Paul Olivier shares his wisdom from Vietnam

Paul shares more of his experience and wisdom to help connect the dots on the cascading use of biochar...

​---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Olivier
Date: 5 May 2017 at 13:42
Subject: on biochar and how its made

Biochar in a fermentation mix provides surface area for the formation of biofilm by fermentation microbes, and it enhances the efficiency of the fermentation process. When poultry and animals eat fermented biomass containing biochar, biochar helps to prevent the volatilization of N-compounds from fecal matter. When biochar is incorporated into animal bedding, biochar helps to prevent the escape of N-compounds from urine that flows into the bedding. When poultry and animals eat fermented feed containing biochar, biochar provides surface area for their gut microbes and enhances poultry and animal growth. When black soldier fly larvae eat the fresh fecal matter of poultry and animals containing biochar, biochar provides surface area for their gut microbes and accelerates larval growth. When red worms eat larval residue containing biochar, biochar provides surface area for their gut microbes and accelerates red worm growth. When vermicompost is formed in the presence of biochar, the surface activation of the biochar takes place. Vermicompost is rich in humic and fulvic acids that effect biochar activation. Vermicompost formed in the presence of biochar is, undoubtedly, the finest fertilizer that exists.

When vermicompost with biochar makes its way into the soil, biochar retains moisture and provides surface area for the proliferation of AM fungi that shuffle nutrients to plants. Biochar provides surface area to many other beneficial soil microbes, such as N-fixing and P-solubilizing microbes. In this context, the growth of fruit and vegetables can increase anywhere from 30% to 400% relative to soil fertilized with chemical fertilizers. As indigenous earthworms ingest biochar and transport it deep down into the soil, biochar is made available to additional groups of soil microbes that enhance the growth of deep-rooted plants such as orchard trees. The idea of putting biochar directly in the soil is somewhat short-sighted, since biochar can fulfill so many important functions before it makes its way into the soil. Biochar should always be understood in terms of its cascading multi-functionality.

Furthermore, the idea of making biochar in dedicated kilns where all of the gas and heat get wasted is also short-sighted. The demand for high-grade heat is enormous, and insofar as possible (even in developed countries), high-grade heat should not be produced from fossil fuels, electricity or the combustion of woody biomass. As one cooks a meal or boils water, one should be making biochar. As one dries, parches or roasts agricultural products, one should be making biochar. As one fry-cooks waste biomass or co-cropped biomass into feed, one should be making biochar. As one distills alcohol or essential oils, one should be making biochar. As one keeps houses and greenhouses warm in winter time, one should be making biochar. As one boils bone to make soup broth, one can make an extraordinary phosphorous-enriched biochar using pellets made from biomass and finely ground boiled bone derived from a previous boiling of bone. One can make broth and bone char/biochar at the same time. Bone char/biochar can be incorporated into a fermentation mix to enhance the fermentation process as well as the nutrient value of the fermented feed and all that cascades down from it. The list of such combined processes goes on and on.

Since biochar adds value at each step in a cascade, since biochar is worth more than the biomass from which it is derived, one has high-grade heat at a cost less than zero. High-grade heat is a by-product of making biochar, and biochar is a by-product of making high-grade heat. Why focus only on the production of high-grade heat as in the direct combustion of biomass? Or why focus only on the production of biochar in biochar kilns? In one simple process, preferably a low-cost batch process, one has both.

In conclusion, we should try to view biochar from the point of view of its cascading multi-functionality, and we should make that biochar in combined heat and biochar systems.

