O emission by 5 folds. However, the N loss via N₂O emission in the AC treatment only accounted for ca. 0.4% of applied N. The reduction in BRS pH and increased retention of mineral N due to the presence of oxygen-containing (phenolic and carboxylic) functional groups in AC may be responsible for reduced NH₃ volatilisation and increased N₂O emission. This study has highlighted the potential of biochar (particularly aged biochar) in improving N retention and minimising environmental impacts in highly alkaline environments."

 

Rice straw biochar reduces N loss

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

Ammonia (NH₃) volatilization is a major loss of nitrogen fertilizer in paddy fields. The incorporation of straw or biochar has been considered to be the alternative options for soil improvement and agriculture sustainability. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the potential role of rice straw and rice straw derived biochar in controlling NH₃ volatilization according to the conventional nitrogen fertilizer level (urea, 270 kg N ha⁻¹) during one rice (Oryza sativa L., cv. Xiushui134) growing season. Four treatments comprised rice straw at the rate of 8 t ha⁻¹ (RS); rice straw derived biochar at the rate of 2.8 t ha⁻¹ (RSBL); rice straw derived biochar at the rate of 22.5 t ha⁻¹ (RSBH) and a control (CK). Compared to straw application, biochar incorporation reduced the cumulative NH₃ volatilization (about 20%) from paddy fields significantly (p < 0.05), promoted rice yields and plant N aboveground as well as increased the abundance of ammoxidation amoA genes. In contrast with control, the ratios of NH₃-N and total N input for RS, RSBL and RSBH declined significantly 4.15%, 4.40% and 11.12%, respectively (p < 0.05). Reduced NH₃ volatilization in RSB treatments were mainly attributed to the decrease of NH₄⁺-N concentration in the surface water, which could resulted from the enhancement of rice growth and the promotion of ammonia oxidation in soil. The increase of soil pH and soil CEC with biochar amendment played an important role on nitrogen retention and nitrogen cycle in soil. These results indicated that the incorporation of rice straw derived biochar instead of rice straw could be a promising approach to control NH₃ volatilization and improve rice yield.

Biochar enhances animal growth

Effect of biochar on growth performance of local “Yellow” cattle fed ensiled cassava roots, fresh brewers’ grains and rice straw

Bounthavy Vongkhamchanh, T R Preston[1], R A Leng[2], Le Van An[3] and Duong Thanh Hai[3]

Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Champasack University, Champasak, Lao PDR vongkhamchanhd@yahoo.com
1 Centro para la Investigación en Sistemas Sostenibles de Producción Agropecuaria (CIPAV), Carrera 25 No 6-62 Cali, Colombia
2 University of New England, Armidale NSW, Australia
3 Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Hue University, Vietnam

Abstract

In a 56-day experiment with 6 local Yellow cattle fed ensiled cassava root-urea, brewers’ grains and rice straw, there were indications (p=0.08) that after an initial 4-week adaptation to the diet, the cattle were growing faster when 1% of biochar (derived from rice husk) was incorporated in the diet.

Apologies to all who have posted comments

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Fixed now.
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Aqueous Solutions for SEA

Video from their FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/AqueousSolutions/)

Important biochar thesis from Nepal, Co/ Norway

I highly recommend reading at least the 4-page Summary to Naba's thesis. Its well written and findings look very important for Nepal and tropical agriculture in general.
You can link to the full document with a click on the cover page image below...

Carbo-Fertil project and IBI biochar study tour to Austria June 2018

Biochar from food waste

I have a few Qs here...

• where does food waste best fit in a waste hierarchy? does it have better utility as animal feed or in a localised BSF industry
• what sort of H&MB numbers are going to work at scale, with all that water to remove? is hydrothermal carbonisation a better path for this type of waste stream
• recovering P from our industrial food and sewage systems is important... is biochar production going to become a key player?

Properties of Biochar from Anaerobically Digested Food Waste and Its Potential Use in Phosphorus Recovery and Soil Amendment

Shakib Alghashm ¹, Shiying Qian ¹, Yinfeng Hua ², Jian Wu ², Haitao Zhang ², Weihua Chen ² and Guoqing Shen ^1,*

¹School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China

²Shanghai Liming Resources Reuse Co. Ltd., Shanghai 201209, China

^*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 14 November 2018 / Accepted: 5 December 2018 / Published: 10 December 2018

Abstract

The disposal of a large amount of biogas residue from anaerobically digested food waste is a burden for biogas production. The aim of this work was to investigate biogas residue as a potential feedstock, by preparing biochar at a broad pyrolysis temperature range of 400–900 °C. The properties required for phosphorus recovery and soil amendment application were evaluated. Biogas residue collected from an urban food waste treatment plant was pyrolyzed in a laboratory scale reactor. It was found that by increasing the pyrolysis temperature, the yield of biochar decreased and the pH, electrical conductivity and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area increased. The amount of phosphorus adsorbed onto the biogas residue-derived biochar (BRB) at 900 °C was larger than that of other kinds of biochar. The kinetics of phosphorus (P) adsorption on BRB could be described by the pseudo-second-order equation. The pot experiments showed that the resulting biochar is beneficial for the growth of cabbage. Overall, turning solid residue from the anaerobic digestion of food waste for biogas production into biochar shows good prospects as a means of solving the disposal problem, while creating new markets for food waste biogas residue.

PKS biochar from BEK system in Malaysia

I think I may have missed this Malaysian publication when it was released. You can read more about the BEK in Malaysia from the BEK tag below.
Link to PDF here

http://jopr.mpob.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/jopr2018inpress-haryati.pdf