Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle

[erich]

I thought the current news and links on Terra Preta soils and closed-loop pyrolysis would interest you.

SCIAM Article May 15 07;

Special Report: Inspired by Ancient Amazonians, a Plan to Convert Trash into Environmental Treasure: Scientific American

After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.

Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra Preta Carbon Soil Technology.

Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.

If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP web site I've been drafted to co-administer. Terra Preta | Intentional use of charcoal in soil

It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who's back round I don't know have joined.



Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;

The Honolulu Advertiser: “The nation's leading manufacturer of charcoal has licensed a University of Hawai'i process for turning green waste into barbecue briquets.”

About a year ago I got Clorox interested in TP soils and Dr. Antal's Plasma Carbonazation process.

See: Hawaii gets up-close look at TheBoat before maiden voyage - The Honolulu Advertiser

ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State 04/10/07

Mechabolic , a pyrolysis machine built in the form of a giant worm to eat solid waste and product char & fuel at the "Burning Man" festival ; Untitled Document



Here is my current Terra Preta posting which condenses the most important stories and links;



Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle

Man has been controlling the carbon cycle , and there for the weather, since the invention of agriculture, all be it was as unintentional, as our current airliner contrails are in affecting global dimming. This unintentional warm stability in climate has over 10,000 years, allowed us to develop to the point that now we know what we did,............ and that now......... we are over doing it.

The prehistoric and historic records gives a logical thrust for soil carbon sequestration.
I wonder what the soil biome carbon concentration was REALLY like before the cutting and burning of the world's forest, my guess is that now we see a severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like no-till and reforestation have started to help rebuild it. It makes implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, a returning of the misplaced carbon to where it belongs.

On the Scale of CO2 remediation:

It is my understanding that atmospheric CO2 stands at 379 PPM, to stabilize the climate we need to reduce it to 350 PPM by the removal of 230 Billion tons of carbon.

The best estimates I've found are that the total loss of forest and soil carbon (combined
pre-industrial and industrial) has been about 200-240 billion tons. Of
that, the soils are estimated to account for about 1/3, and the vegetation
the other 2/3.

Since man controls 24 billion tons in his agriculture then it seems we have plenty to work with in sequestering our fossil fuel CO2 emissions as stable charcoal in the soil.

As Dr. Lehmann at Cornell points out, "Closed-Loop Pyrolysis systems such as Dr. Danny Day's are the only way to make a fuel that is actually carbon negative". and that " a strategy combining biochar with biofuels could ultimately offset 9.5 billion tons of carbon per year-an amount equal to the total current fossil fuel emissions! "

Terra Preta Soils Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X FertilityToo


.

The integrated energy strategy offered by Charcoal based Terra Preta Soil technology may
provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, other than nuclear power.

The economics look good, and truly great if we had CO2 cap & trade or a Carbon tax in place.


.Nature article, Aug 06: Putting the carbon back Black is the new green:
http://bestenergies.com/downloads/naturemag_200604.pdf

Here's the Cornell page for an over view:
Biochar home

University of Beyreuth TP Program, Germany University of Beyreuth | Terra Preta

This Earth Science Forum thread on these soils contains further links, and has been viewed by 19,000 self-selected folks. ( I post everything I find on Amazon Dark Soils, ADS here):
Hypography Science Forums - Terra Preta - The parent thread which started it all



There is an ecology going on in these soils that is not completely understood, and if replicated and applied at scale would have multiple benefits for farmers and environmentalist.

Terra Preta creates a terrestrial carbon reef at a microscopic level. These nanoscale structures provide safe haven to the microbes and fungus that facilitate fertile soil creation, while sequestering carbon for many hundred if not thousands of years. The combination of these two forms of sequestration would also increase the growth rate and natural sequestration effort of growing plants.


The reason TP has elicited such interest on the Agricultural/horticultural side of it's benefits is this one static:

One gram of charcoal cooked to 650 C Has a surface area of 400 m2 (for soil microbes & fungus to live on), now for conversion fun:

One ton of charcoal has a surface area of 400,000 Acres!! which is equal to 625 square miles!! Rockingham Co. VA. , where I live, is only 851 Sq. miles

Now at a middle of the road application rate of 2 lbs/sq ft (which equals 1000 sqft/ton) or 43 tons/acre yields 26,000 Sq miles of surface area per Acre. VA is 39,594 Sq miles.

What this suggest to me is a potential of sequestering virgin forest amounts of carbon just in the soil alone, without counting the forest on top.



All the Bio-Char Companies and equipment manufactures I've found:

Carbon Diversion
Carbon Diversion


Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns
Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns

BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis - Biomass - Clean Energy - Renewable Ene
BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis - Biomass - Clean Energy - Renewable Energy - Char - green coal - pelletized fuel - syngas for electrical generation - carbon credits - increases rural jobs and construction development


Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy
Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy

Ensyn - Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals
Ensyn - Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals

Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste

Advanced BioRefinery Inc.
Advanced BioRefinery Inc.

Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash
Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash


The International Agrichar Initiative (IAI) conference held at Terrigal, NSW, Australia in 2007. ( International Agrichar Initiative 2007 Conference ) ( The papers from this conference are now being posted at their home page)
.

If pre-Columbian Kayopo Indians could produce these soils up to 6 feet deep over 15% of the Amazon basin it seems that our energy and agricultural industries could also product them at scale.

Harnessing the work of this vast number of microbes and fungi changes the whole equation of energy return over energy input (EROEI) for food and Bio fuels. I see this as the only sustainable agricultural strategy if we no longer have cheap fossil fuels for fertilizer.

We need this super community of wee beasties to work in concert with us by populating them into their proper Soil horizon Carbon Condos.




Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar@aol.com

[FabianPattberg]

Thanks Erich much appreciated.

Fabian

[erich]

From Michael on the Holography Forum;
Hypography Science Forums - Opinion: What are the challenges of Terra Preta


A Good simple, well written, clear, article worth reading and sending on to any agriculture organization;


Show us the money
Carbon-Friendly Farming

The Carbon Farmers - Features - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science


And Michael's Pottery speculations on Permaculture;

"I used to live near a crazy potter. He built his own kiln but loved to open fire pottery occasionally. He made a gigantic bonfire with the pottery inside. All sorts of "arty" and interesting effects were produced by open firing.
Also a lot of breakages.
It this how Amazonian discovered char?
Is this why there is lots of Pottery in Terra preta?"

View topic - charcoal agriculture - Biochar - Amazonian Dark Earth - Permaculture discussion forum

[erich]

Finaly some legislation that talks of Charcoal sequestration in the soil, Please contact your represenative about how important it is to get this into the farm bill!!

S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007

A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:

Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative

for the 2007 Farm Bill

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI)

[Johnny Electriglide]

The process still produces CO2, and sequesters some carbon. It is good on some aspects of soil science, with the micro-organisms including fungi, that are killed by herbicides, insecticides, and heavy metal poisoning from coal powerplants and that are allowed in fertilizers. The best way for pyrolysis (now) is using solar heat. The charcoal is a good and actually natural soil ingredient that has been upset by human agricultural practices (modern), and true compost is another, greater ingredient. Also upset by human flush and forget, throw it in the garbage, mentality.
There is a lot more to reducing carbon emissions to where natural sequestering can, with human sequestering, be at absorption level, 33% lower than present CO2 level. The demands of too many people are driving the poor agricultural practices. Charcoal won't help salinized soil, or soil stripped of its humus by over-working it. The practice of fallowing or resting the soil is far below adequate. The charcoal that absorbs toxins eventually becomes toxic itself. So stopping the use of insecticides, herbicides, and sources of toxic metals contamination is just as important for the soil. Mass composting should become a normal practice.
As far as CO2 reduction goes, pyrolysis is just part of it. Going solar and wind for most power needs is primary. Getting the profiteering motives out is a tough one, and another necessity.

[MartinSykes]

I can understand that if you bury charcoal (in old empty coal mines would be good ) then you are definitely removing carbon permanently.

What I'm not clear on is that surely if you bury it in the soil and it makes crops grow faster, aren't you just turning the charcoal back into living plant tissue? Great for farming which gets higher yields but surely in terms of carbon, you are just speeding up the cycle, not actually removing it?

[erich]

Biochar, Charcoal remains in TP soils runs 500 to 7,000 years old.
It is a motel for all the weebeast, open bar and a full fridge, waste and water system. In this very highrise community all the metrics of soil fertility increase.

One gram of charcoal cooked to 650 C Has a surface area of 400 m2 (for soil microbes & fungus to live on), now for conversion fun:

One ton of charcoal has a surface area of 400,000 Acres!! which is equal to 625 square miles!! Rockingham Co. VA. , where I live, is only 851 Sq. miles

Now at a middle of the road application rate of 2 lbs/sq ft (which equals 1000 sqft/ton) or 43 tons/acre yields 26,000 Sq miles of surface area per Acre. VA is 39,594 Sq miles.

What this suggest to me is a potential of sequestering virgin forest amounts of carbon just in the soil alone, without counting the forest on top.

To take just one fairly representative example, in the classic Rothampstead experiments in England where arable land was allowed to revert to deciduous temperate woodland, soil organic carbon increased 300-400% from around 20 t/ha to 60-80 t/ha (or about 20-40 tons per acre) in less than a century (Jenkinson & Rayner 1977). The rapidity with which organic carbon can build up in soils is also indicated by examples of buried steppe soils formed during short-lived interstadial phases in Russia and Ukraine. Even though such warm, relatively moist phases usually lasted only a few hundred years, and started out from the skeletal loess desert/semi-desert soils of glacial conditions (with which they are inter-leaved), these buried steppe soils have all the rich organic content of a present-day chernozem soil that has had many thousands of years to build up its carbon (E. Zelikson, Russian Academy of Sciences, pers. comm., May 1994). Quaternary carbon storage in global ecosystems

[MartinSykes]

Thanks, that makes sense. So why isn't it used more widely?

i/ Is there a shortage of charcoal or some other limit in the supply chain? Is it more valuable as a fuel?
ii/ Do people just not know about it? Horticultural charcoal is used by gardeners and nurseries
iii/ Is it more expensive for the same benefit as modern chemical fertilisers?
iv/ Does it not provide as much benefit on some types of soil or for different types of crops?