Thanks.
Paul Olivier
--
Paul A. Olivier PhD
27/2bis Phu Dong Thien Vuong
Dalat
Vietnam
Louisiana telephone: 1-337-447-4124 (rings Vietnam)
Mobile: 090-694-1573 (in Vietnam)
Skype address: Xpolivier
http://epwt.vn/en/home/

IBI Webinar - Biochar building materials & composites

 

International Biochar Initiative - Educational Webinar Series

 Biochar Building Materials & Composites

 May 23, 2017 • 5:00 - 6:30 pm EDT

While the use of biochar as a soil amendment has been researched for more than a decade, the use of carbonized biomass in building materials and other composites is just beginning to flourish.  Not only can carbon be sequestered in building materials, but using biochar can lower the embodied energy of such materials.  Importantly various properties of the building materials and composites can be enhanced when biochar is added to cement and other materials.  This Webinar brings together three of the leaders in the field of biochar use in building materials and composites to provide a glimpse into the latest research on this topic.
Hans-Peter Schmidt, head of the Ithaka Institute for Carbon Strategies, was an early pioneer in using biochar in plasters and concrete.  He applied his biochar enhanced plaster to his wine cellar as well as to the headquarters of the Ithaka Institute and has made a variety of different building materials.  Hans-Peter will provide an update on how his early biochar based materials have fared as well as an update on other more recent research collaborations on the use of biochar based materials in tunnels.
Harn Wei Kua, an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, has worked on sustainable building materials and methods for many years.  He has recently published a paper on the benefits of using biochar made from food waste and saw dust in cementitious mortar which will be described in this webinar.  He will also speak about the various concrete properties that biochar can improve.
John McDonald-Wharry is a researcher based in New Zealand that has been studying the use of biochar in various construction and composite materials.  He will provide an overview of how material properties typically change with increasing degree of carbonization (or charring intensity), and discuss different approaches to creating composite materials from chars and carbonized biomass.  John will also address various claimed functionality of char-containing composites and what evidence is currently available as well as some potential issues and challenges with biochar-containing composites and their research, development and implementation.
This webinar will be of interest to architects, urban planners, the construction industry, as well biochar producers, researchers, climate researchers and more.  An interactive Q&A period will follow at the end of the Webinar. 

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.
Non-IBI members register here.

Presenters 

Hans-Peter Schmidt
Hans-Peter Schmidt has been a pioneer in the field of biochar since 2008.  He has worked on all aspects of biochar including the creation of a wide variety of biochar production equipment, biochar production in high and low technology scenarios, application techniques, field trial design, biochar characterization, and biochar education (creator of the Ithaka Journal).  In addition, Hans-Peter has designed and used biochar plaster as a building material and is working with researchers on its use in 3D printing. He has extensive experience working across Europe and has worked on developing world projects as well including Nepal, Bangladesh and Ghana.
  Harn Wai Kua
Associate Professor Kua is the current Assistant Dean (Academic) of the School of Design and Environment, and the co-leader of the Smart Materials Laboratory in the Department of Building of the National University of Singapore. He graduated from the Building Technology Program of MIT and his current research interest is in the areas of life cycle sustainability assessment of building materials and bio-based building materials that promote life cycle sustainability.


John McDonald-Wharry
John McDonald-Wharry completed a doctoral research project in chemistry and engineering at the University of Waikato which was started in 2010. This project involved developing structural models for char chemistry, researching techniques for the characterization of biomass chars, and the creation of composite materials from carbonized herbaceous leaf fibers. This research also involved chemical analysis of other carbonaceous materials such as activated carbons, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, carbon fibers and graphites. In 2014, John was able to apply biochar screening and composite formulation know-how from PhD work to create a range of char-based composites from pine biochars produced by Massey University's New Zealand Biochar Research Centre. John is currently employed on an "Additive manufacturing and 3D and/or 4D printing of bio-composites" project involving composite formulation design and material science research.
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 net work 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.  If you have suggestions for future webinars, please send them to: webinars@biochar-international.org.
If you are interested in learning more about the topic of biochar building material, consider attending the upcoming workshop Biochar From the Ground Up, June 12 - 16 in Summertown, Tennessee.
Want to become an IBI member?  Visit our membership page to help support IBI

