Biochar Interest Group - South East Asia (BIG-SEA): May 2015

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Playing chicken with biochar

Standard shed based poultry and egg production systems can have negative impacts on animal welfare / health and the local and wider environment. These problems usually have economic impacts on the industry. Biochar has been shown to have a positive effect over a wide range of issues via diverse applications.

There are many interesting articles and published research on the use of biochar in the poultry industry. This article from David Yarrow is already a few months old but provides a great summary on the opportunities that are being explored around the world.

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

CHARdays: June 18-21

This in from Kathleen Draper at the Biochar Journal... do we have the momentum in SEA to get some events planned in time? I see Sri Lanka (and now Philippines) are in...

An invitation to join us for CHARdays: June 18 - 21

Hello biochar community -

We'd like to invite all of your to join us for the first (hopefully annual) CHARdays event from June 18 - 21st. Location: your backyard or at your company location or anywhere you choose. The idea is to build awareness for biochar by hosting charring events around the globe. For those interested in participating, we are working on a way to help you advertise your event though social media and the Biochar Journal.

We don't have a baseline goal for how much carbon we think the biochar community could help sequester in these 4 days but would love to hear what you all think.

Hope you will join us in spreading the word!

http://www.biochar-journal.org/en/ct/60-CHARdays-2015

We have commitments from Australia, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, and the US so far which is great. There will be at least 100 Swiss and German 'charmaniacs' participating as well and some have asked us about posting live video - we are checking into that.

If you'd like us to help advertise your event, feel free to send the relevant information to Maddie Brown(brown@ithaka-institute.org) . You can use your own flyer or just send us the details and we'll put them in this simple format and post to our CHARdays Pinterest board.

Cheers, Kathleen

Friday, 22 May 2015

ARPOS - a new research initiative

The 'Academic Research on Palm Oil Sustainability' or ARPOS Network has been recently established in Malaysia. Its evolution has progressed through a number of workshops at which I have been participating. They have produced this report and their next step is broad engagement to gather ideas for research topics. This is a great opportunity for biochar production and application development within the palm oil industry, which to date has been very slow in studying biochar opportunities.

The following survey is available for you to present your ideas around biochar research in the palm oil industry. I've submitted my ideas already...
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Dear Workshop Participants,

I hope this finds you well.

Last March a team of researchers from UTM, UKM and UNMC invited you to attend a workshop on ‘Palm Oil Sustainability Research’. During the workshop we discussed the high level themes for palm oil sustainability research and following some further discussions we agreed upon fourteen (14) themes. These 14 themes now form the basis of an on-line survey which serves a means to undertaken a global stakeholder engagement exercise.

As a reminder the aspiration of this survey is that stakeholders with interests in palm oil - in Southeast Asia and beyond - will submit their pressing research questions which, following a second survey to prioritize these questions can serve as a basis for future research strategies going forward. This includes the research strategy of the ARPOS (Academic Research for Palm Oil Sustainability) Network in Malaysia.

The survey is now open (see link below) and I request your support in forwarding the survey to your contacts with specific or broad interests in palm oil sustainability. The survey will close on June 15^th 2015.

Here's the weblink: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/palmoil

We've managed to gain a reasonable level of local interest, particular from a couple of key local and international stakeholders. A good start so far!

Finally, I would also like to offer the chance to be a co-author on the academic paper, including input on the analysis of the data and in the writing stage. Please let me know on your interest in this and I’ll follow up with you in due course.

Below this email I've included a short summary explaining the aims and objectives of the survey which you could use to forward to your contacts.

Please let me know if this sounds of interest and whether you're keen to help circulate the

survey.

Best wishes,

Rory

-----------------------------------------

Rory Padfield MSc PhD

Senior Lecturer

Department of Environment and Green Technology (EGT)

Malaysia - Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT)

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM),

Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Email : rory.kl@utm.my / rorypadfield@gmail.com

Twitter: @rory_padfield

Tropical Catchment Research Initiative (TROCARI): www.trocari.com

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Survey Aims and Objectives

Three Malaysian universities (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University Nottingham Malaysia Campus) are leading on a global stakeholder engagement exercise to identify priority research questions for the study of sustainable palm oil.

The aspiration is that stakeholders with interests in palm oil - in Southeast Asia and beyond - will submit their pressing research questions which, following a second survey to prioritize these questions can serve as a basis for future research strategies going forward. In particular, it is hoped that the outputs of this study will help shape the research and funding strategies for palm oil in both palm oil producing as well as consuming countries. The results of this project will be made public.

I would like to request your assistance in this exciting sounding project by undertaking the research survey yourself and forwarding to individuals or organisations in your own network who might be interested in participating. To fill out the survey, please click on the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/palmoil

The survey will close on 15th June 2015.

Thanking you for your cooperation.

Kon-Tiki developments in Tasmania

Cone kilns, TFOD's, Kon-Tiki, whatever you like to call them, are rapidly becoming popular for biochar production. There are many clever design innovations being demonstrated around the world. I've been covering this in more detail here,
http://soilcarbon.org.nz/tag/tfod/

I'm in regular contact with Frank Strie in Tasmania. He has biochar activity humming in the state, working at the 'carbon' face of the industry. Here is a recent report...

http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/pr-article/kon-tiki-kiln-updates-events/

Monday, 18 May 2015

Rice husk biochar production system (CHAB) from Philippines

DA-PhilRice introduces eco heating technology

QUEZON CITY, May 17 -- The Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has started the introduction and pilot testing of a machine that processes rice hull into biochar which can be used for cooking, baking, sterilizing and heating brooding chicks. - See more at: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1781431686660/da-philrice-introduces-eco-heating-technology#sthash.9Z2ZIOr3.dpuf

DA-PhilRice introduces eco heating technology

PIA | DA-PhilRice introduces eco heating technology

QUEZON CITY, May 17 -- The Department of Agriculture's Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has started the introduction and pilot testing of a machine that processes rice hull into biochar ...

http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1781431686660/da-philrice-introduces-eco-heating-technology