A solution to climate change could be charcoal
According 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, a type of charcoal called Biochar not only sequesters carbon, but it also provides energy and improves the agricultural output of poor soils.
Krull from CSIRO in Adelaide, Australia says that “Biochar can be produced in a carbon negative way, which means it has a carbon sequestration potential. Applied to soil, it can result in enhanced nutrient retention, and due to its high absorptive capacity, [it] can also decrease the uptake of soil toxins.”
Biochar is charcoal made in an enclosed space under low-oxygen conditions. By keeping the oxygen levels low, more carbon remains in the char, which lasts at least 100 years. It has a chemical structure that makes it very difficult to break
We can burn a wide range of biomass to produce biochar. This can include manure collected from a feedlot, cane trash left over from sugar cane production, woodchips from a sawmill, or a dedicated biofuel crop.
Sequestering the carbon from these wastes is the main climate mitigation action of biochar, but its benefits don’t stop there because applying the biochar to soil improves the soil’s structure, helping it to retain water and nutrients and reducing the amount of nitrogen fertiliser required, especially for fertiliser-intensive crops like vegetables.
AND biochar also reduces emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas produced by soil microbes that’s 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, by up to 80 per cent. It seems that when you apply the biochar, the nitrogen transformation process is inhibited.
Technorati Tags: Biochar, charcoal, carbon negative, greenhouse gs, nitorus oxide, soil microbes, Tim Flannery
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