Biochar average crop boost of 25% in tropics

This research supports potential biochar crop benefits for SEA region. It will be interesting to see how temperate biochar world responds to findings. There are plenty of reasons to use biochar other than crop production enhancement... and there are plenty of temperate soils with deficiencies that biochar can help with and thus boost crop yields. I think that a 'meta-analysis' flattens out all the data, hiding success and failure. The researchers have provided a link to their data spreadsheet. Maybe the results can be refined based on soil deficiency? This would be more useful?

new research on effect of biochar in open field crops:

"Biochar boosts tropical but not temperate crop yields''

"For years it has been promoted as a soil additive to increase crop yields. A new study casts doubt on that view, finding that biochar only improves crop growth in the tropics, with no yield benefit at all in the temperate zone.

The team of researchers gathered data from more than 1,000 empirical observations conducted around the world, each measuring the effect of biochar on crop yield. Then, they used meta-analysis, an advanced statistical technique that analyses many studies at the same time, to test whether the beneficial effect of biochar addition depends on geography.

That’s when the surprising result emerged: “Location, location, location: it really matters for biochar”, said Dr. Jeffery, lead author of the study and senior lecturer at Harper Adams University. “Biochar had a huge benefit in the tropics, a 25 per cent increase in yield. But in the temperate zone, there was just no effect at all. We were really surprised.”

The surprise came because past work has assumed that the beneficial yield effects of biochar are universal, applying to soils no matter where they occur. The new study was the first to test rigorously whether geography matters, and the researchers were able to do this because of the very large dataset they assembled.

The idea of biochar was inspired by a rare type of soil that occurs in the tropics, ‘terra preta’ – Portuguese for ‘black earth’, so named because the soil is rich in black carbon, the partially burned remains of old plants, much like charcoal. ‘Terra preta’ is fertile, with favourable pH, unlike typical tropical soils which are low in fertility and acidic. Initial experiments showed that adding biochar to typical tropical soils increased crop yields, making it possible for farmers to cultivate a plot of land in these soils for more than a few years.

The new study supports that view: “Our findings confirm that biochar can benefit farms in low-nutrient, acidic soils such as in the tropics”, explained Dr. Jeffery. “But in more fertile soils, such as those in the temperate zone, obtaining yield increases through biochar application is much less certain.” While it is possible that, biochar may maintain yields in some soils, while cutting costs on the purchase and application of fertilisers and agricultural lime, more research is needed to identify soils where such applications are relevant.

Many other benefits have been claimed for biochar, including managing waste, sequestering carbon in the soil, soil greenhouse gas flux mitigation, crop disease suppression, and being more environmentally friendly than adding synthetic chemicals to the soil. The new study did not evaluate these other potential benefits, and the authors note that some of these may still hold in both temperate and tropical regions, and that biochar research needs to focus on trade-offs between biochar’s interaction with these ecosystem services.

“While there may be other benefits to using biochar in the temperate zone, like increasing soil carbon to slow climate change”, said Dr. Jeffery, “our analysis, summarising over 1,000 observations, shows that the yield benefits just aren’t there. So if the goal for biochar application is boosting crop yield, stick to the tropics.”

The report has been published, open access, in Environmental Research Letters."

Mining groups to Lopez: Provide more details on area development, biochar program implementation

Mining groups to Lopez: Provide more details on area development, biochar program implementation   

Award for Hans-Peter Schmidt's work in Nepal

---

Biochar project wins best International Development Project

21.04.2017

An NDF project testing biochar’s potential as fertiliser in Nepal was commended in April 2017 with an award for best International Development Project.

