UTAR Agricluture Science Journal: Biochar - reversing the flow of carbon

HERE is a link to an article on biochar that I've had published in the inaugural issue of the above journal (click on image above for link to the journal).


This is a general introduction to biochar with a focus on history, applications, climate change and carbon sequestration. I hope to say more about biochar production and industry development in SEA in a followup article.

Campfire Lessons: Breaking Down the Combustion Process to Understand Biochar Production

This new article from The Biochar Journal is another great introduction to biochar production and application...

By Mark R. Fuchs, M. Garcia-Perez, P. Small and G. Flora

“Campfires were the first step in the evolution of slow pyrolysis reactors. Observing the play of the flames while sitting around a campfire is still one of the best possible lessons to understand the main principles of pyrolysis. Mark Fuchs and colleagues bring the different natural phenomenon of the fire into context of modern pyrolysis.” …

Reviewer comment

Catherine Brewer:
One of the frequent challenges experienced by members of the biochar community is figuring out how to explain biochar and biomass thermochemical processes to friends and family members. The authors’ use of the campfire illustration is so helpful because it is familiar to a wide audience and scientifically accurate at the same time. After hearing this illustration the first time myself, I remember thinking, “I will never again see just a campfire.”

Albert Bates' Year in Review 2014

Albert Bates has done a great job here summarizing 2014 from a climate perspective. Very depressing but hope starts at 24mins.

Estero clean-up project in UP community - Philippines

I assume estero is estuary but I've not had luck finding a translation...
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/01/03/estero-clean-up-project-in-up-community/

"The estero running through Block 5 in Daang Tubo (a community inside the UP Campus) is on its way to being clean.

GMA Network and its partners, the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association, the Philippine Biochar Association and the Sagip Ilog Pilipinas, collaborated on the Clean River Zone Biochar Community initiative.
The Kapuso Network and its partners signed a Memorandum of Agreement in early 2014 to clean up the said estero using bokashi balls (bokashi balls are made from dried mud and other organic materials, including biochar, and are used to clean bodies of water that have high concentrations of sludge and slime)." ...

Report: Biochar on acidic agricultural lands in Indonesia and Malaysia

I've been aware of a collaborative biochar research program that has been running over a number of years, led by Gerard Cornelissen from the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute with participation from researchers in Malaysia and Indonesia. I have now discovered that this work has been extensively documented here and the final report from the Malaysia / Indonesia component of this research was released earlier this year...
http://www.ngi.no/en/Project-pages/Biochar/Publications/

Summary
"Biochar is the charcoal product obtained when biomass (preferably organic waste, not wood) is heated without access to oxygen (pyrolysis). Most of the biochar matrix is likely stable when mixed into soils, and thus represents carbon that is actively removed from the short-lived carbon cycle and thus contributes to climate change mitigation. Biochar combines a number of important “wins” such as: i) climate change mitigation: carbon sequestration and reduction of other GHG emissions (mainly N 2 O), ii) soil fertility improvement, iii) pollutant immobilization, iv) waste management and v) energy production. In this project we investigated two of these “wins” in an Indonesian /Malaysian context: soil fertility improvement and biochar technology /energy production. In addition, physical and chemical properties of biochar were evaluated.

General findings: Co-synthesis of toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) during biochar production has oft en been reported as a potential impediment to biochar implementation. We found however, that for 60 biochars, PAH contents were low and so strongly bound that they were almost unavailable for uptake in plants and soil organisms. We also investigated potential undesired co-effects of biochar on soil biota in a biochar-soil system, and found that these were modest. In addition, earthworms preferred biochar over other soil amendments (activated carbon and an iron-based metal sorbent) in avoidance tests. 

Soil fertility improvement: In pot trials in Kalimantan, (Indonesia) hardly any biochar eff ect on rice and maize growth was found for acid sulphate and peat soils. In contrast, positive biochar eff ects were seen for clay soil in West-Timor and oxisol in Sulawesi (both Indonesia). 

Biochar technology: An upscale Belonio top-lit updraft gasifier was developed and used to prepare biochar for field trial applications in Malaysia. In Sulawesi clean cooking stoves run on biochar generated by improved retort kilns were implemented.

Life-cycle and cost-benefit analysis: these analyses were centered around our case study in the village of Ngata Toro in Sulawesi. The most important finding of both these analyses was that soil amendment for improved soil fertility is a better way to use biochar than burning it as briquettes for cooking purposes. The main reasons are that i) polluting gases generated during biochar production are not off set by carbon sequestration in the briquetting alternative, and ii) briquetting is much more labor-intensive than applying biochar to agricultural soil. 

