Biochar: A Panacea for Global Warming Issues

July 1, 2010 · 1 comment

Haiti and other Latin American countries are benefiting from an ancient practice that converts waste into essential products and services. Biochar is a sustainable alternative to firewood and charcoal with the power to restore soil productivity, provide energy for domestic, agricultural and even industrial purposes, and mitigate climate change through carbon storage.

In Haiti, the proliferating population’s quest for firewood has deforested this mountainous country, regularly washed by flooding rain. As a result, nearly a third of topsoil has been lost and Haiti can no longer feed itself. The recent earthquake highlighted the fact that many Haitians were subsisting in the country’s cities, forced off the land by the poor soil fertility and the inability to grow food.

Nathaniel Mulcahy, the founder of non-profit organisation World Stove, is using biochar technology to help developing nations.

“Biochar-producing stoves save fuel, reduce both emissions of greenhouse gasses and indoor—and outdoor air pollution,” he said. “In this way, we improve soils, preserve forests and bring better health and economic independence to people.”

Many Benefits
Biochar can be produced from urban, agricultural and forestry residues or biomass – from sugar cane waste and coffee hulls to palm fronds and paper mill pulp. It removes the need to harvest trees for firewood and charcoal by generating syngas and bio-oil for cooking, heating and drying, and even electricity generation. Biochar’s co-product is applied to soils with many carbon sequestration benefits including increased bio-available water and organic matter, enhanced nutrient cycling, and reduced leaching. It can also be used to filter water.

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) is aiming to store 2.2 gigatons of carbon annually by 2050. This process was used thousands of years ago in the Amazon Basin where, anthropologists speculate, nutrient rich “terra preta” or “dark earth” was created by Indigenous people using cooking fires and middens to deliberately add charcoal to the soil.

Read More – Epoch Times, June 21, 2010

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new_biochar_land January 27, 2011 at 4:41 pm

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