Biochar could offset the equivalent of up to three gigatons of carbon dioxide each year by 2050, like shutting down 800 coal plants.
“We can achieve negative emission in our agroecosystems by reducing the carbon source and enhancing carbon sinks. Contributing to both these aspects to create net negative agriculture.”
I'm a proponent of using grass clippings or biannual coppicing of willows so that the CO2 is recently taken out of our polluted atmosphere.
Our plans to tackle climate change with carbon storage don't add up
Modelling that shows how the world can remain below 1.5°C of warming assumes we can store vast amounts of carbon dioxide underground, but a new analysis reveals that achieving this is extremely unlikely
@Snoro
Results show that biochar has negative emission potential of up to 0.92 billion tons of CO2 per year with an average net cost of US$90 per ton of CO2 in a sustainable manner, which could satisfy the negative emission demands in most mitigation scenarios compatible with China’s target of carbon neutrality.
Some things just don't biodegrade well here, and part of it is that we're still perfecting our composting workflow and making sure our heaps don't overdry and die in our arid environment. We're getting better all the time, and it's a learning process. But in the meantime, I've been doing a lot of research on biochar. Most of the USDA fact sheets only talk about using biochar from wood or agricultural "wastes" like cornstalks, straw, etc. However, I know for a fact that in much of South America it's common to burn animal bones, manure, and more.
So, talk to me about biochar! Do you use it? What do you burn? What have your results been? Do you combine it with other soil remediation tactics (compost, compost teas, etc.)?
@siin Don't have much direct experience with #biochar, but my friend Michael Whitman of BlueSkyBiochar does.
Biochar needs to be inoculated before you add it to the soil or it will suck nutrients out of the soil and into the char instead of the other way around.
So he says a really effective way to use your char is to add a layer on top of your compost pile whenever it's added to. This has the added benefit of capturing the methane and other gases produced by the composting process. And while the pile is cooking, nutrients are getting established inside the char.
So, I'm quite resigned to not being able to entirely restore the reputation of carbon offsets using carbon dioxide with everyone and I entirely appreciate the damage that has been done to this budding new part of the circular economy we need to transition into.
@jgkoomey@matthewtoad43 since y'all have been some of the fiercest opponents to this new industry, I'm curious what you think of this American University's group rebranding.
I'll discuss more about their rebranding (I hate how corporate that sounds) from Carbon Removal Policy and Law Institute into the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal later in this thread, but I want to post the link to this new program to promote this circular economy down under that I also just discovered last night right away as this seems like an excellent potential paradigm shift (even if only centimeters shifting Overton Window).
To me biochar is one of the most promising Direct Air Capture Carbon Dioxide Removal technologies because it is so accessible to the most people to take part in especially all of the farmers that we need to recruit into the struggle to transition away from fossil fuels and to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.
@jgkoomey@ClipHead@donniecash818
C'mon man. Just because some people oversold some offsets over a decade ago is no reason to trash an important aspect of our response to global warming.
And that you keep asserting that #DAC is too expensive just indicates that you've not spent a minute learning about #BioChar or enhanced rock weathering, but whatever.
This graph of falling prices for batteries is all the reason anyone should need to justify making the decision to pause building new LNG export terminals.
Renewable energy and storage can replace all of our fossil fuel use for electricity production, heating, and industry.
This isn't a novice-level entry into the world of biochar and its potential role in helping to reverse the global warming we've caused and the two presentations are quite bland by most modern standards, but I really like this graphic that Nikolas Hagermann shared to help explain pyrolysis. https://youtu.be/WHIVyx9-HlY?si=rKcazC7ZgMiMpKQX
I also quite liked that he showed the snowboard built using biochar that won a medal for its rider
The #Biochar Conference for
Industry Building
The 2024 North American Biochar Conference is four days of valuable insights into the latest research findings, best practices, and emerging trends in biochar production, characterization, and application. https://www.biocharconference.com/ #permaculture
Roads2Removal.org is a collaborative public outreach initiative from Climate Now and the Livermore Lab Foundation trying to help us to save our planet by scaling up our drawdown of carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere.
Mentioned this earlier in a reply without hashtags.
