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Carbon via .....

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:47 pm
by MartinBonner
I hope this has been considered ..... the addition of charcoal/biochar to the soil as a dust(moistened) or slurry , activated by compost tea of fish emulsion , either turned in , injected or as a foliar spray ( this could be done using a 'hydro-seeder') .

The thought comes from the tree regrowth issues on pastures . Why push them into heaps and burn them ..... shouldn`t the carbon within be returned to the soil ?

A friend a RCRA has access to a trial site using charcoal under strawberries . So far the results have been astounding . A control group produced 2.3 punnets/bush/season , the trial site on the same farm using charcoal produced 4.8 punnets/bush/season ...... double .

If those results can be extrapolated into pasture or other farming enterprises it could be our saviour . AND if we were to be PAID for carbon sequestration , if the carbon applied were quantifed , it would prove it`s in there .

Ka-ching !!

Re: Carbon via .....

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:30 pm
by matto
Biochar does indeed have the viability to store carbon for a long time, but there are some impediments to its large scale applicability.

One problem is the research. CSIRO's own research team have been doing trials of applying inert, inactivated biochar 2 tonnes to the hectare. The resulting nitrogen drawdown in the cropping is giving negative results, as you would expect.

Another is the processing. More efficient, mobile pyrolisis chambers need to be manufactured before its use will be picked up. This is happening, and is early days for biochar, but I reckon it will in time, be used in many different applications.