This research project has paved the way for large-scale implementation of biochar in Indonesia. The biochar will be prepared using environmentally-friendly retort kilns, and mainly applied to degraded lands where yield increases can be expected.

In addition, this project has led to several spinoff projects in other countries: Nepal (biochar from an ubiquitous weed, spontaneous farmer adoption), Zambia (maize biochar in conservation farming), Tanzania (rice husk biochar used as soil amendment, made in retort kilns where energy is used for bread baking by housewife groups) and Uganda (village electrifi cation by gasification with biochar as by-product)."

Bandar Utama — a history of biochar application in Malaysia

The December issue of the IBI monthly newsletter has now been released. It profiles an article that I've written with Dr Francis Ng, on his biochar work at Bandar Utama township, KL, Malaysia over the past 12 years.

A direct link to the profile on the IBI website is here.

This is a slightly edited version of the original article. If you like to read the original, then please scroll down to my earlier release via google docs.

Symphony of the Soil

"The 68th UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has been nominated to implement the International Year of the Soils (IYS) 2015, within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership and in collaboration with Governments and the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

To help celebrate the International Year of the Soils, we will be streaming the full feature film, Symphony of the Soil, for FREE for the week of December 5 – 12, 2014. You can help us spread the word by linking to or embedding the film on your site with a link to the Symphony of the Soil website and to the International Year of the Soils."
 

Bandar Utama - a history of biochar application in Malaysia (pre-publication)

The link below is to an article that has been submitted to IBI for publication in their monthly newsletter.
I am hoping it will appear in the December issue.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y5kdek-1dAEe-BYJTN5oRZK8B_TQJ8b4scKE_ulKqzo/edit?usp=sharing

The link is to a google document. Please let me know if you are not able to access... I can send as a PDF.

Biochar animations from Europe

A couple of new 3min. animations on biochar from ...

which I had not heard of and appears to be a European Development Agency initiative.
Its a pity they don't delve a little deeper into productions methods. The animation implies flash pyrolysis production is THE method of production... a bit misleading IMO. They do cover some of the new ideas for biochar applications such as animal feeds and building materials.

News from UniKL MICET biochar group

The following announcement has been provided by Prof. Robert Bachmann for the November IBI newsletter:

At present two undergraduate students under the supervision of Dr Amelia Md Som (

http://www.micet.unikl.edu.my/environment/index.php/about-us/staff/academician)

investigate the effect of biochar on phytoremediation of soils contaminated with Cu, Ni, Pb  and  Zn by Helianthus annuus L, while another student, Ms Syila investigates the possibility of using the original Belonio rice husk gasifier for empty fruit bunch. This project is under the supervision of Mdm Asimi Ana Ahmad.

MICET also welcomed two visiting students from Wismar University / Germany, Mr Kevin Busack and Lukas Sievert, who are both recipients of the DAAD RISE Worldwide scholarship (https://www.daad.de/rise-weltweit/en/). Kevin has been given the task to develop a standard operating procedure for APL's biochar experimenter kit (BEK), produce and characterise biochar from oil palm biomass under various process conditions and determine the emission factors for various gases. His project is carried out in collaboration with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB). Lukas' challenge is to improve the upscaled Belonio rice husk gasifier developed by Dr Nsamba Hussein Kisiki in terms of ease of use as well as utilisation of the syngas produced.

Publications:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114005590

Group website:

http://micet.unikl.edu.my/environment/index.php/component/content/article/90-research/118-the-biochar

Program Coordinator (MGEEB)

UniKL MICET

78000 Alor Gajah

Melaka

http://www.micet.unikl.edu.my/environment

http://www.micet.unikl.edu.my/mgeeb

Biochar training course & conference, Nanjing

“Following the success of the first and the second Biochar Training Course, The Biochar and Green Agriculture Center of Nanjing Agriculture University in collaboration with the University of Newcastle and University of NSW of Australia is announcing a third course to be held starting 16th April 2015. China now leads the world in the commercial production of both biochar and biochar technology. It has pioneered the development of combine NPK biochar granulated fertilizers.”

You can find details from this link to the course announcement and conference program.

Sydney biochar workshop - 10 December

International Perspectives on Biochar Research and Application

"Leading experts from Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Thailand, UK and USA will discuss biochar applications in different systems. It is a great opportunity to learn about the current biochar research and applications. ..."

This 1-day workshop has some tropical soils and SEA content Co/ ...