The award was given to Landell Mills for best International Development Project by British Expertise International. Landell Mills is a UK-based international development consulting firm. The project was an Asian Development Bank-administered and NDF-funded project in Nepal titled Mainstreaming Climate Change Risk Management in Development. Landell Mills was the technical assistance service provider.
The project assessed the viability for scale-up of biochar use as a strategy for addressing climate mitigation and adaptation by improving soil health, fertility and plant productivity, and resulting farm income. Biochar is charcoal fertiliser made from various kinds of waste biomass. It represents an inexpensive way to increase crop yields and holds significant environmental benefits including reduced loss of nutrients and greenhouse gas emissions.
The project was highly successful as it provided evidence from numerous field trials that urine-enriched biochar can, in three different climate zones, improve crop yields in a climate-friendly manner. Some trials showed yield increases of up to 300%.
The most appropriate technology for biochar production at the farm level in Nepal is the soil pit Kon-Tiki flame curtain kiln. Benefits include high-quality biochar production, low emissions, no need for start-up fuel, short pyrolysis time and, importantly, easy and cheap construction and operation, with no initial capital investment except labour. The technology is thus affordable for small-scale farmers in Nepal. The project showed strong scaling-up potential and included numerous lessons learnt that are valuable for all future biochar projects.
NDF congratulates Landell Mills as well as everyone involved in realising the project.

IBI Webinar: Sewage sludge & Biochar, 26Apr

Reminder! One Week from Today.

New this month: one of our IBI members has put together an 11 page summary of recent sewage sludge and biochar peer reviewed academic research.  This packet will be available only to IBI members and those that register for this webinar!

International Biochar Initiative - Educational Webinar Series

 Sewage Sludge & Biochar

April 26, 2017 • 1:00- 2:30pm ET (United States)

As the world's population continues to increase, our need to find sustainable methods of managing human waste becomes increasingly more important.  Carbonizing waste through pyrolysis or gasification offers some significant advantages over other common waste management practices including substantial reductions in the overall volume of waste, nutrient recovery, renewable energy production, reducing GHG emissions related to wastewater management, immobilization of toxins, to name a few.
Dr. Saran Sohi, an academic from the University of Edinburgh, will provide an overview of scientific research being conducted on the topic of biochar derived from sewage sludge, including the potential for recovery and re-use of Phosphorus.
Jeff Hallowell, CEO of Biomass Controls, has been collaborating with the Gates Foundation for several years where their technology is being used to carbonize human sewage in India.  Jeff will share an overview of the project including lessons learned, challenges and the vast opportunities, especially for remote communities, to convert human waste into biochar.
This webinar will be of interest to wastewater treatment managers both in the developed and developing world, biochar producers, researchers, climate researchers and more.  An interactive Q&A period will follow at the end of the Webinar.  Questions may be submitted during the event or prior to it via email: webinars@biochar-international.org

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.
Non-IBI members register here.
Presenters:

Dr. Saran Sohi
Dr. Sohi leads the soil science dimension of the UK Biochar Research Center (UKBRC) which was launched in 2009. 
The Centre is based in the University of Edinburgh, within the School of GeoScience and emerging out of the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage.

Collectively the UKBRC addresses biochar production technologies, the function of biochar in soil, potential carbon-equivalent gains from pyrolysis-biochar systems, and scoping socio-economic opportunities and issues (including regulation and land-use).


Jeff Hallowell
Jeff has over 30 years of experience in the computer technology industry with companies such as Xerox, Oracle, Netscape and United Healthcare.  As the former President of ClearStak for five years, Jeff worked on pollution reduction and improving efficiency on hydronic and forced air heats, wood boilers, pellet burners, biochar kilns and wood stoves.  His experience includes the development and modification of automatic controls for each biomass system including Biomass Controls' patented Pollution Control Device and Intelligent Biofuel Controller.  Currently Jeff is working on several projects including rolling out human excreta-to-biochar processing systems that provide a suitable sanitation option to meet the needs of the urban poor as part of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundaiton.  He was also the Project Manager for the Relocate, LLC project to process human solid waste to biochar in the arctic climate of Kivalina, Alaska.

