Nice article on biochar 'state of play'

 Well written summary on biochar IMO. We need to see more these sort of articles in local and regional flavor

NCAT Specialist Pens Biochar Article

October 19, 2018

NCAT’s own Jeff Schahczenski, agriculture and economics specialist, published an article about biochar and organic agriculture that was featured in the Organic Farmer magazine. Jeff writes that biochar in agriculture has become a “movement” but points out the difficulties in even establishing a definition for it.
“The range of topics and issues surrounding biochar are immense and unwieldy,” Jeff says. “If you don’t believe me, just check out the 2015 second edition of the book, Biochar for Environmental Management: Science, Technology and Implementation, edited by biochar leaders Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph. This 928-page tome is only the tip of the iceberg on the many, many topics related to biochar. “
You can read the full article at https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/61973642/organicfarmer-augsep2018-e/14.
You can also read NCAT’s publication on biochar here: https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=322.
Jeff has expertise in organic and sustainable agriculture public policy, marketing and economics, genetically modified crops in agriculture, organic horticulture, renewable agriculture energy, sustainable building construction, and intercultural communications. He served as executive director of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (WSAWG), and has been an adjunct instructor for the University of Montana, Western Montana College, and Montana Tech. Jeff received graduate degrees in agricultural economics and political science and served in the Peace Corps in Belize, Central America. He can be reached at jeffs@ncat.org or 406-494-4572.

Biochar Webinar - USA

Agenda - Biomass Magazine's Webinar Series

Biomass Carbonization & Torrefaction Summit

This all day webinar features biochar in 2 of the 4 sessions and has an powerful lineup:

9:10 am – 10:40 am How Biochar Production Can Perfectly Complement Heat and Power Production
Moderator: Anna Simet, Editor, Biomass Magazine

• Tom Miles, Biomass Energy Engineering Consultant, T.R. Miles Technical Consulting
  Overview: U.S. Biochar Initiative, Oregon
• Jonah Levine, Development Manager, Confluence Energy/Biochar Solutions Inc.
  Biochar and Thermal Energy Production; Product Utilization and Market Examples
• Greg Stangl, CEO, Phoenix Energy
  Biochar and the Power of ‘And’  

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm Where Biochar is Adding Real Value and Finding Marketplace Traction as a Result
Moderator: Anna Simet, Editor, Biomass Magazine

• Kelby Fite, VP & Director of Research, Bartlett Tree Experts
  Adding Biochar in the Soil Amelioration Process: An Arborist’s Perspective
• Mark Highland, President, The Organic Mechanics Soil Company
  Adding Value by Using Biochar Soil Amendments in Custom Engineered Soils
• James Murphy, President/Owner, Waste To Energy Inc.
  Building Markets through Dependability and Consistency of Products

 If you are chasing a commercial future in biochar or torrefaction, maybe the USD150 will be a good investment.

More on Biochar & AD @BiomassMagazine

Biochar could benefit anaerobic digestion of animal manure @BiomassMagazine: New research by Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists shows biochar has potential to make anaerobic digestion of animal manure a more efficient method to rid farms of waste while producing methane for energy.

see also: https://sea-biochar.blogspot.my/2017/10/ibi-webinar-anaerobic-digestion-and.html

Hawaii research on biochar in tropical soils

Love the 3D...

Effects of biochar on crop growth under tropical field conditions

Nguyen Hue

Effects of biochar on crop and soil under field conditions have been lacking. Thus, a field experiment was conducted on an Oxisol (Rhodic haplustox, Wahiawa series) in Oahu Island, Hawaii. A biochar locally produced from macadamia shell feedstock was applied along with either urea, or organic nitrogen (N) fertilizers (blood meal: 10% N and Organic Farm: 12% N). Sweet corn (Zea mays), soybean (Glycine max), and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) served as the test crops. The N application rates were 150 and 300 kg N/ha, and biochar rates were 0, 2, and 4% by weight. The experiment had a factorial design, with biochar rate as main plot, N source as subplot, and N rate as sub-subplot. There were 3 replications per treatment. Table 1 shows selected chemical properties of the soil and biochar; and Figure 1 shows the set-up of the experiment (see the attached).

Our preliminary results showed that the N use efficiency markedly increased in the presence of biochar, especially for corn, okra, and even soybean (Tables 2 and 3, see the PDF file attached). Interestingly, the effect of biochar on plant growth seemed to extend beyond N nutrition because the treatments receiving biochar but no N input also out-yielded those having N input but no biochar (Figure 2,see the PDF file attached). Our experiment will be continued for some more years to test the prolonged/aging effect of biochar.

• WSARE report_2017field.pdf

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Bioenergy Byproduct to Soil Savior @BiomassMagazine

Bioenergy Byproduct to Soil Savior @BiomassMagazine: Production and sale of biochar at biomass-using plants can result in significant financial gains, but the industry is still working at building its myriad of potential markets.


This article is a nice lead in for 7Dec webinar (see below).

Biochar as a Building Material | Mechanical Engineering

Biochar as a Building Material | Mechanical Engineering

Speaker: 

Dr. Kua Harn Wei

Associate Professor and Assistant Dean (Academic)

School of Design and Environment

National University of Singapore

About: 

A by-product of pyrolysis of biomass, biochar has been widely studied as a type of soil enhancement and even a replacement of carbon nanotubes in a wide range of applications, including as capacitors and sensors.

The Smart Materials Laboratory of the Department of Building, National University of Singapore, has been working on producing and studying a wide variety of sustainable building materials that utilize biochar as a key ingredient. For example, increase in strength and decrease in water absorption of mortar and concrete have been achieved by adding up to 2% wt of biochar that is produced from mixed wood wastes. Current efforts include the use of food waste as a viable feedstock for biochar that is used to enhance the performance of mortar, as well as using biochar as a mean of immobilizing special species of microbes that are capable of self-healing of cracks in concrete.

The aim of this seminar is to trigger more conversation and thinking on using biochar in a wider range of building materials and technology, including the use of biochar in additive manufacturing of building components.

The Great Change: Ground Up

The Great Change: Ground Up: " This is where biochar is today in agriculture. Its a better mousetrap in the midst of a huge rodent epidemic and still, most people c...

Comparing Biochar Burn Methods, ... SkillCult on fire again

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.