How can biochar & snow removal complement each other?
Like nearly everyone in the northeast, I am just a tad tired of the white stuff at this stage of the winter. My sympathies go to Boston as they have been particularly hard hit this year having welcomed 77” of powder so far and looking likely to reach a new record. NPR recently ran an enlightening interview about a snow removal service in Boston which naturally got me thinking of all new uses for biochar.
Logically when you have that much snow, it’s got to go. Moving it left or right just isn’t sufficient when space is limited. Snow removal, it turns out, can be a very, very expensive line item. (Canada spends about $1B/year!) Methods for removal include pulling, casting, winging back or the most expensive: hauling/dumping. Not surprisingly many places are not too happy with having lots of urban snow dumped anywhere near them given the high levels of salt, motor oil, not to mention all that yellow snow!
What, I’m sure you are asking, does biochar have to do with any of this? I have an answer! Or perhaps a breakthrough vision is a better descriptor. (According to Peter Diamontes “The day before something is a breakthrough it’s a crazy idea.” so feel free to call it a crazy idea!)
Imagine this: snow is hauled to a location where tree limbs that have suffered from ice & snow damage are also dumped. Tree debris is chipped for use in a combined heat and biochar (CHAB) unit where the heat can be used to melt the snow. The biochar produced can be used to filter the water so that the water can be returned in a healthier state to the environment. (Note this char is not in a condition to be put in the soil, but there are emerging technologies to remove these impurities.)
Or imagine this: parking lots could have smaller CHAB units which can either run on biomass waste from the various retail or industrial establishments. Snow can be brought to the CHAB area which sits atop some permeable pavement that sits atop a whole lot of biochar so that the melting snow and its various impurities can be filtered before heading down to recharge aquifers.
Or imagine this: communities could have mobile mini CHAB units and locate them near storm drains during winter months. These could run on community green waste (which admittedly would probably need to be pelletized to maximize efficiency). Biochar socks (which Charchimedes and I have dubbed ‘Charsettes’ with a nod to the French word “chaussettes” which means socks) could surround the storm drains to filter out the nasties, leaving much cleaner water for the sewage systems to handle.
And there you have my black and white solutions for snow removal using biochar production!