If you have a garden or access to outdoor space- you might be interested to learn that you can help store carbon in your garden.
Pull carbon right out of the air and fix it into plants and soil.
It’s a really basic introduction, all ideas you can follow up if they sound useful. I wrote it last year while at a previous job.
"Every year the world subsidizes fossil energy adds 12 trillion dollars to the global economy. Take that away and you are in a fine pickle. You had better find something else to spend it on, and quick.
So much YES. Would love to connect with fellow enthusiasts and professionals working in the field, and engage more actively, bringing in my own expertise of working in high end interiors and architecture. If that's you, please reach out, boost, connect.
We OBVIOUSLY can't 'keep on keeping on' and design our built environment like we don't know how fundamentally flawed our design principles and construction methods are.
Let's embrace new aesthetics and look forward, not back. Bauhaus was relevant at the time, it's history now. Let's move on. Let's question every single choice in the design process and make better decisions. Educate our clients. Throw those outdated concepts overboard of what is aesthetically pleasant, what is deemed high-end.
Nobody will enjoy marbled lobbies, airconditioned greenhouse towers and concrete buildings on a dead planet. The future is now. Let's design and build it together!
Wind and solar are close towards gaining 2 points per year of the global electricity production market share. At that rate of gain, global wind and solar production would only reach 30% of global electricity by 2032 so we all have to do what we can individually by helping to reduce the fossil fueled electricity and power we're responsible for being produced more quickly.
April 2019: 9.37%
April 2020: 11.12%
April 2021: 11.86%
April 2022: 14.57%
April 2023: 15.94%
I know that I have a steep hill to climb in order to help Carbon Dioxide Removal #CDR recover from the damage the #FossilFools and just plain grifters have done to the reputation of Direct Air Capture #DAC.
I'm hoping that the tangible product #BioChar can help to convince people to reconsider DAC for CDR.
The demonstrated recalcitrance of terra preta and ability of any and every farmer/gardener to manufacture and sequester it makes it one of my favorite approaches. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh8499
It has been a matter of some debate as to whether the super-rich soil was purposefully created or a coincidental byproduct of these ancient cultures.
Now, a study led by researchers helps to settle the debate over dark earth's origins.
Naturally, the soil in the Amazon is extensively leached of nutrients and poor for growing crops. Studies reveal that ancient villages contain several thousand tons of carbon that has been sequestered in the soil for hundreds of years #biochar#ClimateSolutions
Oh yeah, related to Direct Air Capture and biochar, today when I should have been doing something else I ran into this new small start up from up where I went to get my Master's in soil microbiology.
This looks like a quite nice small-scale pyrolysis system. Of course the price is steep for a new product like this, but I hope that they'll be able to convince a bunch of cannabis growers making good profits to become early adopters.
The economics of just carbon credits (~$1,500) wouldn't seem to justify pyrolysis equipment purchase like this, but if you can sell the biochar? Definitely makes it important to use the heat for something profitable more important too.
Let's see, about 6 metric tons of biochar from 100 cubic yards of wood chips could be sold for about 20 cents per kg according to WalMart. So that's about another thousand bucks or so.
About 200 hours to pyrolysize that 100 yds. Not going to get rich. #biochar
@GottaLaff
Buy #BioChar or better yet manufacture it yourself so that you can bury your carbon offsets yourselves, but there are monitored and verified with solid reporting requirements starting to develop because of how poorly the carbon markets have been regulated in the past.
Next year we're going to get an even better picture on where we're at on these potential trajectories as China's PV and battery factory boom along with Biden's IRA, Chips Act, and infrastructure investments start to have substantial impact on the global economy.
@cavyherd
So, Direct Air Capture #DAC is what ClimeWorks and 1point5 are doing. I also call converting annual plant growth (dead leaves, hay, grass, etc.) into #BioChar to be DAC too.
Compost does have emissions, but some is necessary for making the garden product that we need for agriculture/horticulture and compost has to be added to biochar before it makes a good soil amendment. There are studies out about biochar impact on emissions from composting. https://youtu.be/fYd4W2Cwo1o?si=UAO6kQBOLBfzbpTq