Biochar: Ancient Wisdom Gives Clue to A Brighter Future

by Francesca Rheannon

Could a centuries-old technology help solve climate change, soil depletion, water
scarcity, fossil fuel dependence and poverty? Biochar advocates say, “yes!”

With prospects dimming for a binding climate change agreement at the upcoming talks in
Copenhagen, we all need some good news on climate change. So when I was listening to
the radio the other day, half-snoozing in bed, my ears perked up when I heard about an
ancient technology being revived as a possible big gun to tackle climate change. When
the reporter said that the technology could also take a big bite out of world hunger and
possibly provide carbon negative, clean, renewable fuels for transportation and
heating/cooling, I leaped up in astonishment. Was I dreaming or is the Murphy’s Law of
global warming finally coming to an end?

It’s too early to break out the bubbly, but a burgeoning movement of scientists,
entrepreneurs and policy makers are touting the benefits of biochar, the product of
burning plant wastes and other biomass at low temperatures without oxygen. They say it
may be able to significantly lower the amount of carbon dioxide we keep adding to the
atmosphere every year. That’s not a solution to fossil-fuel induced climate change, but it
could buy us critical time to get the whole toolkit of solutions -- clean technology,
increased efficiency, and other energy-saving practices -- on board and widespread.

When I heard that a symposium on biochar was taking place at the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst this past weekend, I jumped at the chance to find out more. The
large conference hall was packed with attendees and presenters from around the world,
from soil scientists like Johannes Lehmann, who co-wrote the “biochar bible” to
entrepreneurs like Jim Fournier of Biochar Engineering, who is building light industrial
biochar furnaces in Colorado (more on this, below).

Biochar could make the world’s deserts bloom -- without using enormous quantities of
water for irrigation. That’s because biochar is the “coral reef of soil”: it provides a lattice
that can store large amounts of nutrients, water and beneficial organisms to help plants
grow. On poor and marginal land, it can supercharge fertility. Some test plots have
boosted crop yields by almost 900%, as you can see in this video clip.

And it’s not just for deserts. Cape Codders Peter Hirst and Bob Wells demonstrated their
“Mobile Adam Retort” at the conference’s field day, held at the New England Small
Farm Institute. They’ve been taking in chippings and other waste from landscapers (who
are only too happy to give it away for free) and turning it into a high quality soil
amendment mixed with compost to sell to farms and gardeners. You can make biochar
out of animal wastes, too. That could cut down on the smells and pollution from factory
farms.

The beauty of the technology is its scaleability. From tiny units to help you make your
houseplants grow all the way up to municipal and factory-sized units that can furnish
energy for heating and electricity, biochar production provides opportunities for
entrepreneurship in poor rural communities and developed nations alike.

Already, some of Jim Fournier’s units have been sold to municipal landfills excited about
turning their waste into a product they can sell to the public while cutting down on the
space they need to store waste and providing heat to their buildings. He’s also developing
a mobile unit that can be trucked to forests out West being devastated by the pine bark
beetle. All those dead trees will put carbon into the atmosphere as they decay. But
processing the dead wood into biochar and turning some back into the soil will regenerate
the forests and get them soaking up carbon once again.

Carbon negative fertilizer is just one product. Other companies, like Dynamotive Energy
are working on creating clean, renewable liquid fuels from biochar. From fertilizer to
fuels, biochar can provide opportunities for sustainability investors -- but investors in
other biofuels, like corn ethanol, may find stiff competition in the market as the biochar
market evolves.

Policy makers are taking note. Senator Harry Reid introduced the “Water Efficiency via
Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act of 2009” in September, along with
cosponsors Max Baucus and John Tester of Montana, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Tom
Udall of New Mexico. The bill would give loan guarantees for biochar technology,
support biochar landscape restoration projects on public land, and fund research on
biochar technology and economics. And COP-15 has approved several side events about
biochar, including one to be hosted by the International Biochar Institute, which hosted
last weekend’s conference.

So, while the news on the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks could be brighter, I’m
seeing a glimmer of light on the horizon.