Biochar: A Sustainable Approach To Improve Plant Growth and Soil Properties
Biochar is one of the type of charcoal that is used as a soil amendment for both soil health benefits and carbon sequestration. Biochar is a stable solid and is rich in carbon; also, it can endure in soil up to thousands of years. Like most of the charcoal, biochar is also made from biomass through pyrolysis. Various research is going on biochar as a viable approach for carbon sequestration since it has the capabilities to help mitigate climate change and global warming.
Biochar
Biochar can increase soil fertility of acidic soils
(low pH soils), increase agricultural productivity, and provide protection
against some foliar and soil-borne diseases. By nature, biochar is hygroscopic.
Hence, it is a desirable soil material in many locations due to its ability to
attract and retain water. When biochar is used for energy production instead of
a soil amendment, it can be directly substituted for other application that
uses coal. Pyrolysis can also be the most cost-effective way of electricity
generation from biomaterial.
Uses
Of Biochar
The biochar market has witnessed a significant growth owing to factors
such as a wider application of biochar in electricity generation, agriculture
& farming, forestry, and others. Increasing demand for various products in
organic farming is one of the major factors influencing the growth of the
biochar market. In addition to that, the growing use of biochar in the water
treatment process is further anticipated to be another important growth factor
supported by rising demand for water treatment facilities, particularly in
emerging economies.
However, factors such as high cost of the end
product and lack of incentives & tax rebates may hamper the market growth
for biochar in the near future. Nevertheless, with the steady growth in the
agrochemical and agriculture industry, the market players have the opportunity
to invest in the biochar market.
Applications
Of Biochar
Electricity Generation,
Agriculture & Farming, Forestry.
Biochar Comsumed Technology
Pyrolysis, Hydrothermal
Carbonization, Gasification.
Types Of Biochar
Woody Biomass, Agricultural
Waste, Animal Manure.
Top Manufacturers
- Agri-Tech
Producers, LLC
- Biochar
Products, Inc.
- Biochar
Supreme LLC
- Cool
Planet Energy Systems Inc.
- Diacarbon
Energy Inc.
- Earth
Systems PTY. LTD.
- Pacific
Pyrolysis
- Phoenix
Energy
- The
Biochar Company
- Vega
Biofuels, Inc.
I have committed my life to rediscovery of this nearly lost technology. Communicating the same concepts the same "dance", through the rituals of making good biochar, the way humans did before they had invented written language, thrills me. Now, for a tiny investment, you can do the first of six steps with virtually no emissions too! A huge improvement from nine thousand years ago that ancients could not have imagined. I still teach people, nearly every day to make and use biochar made with on-property materials. Even without tools if they don't have them. Of course, in our hair-brained bigger is better culture, the numbers can be run for giant facilities pumping out hundreds of tons of char, but quietly, without fanfare, transforming our soils will require taking a longer look at investment and the fallacy that fossil anything can contribute meaningfully to our pressing goal is folly. That said, we need as much quality char as we can make as quickly as we can make it. I recently did a back of the envelope calculation and if you added a metric ton per hectare across all arable acres in the U.S. of A. alone, it would sequester two years of global fossil carbon emissions. As the microbiome began to thrive, perhaps even more carbon would eventually be sequestered by the life there. The microbiome cannot thrive unless there are gaps and spaces between soil particles, char provides the complex networks of space, in which life can take hold. I was told years ago that the microbes on a single "healthy" acre of agricultural land weigh as much as a cow and a calf. In diverse cover grasslands and prairies, I believe it goes up significantly. Just recently confirmed research says, about five times as much, soil organic carbon, as much as an elephant and her baby! Living organisms per acre! The surface area alone, not even counting the water holding capacity, make it a smart choice. Once all the other ecological "services" biochar provides are taken into account, it becomes virtually priceless! For such a sacred material, it seems crass to put a price per ton on it.
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