Whatever the answer, I'm going to read up a bit more and try it out in my own garden. The veg beds will need digging over soon and I have a bag of charcoal in the garage. I'll do one bed with charcoal and one without and compare them later in the year.

Martin

[Johnny Electriglide]

In nature, some of the less burned (incompletely burned) roots and above surface woody growth gradually gets into the soil, for the aforesaid micro-organism niche. Necessary for truly healthy soils, along with the minerals from the more completely burned ash in natural fires. The fast moving fires of nature would not kill down too deep so the micro-organisms and worms would rebound, to take care of animal droppings and leaf/needle, dead growth, and turn them into humus.
Of course, humans with their intensive agriculture to feed overpopulation, have caused a multitude of soil loss and degradation problems. Not only the natural fire suppression, the heavy use (of farm soils and rangeland soils) causes micronutrient depletion with reduction in the organics. Pesticide/herbicide use has built up to kill those necessary soil organisms that give out those micronutriets. Not only those poisons, but atmospheric mercury from powerplants and acids, too. In addition, the use of river waters has led to salinized soil without enough annual rain to wash it out(and buildups of more than salts, like poisons, pharmaceuticals and hormones). The majority of crops using aquifers have reduced them like clockwork(the biggest gone 2037), and they are also used for a large percentage of municipality's fresh water. The fertilizers which gave abundant yields suffered diminishing returns and runoff has killed entire fisheries. The fertilizers were not of even USP grade, and thus impurities like heavy metals built up, while over-use has sent the phosphates, heavy metals, and nitrogen into rivers to the oceans and dead zones.
Charcoal is expensive because it is wood heated in a low oxygen atmosphere, and the gas that comes off is not enough for all the heat needed. It is usually used for cooking or as a filter when treated more or "activated". It isn't that it sequesters carbon so much as the home for microbial life and an element in soil that can absorb some pollution. It also helps reduce compaction and density, so roots can move and grow faster. I put layers of ash/charcoal into my composter. Citification right over good soils is one disgusting loss, the over-use without fallow is a mistake against ancient wisdom, and still there are poor practices for short term gain that lead to erosion, waterlogging, and gradual depletion, with its attendant loss and reduction in nutrient content of a wide variety of foodstuffs.
The ancients had a lot of hard earned wisdom, and now we have much more knowledge on soils. The demands of overpopulation have taken about 2/3 of our precious good farm soil over the past 100 years. Under natural conditions it would take many thousands of years to regenerate, so massive composting, less energy intensive charcoal adding, and other changes in the way things are done including the burial of our dead, Flush and forget, CO2 and energy intensive cremation, and burial too deep with preservatives in refined metal or exotic wood coffins must end. The best way was the letting of carrion eaters do the initial digesting. The first page of the Bible, the commandment "Replenish the Earth" sinfully not done, and the "fill the Earth" part totally misconstrued to overpopulation by stupidity, lack of foresight, greed and lust. Now it is, in so many ways, overpopulation feeding upon itself, a monster, a Juggernaut. The groundwater first after the tanked economy, pollution buildup to very bad effects(with soils, ground and surface water, and climate fluctuation and heating), and then the loss of enough soil to be at the threshold and below for our life giving crops, as the momentum of population keeps it going up. We are in over-shoot, with the resources diminishing, death rate going up, birth rate going down---to a point where death rate rapidly exceeds birth rate from malnutrition, wars, diseases to less healthy people, water crises, food crises, rampant migrations and stealing, on to even cannibalism. That is the way it is, and the great effort would have to be by the populace that on average is just too dumb to live right, in understanding sustainability. Less than 10 years just for the climate change part of the equation, to 80% reduction. How about the water? The soil, where we stand on the faces of the unborn generations that will never be, and you can't tell, looking down, how deep it is, or its health.
In India, they burn their sacred cow's dung for cooking, as the cows get skinnier and produce less dung. They poach the last 1% of their forests, and build new coal plants that cut down sunlight 20% for most of the Maldive Republic. Aquifers drying up and soils desertifying from lack of organic input, sickening estuary dead zones and immense oceanic gyres of plastic trash.
Too many people, too much change needed in too short a time.

[erich]

"Charcoal is expensive because it is wood heated in a low oxygen atmosphere, and the gas that comes off is not enough for all the heat needed."

Not true, modern closed-loop fluidic bed reactors use only a small fraction of biomass energy to start the reaction which is then self maintaining. Depending upon how the reactor is fine tuned and type of feedstock, every ton of biomass
will produce 1/3 ton charcoal , Syn-Gas (H2 & Ch4) and Bio-Oil