 
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:
What questions do you have about biochar quality and use? Please send your questions by April 23^rd to webinars@biochar-international.org. 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.

Fire Free Alliance and biochar?

There are some interesting carbon threads between the current ideas at FFA and my previous post on Michael Shafer article. Check out the video linked below...

http://www.firefreealliance.org/blog/w27tS5T6Z9PHAtyfv

Climate change, developed world v. developing world and biochar

Michael Shafer's article (abstract below) is provocative and worthy contribution the climate change debate. It is being discussed within the biochar community. If you want to join this discussion, ahead of the formal publication of his article, then please get in touch.

Climate change, developed world v. developing world and biochar

Dr. D. Michael Shafer
Director, Warm Heart Foundation, A.Phrao, Chiang Mai

Abstract

Because we are among the world’s 1.2 billion rich people and not its 5.4 billion poor, it is easy to think about the climate crisis, solutions to the climate crisis and sustainability in terms of developed world actions and initiatives. Given the focus of diplomatic, media, policy, and scientific attention, this is entirely understandable. It is also entirely wrongheaded. If you ask, Where can we most easily improve environmental outcomes? Achieve sustainability? Reverse climate change? To say nothing of, where can we alleviate the most suffering and promote the greatest good? The answers are all found in the developing world. Environmental action in the developing world by and for the world’s poorest 2.54 billion people, very small farmers, can do more right now and at less cost to advance our shared interest in global sustainability than anything else imaginable.

What is to be done? Convince billions of small farmers in the developing world to turn their crop wastes into biochar instead of burning it. How? By providing small farmers a profitable business proposition to take up biochar production through imitation, not outside intervention, and by developing markets for any biochar they produce in excess of what they can use on their farms.

On the face of it, this easily stated proposal seems ridiculous. Building businesses, profit incentives, and making markets in the wilderness to say nothing of convincing billions of illiterate farmers to do anything pose an immense challenge. What is biochar? What does burning crop wastes have to do with the crisis of our times? Why should we even consider handing over such a complex problem to the low-tech that mere peasants can manage when this is obviously a problem for the world’s best and brightest working in its top research labs?

Because engaging billions of illiterate farmers in local markets for biochar is easier, cheaper and faster than any other option. Because biochar is solid CO2 removed from the atmosphere, smoke removed from the air, smog kept from happening and food security for billions. Because burning crop wastes contribute as much to climate change as India. Because stopping the burning by converting to biochar production would remove hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually and save millions of lives. Because the best and the brightest have no high-tech solutions at hand in their labs. Because the poor are ready, willing and able to save us right now. Because we are out of time.

Purpose

The purpose of this entirely non-traditional paper is not to challenge an existing theory, provide a new one or even offer new data. Its purpose is not to specify or clarify distinctions in data. Rather, its aim is to connect and integrate, to create a single narrative that binds large, complex and normally separate realms for the purpose of permitting action. This paper builds on well-established science, but into order to forge a compelling tale that “fits together” otherwise disparate pieces. It is not science, but scientifically informed story telling. Why? Not to denigrate science, but because policy-makers, politicians and the public are moved by stories, not science.

I start by reconceiving climate change as a poor man’s problem, now and in the future, as climate interacts with population growth to further imperil food security for the world’s poorest. Second, I suggest how the immediacy of the climate crisis in the developing world gives the poor a fundamentally different perspective than the rich. The rich feel that they can continue the effort to slow the rate at which we add carbon to the atmosphere; the poor must pursue efforts to remove carbon and reverse climate change. I then present crop waste burning in the developing world and its consequences for climate change and public health. Fourth, I connect crop waste burning to poor farmers who contribute much to climate change, and are the first to suffer its consequences. With the pieces assembled, I next introduce biochar which if made by these small farmers provides them a powerful soil amendment to improve soil quality, plant health and crop yields, and in the making sequesters CO₂ and averts the emission of smog precursors and particulates. Finally, I take up implementation, or, rather, “how to avoid the question: who pays?”