• Gerard Cornelissen, Norway. Environmental and socio-economic impacts of the adoption of biochar technology in developing countries
• Nattaporn Prakongkep , Thai Department of Agriculture, and Bob Gilkes, The University of Western Australia Opportunities for fruit waste biochars in organic agriculture in the tropics

Check out the details here.

Urban biochar project model

Coming to a city near you in SEA soon (hopefully)...

Stockholm, Sweden: Biochar – for a Better City Ecosystem
"Stockholm, like many global cities, is confronting the effects of climate change. Stockholm will create a citywide program that activates citizens as front-line change agents to curb this escalating problem. Together, the city and its residents will produce biochar, an organic substance that increases tree growth, sequesters carbon, and purifies storm water runoff. Citizens will bring their green waste to locations across the city for conversion to biochar and, ultimately, redistribution."
http://soilcarbon.org.nz/1million-euro-for-stockholm-biochar-project/

the Biochar Journal

Ithaka Institute have been busy. Here is a link to a new biochar journal that is in beta test mode this month. Hans-Peter has pulled together a great team of experts from around the world. Check out the list of existing and planned articles. It launches with an article by Kathleen Draper on biochar paper… exciting stuff.

My previous report on some of their work can be seen here...
http://sea-biochar.blogspot.com/2014/07/not-to-be-missed-new-video-on-simple.html

I have not reported here on my recent visit to the Ithaka Institute and a commercial operation in Switzerland as these focused mainly on temperate climate agriculture. But do get in touch if you are interested. 

New biochar related article from Paul Olivier in Vietnam

Biochar is frequently discussed in this broad ranging, entertaining and enlightening article.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22013094/Paper/Summaries/Alternative%20to%20Biodigestion.pdf

An Unconventional Way Of Raising Pigs, Chickens and Cows

Four levels of waste transformation are adapted and applied to the raising of pigs, chickens and cows. Farmers ferment waste into feed (Level 1). They feed fecal matter to the larvae of the black soldier fly, they feed larval residue to red worms, and they fertilize their crops primarily with vermicompost (Level 2). They house pigs, chickens and cows on a soft mesophilic bedding (Level 3) sprayed each day with probiotic liquids. They add biochar from top-lit, updraft gasifiers to the fermented feed and to the bedding, and they use syngas for household cooking (Level 4). The bedding has no odor. There are no flies. At no point in their lives are antibiotics or any other pharmaceuticals administered to pigs, chickens and cows raised in this unconventional way. Just about all of the behavioral and physiological needs of animals and poultry are met. Instead of inhumane confinement or free-range, we propose a third way: confinement in a clean, spacious and odorless setting that accords comfort and dignity to animals. High levels of productivity are achieved, not by means by over-crowding, antibiotics, growth hormones or chemical fertilizers - but by lining up multiple, interdependent waste transformation cycles that all reduce cost and generate income. These waste transformation technologies can even be extended to include the recycling of bone, human waste and biodegradable household waste. Through the wise and efficient transformation of waste, farmers buy nothing from feed, fertilizer, pharmaceutical, and fuel companies. Strong and self-reliant, farmers no longer depend on the fragile infrastructure of global trade. Large international corporations that enslave small farmers through the sale of unsustainable inputs are shut out, along with traders peddling cheap subsidized products that devastate local economies. In this way a lot more jobs are created and a lot more money is made at the local level. The social upheaval caused by the migration of young people to large cities is eliminated. Poor people, especially poor women, are empowered as never before. Food production increases. Food security, along with national security, is enhanced. Trade figures improve. Human health is not endangered. The environment does not suffer. And neither do pigs, chickens and cows.

Dr. Paul A. Olivier and Dr. Nguyen Van Ket and Todd Hyman
Empowering the Poor Through Waste Transformation
9/3/2014

Paul Olivier's work in Vietnam with TLUD stoves has been covered previously in this website...

Dr Paul Olivier visits Malaysia - regional TLUD development

10 Aug 2013

Dr Paul Olivier visits Malaysia - regional TLUD development. The following comments are Co/ Dr Paul Olivier, cut from a recent post to the "Improved Biomass Cooking Stoves" discussion list (you may need to sign up to ...

Biochar Interest Group - South East Asia (BIG-SEA ...

04 Mar 2012

If you are interested in biomass stoves (TLUD) or the multiple applications for small scale biomass gasification then I highly recommend a review of Dr Paul Olivier's work in Vietnam with rice husk biomass. His 10 page report ...