Climate change in context: The poor man’s problem

The climate change consequences of crop waste burning

The health consequences of crop waste burning

Poverty and crop burning

How can we deliver a better life to billions of small, poor farmers?

Where is the problem?

Is there a way out?

Making a market for biochar

Putting biochar back into a bigger picture

Conclusion

 
 

More from the Philippines on mine closures

DENR: Biochar technology alternative livelihood for displaced Caraga miners

Published April 13, 2017, 10:01 PM

By Mike U. Crismundo

Butuan City – Miners and workers displaced by the closure or suspension of mining firms in the region can turn to biochar technology as an alternative source of inocme and livelihood, which was recently introduced by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Some 14 mining firms were either ordered closed or suspended by the DENR in Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.
Workers and residents from other areas of the Caraga region have ventured into biochar technology introduced by DENR Secretary Regina Lopez and are reaping economic dividends, DENR 13 Regional Director Dr. Charles C. Fabre said.
Biochar is a charred biomass strictly from agricultural waste such as rice hull and straw, coconut husk and shell, corn cobs, wood trimmings, twigs produced by high-heat with very limited oxygen.
Biochar is used as a soil enhancer and fertilizer to increase yield and is also linked to minimal carbon emissions.
“This technology can be the solution of the people in communities reeling from the effects of the suspension of the mining operation to augment their income,” the regions’ DENR chief said.
He added that workers in host mining communities who were formerly dependent on mining have now diverted their attention to agriculture while utilizing Biochar technology as their alternate livelihood.
“I believe that the Biochar can address environmental problems like unsanitary landfills, unsanitary livestock raising practices, unsanitary sewage disposal, green house gas emission from agriculture, greenhouse gas emission from landfills and heavy degraded land from mining.” Fabre added.

New research from Indonesia on low temp. biochar & N

Biochar as a Carrier for Nitrogen Plant Nutrition: The Release of Nitrogen from Biochar Enriched with Ammonium Sulfate and Nitrate Acid

E. I. Wisnubroto 1) , W.H. Utomo 2) and H.T. Soelistyari 1)
1)University Tribhuwana Tunggadewi, Malang, Indonesia.
2)International Research Centre for Management of Degraded and Mining Lands, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the characteristics and stability of biochar enriched with ammonium sulfate and nitrate acid. Two feedstuffs of biochar (namely poultry litter and corn-cobs) were enriched with ammonium sulfate and nitrate acid. To investigate the release of nitrogen from the enriched biochar, a lysimeter study was carried out. The results showed that either ammonium sulfate or nitrate acid was good enough to be used as the materials for enriching biochar. However, ammonium sulfate yielded a relative better enriched biochar compared to the nitrate acid enriched biochar. Nitrogen in ammonium enriched biochar was relatively more stable compared to that of nitrogen in nitrate enriched biochar. Until 120 days of incubation, nitrogen content in a soil applied with ammonium enriched biochar made from corn-cobs was 0,13 %, 0.15 %, and 0.14 % for acid, neutral and calcareous soil respectively. These were higher compared to nitrogen content applied with the same biochar feedstuffs enriched with nitrate, i.e.: 0.012 %; 0.11%; and 0.11 % in acid, neutral and calcareous soil. Biochar with diameter size of less than 0.5 mm was good enough used for enrichment.

Australian Sugarcane support for ANZBC17

This issue of Australian Sugercane has a special feature on biochar. Click on image below for a link to the articles...

"Jack Daniels uses charcoal filters to ‘mellow’ their Tennessee Whiskey. Stacks of sugar maple timber are primed with140 proof Jack Daniel’s and then ignited. The inferno peaks at over2000 degrees Fahrenheit before burning down to the char state."

Exciting new biochar research findings

Researchers discover high-def electron pathways in soil

The new article linked above is driving a lot of interesting chatter in the biochar world.