Finger Lakes Biochar

Much as I like attending biochar related conferences to keep up-to-date on what is going on in the industry, I also like attending meetings with a broader sustainability orientation. Not too surprisingly few of the broader context conferences have biochar on the agenda. Such was the case for the NYS Conference on the Environment held last week in Binghamton, until, that is, I contacted the organizers and (rather brazenly) asked at the 11^th hour if they might have any speaker cancellations and need someone to fill in. Serendipitously they did so off I went to preach the gospel of biochar to an all new audience.

I arrived just in time to hear them mention the word biochar in the first General Session. Minutes later a brave woman in the audience raised her hand to ask “What is bio-char?” in that tone one often hears when one is trying out a whole new word and can’t quite figure out where to put the accent. I smiled, waiting to hear the response. The Climate Change panel organizer, a Climate Change Analyst from the NY DEC, gave an answer that made me really happy I pushed to get on the agenda. He said something to the effect that biochar seemed to be a very promising technology but that it hasn’t yet realized the potential that some have claimed it has, and that he was really looking forward to learning more about it. Then he said he sure hoped the presenter was in the audience and could shed more light on the subject.

So “What is biochar?” I have really come to love that question. There are so many possible ways to answer it. Not one of which should be a canned, never to be changed, 30 second elevator speech. Biochar cannot be so easily squashed into such a tiny immobile box. I think it is really important to figure out who is asking the question, what will most resonate with them and then provide an answer that will inspire them to want to know more about biochar. Are they environmentalists looking for some technology to give them hope that it might be possible to somehow mitigate the looming climate chaos? Are they farmers that care about the bottom line but want to be sustainable? Are they climate skeptics that will be turned off the minute you mention carbon sequestration? Are they investors looking to make a quick buck on the next big trend? Often it is some combination.  Often you may not know. Fortunately for me the conference context gave me a pretty big hint as to the type of folks likely to be asking that question!

There are many, many different ways to talk about biochar. The framework I use is outlined in the picture above. The rest of my presentation at the NYS Conference on the Environment can be found here. 

The Story of Stumpy

The Bio-Char Fest, held over a week ago in the biggest little town in Australia, provided a smorgasbord of biochar information which I thoroughly enjoyed (and participated in). It’s hard to pick a favorite amongst the various enlightening and eclectic presentations so I won’t even try but I will try over the next little while to shine a light on some of the really inspiring work being done by this small but dedicated group of people as I think some of their work could and should be replicated in many different communities around the world.

I feel compelled to start with the person that made me smile the most, ‘CharMaster Dolph’. Dolph is a well-known personality in the biochar world, someone I’d connected with virtually prior to my trip.  But the reality of Dolph is so much more than his on-line personality. Dolph personifies the grass-roots biochar movement. He is dedicated to teaching everyone and anyone interested in making and using char how to do it with ingenuity, ethics, and heart. Here is but one story of Dolph’s biochar efforts.

A few years ago Dolph started fabricating an efficient little kiln dubbed as ‘Stumpy’ out of used propane cylinders.  Not long after Stumpy caught the eye of a local woman who turned out to have access to literally thousands of these things which were taking up space and for which no other useful purpose had been found. Talk about kismet! Dolph found a group of local craftsmen to make these kilns in bulk and set up a BOGO (buy one give one) scheme which benefits the islanders of Vanuatu. Apparently his BOGO effort has now even spread to Africa. [More info on this effort can be found on his website here.]

I sincerely applaud grassroots biochar efforts such as Dolph’s. The world would be so much better off if more of us aspired to work with this ‘Right Livelihood’ mindset. As they say Down Under, Good Onya Dolph!

Lake Erie looks more like a smoothie than a lake this year!

Holy Toledo! Who would have thought that a city on the Great Lakes would suffer from a lack of potable drinking water? But that is exactly what happened over the weekend in Toledo, OH (population 400,000). The cause? Algae blooms. The cause of the algae blooms? Excess nutrients. The source of the excess nutrients? Fertilizers and manure from farms and lawns (just to be clear, the manure is from the farms!).

Sadly this nightmare scenario seems to be more and more common with some estimates claiming that up to 30% of larger water bodies in the US being impacted. The heavy rains we’ve experienced this summer are definitely a contributing factor too.

So how exactly might biochar help reduce this from happening around watersheds? It’s not really all that complicated. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that biochar is great at holding onto nutrients and other substances. Specifically though, farmers could mix biochar into their manure spreaders which will not only hold on to the nutrients longer, but it will probably make the neighbors happy by minimizing ‘l’odeur du poo’. Established lawns are a bit trickier. It’s not really advisable to top dress biochar as it is likely to be carried away in the next down pour. For farms and lawns that boarder water bodies, constructing a trench close to the water and filling it with biochar would go a long way towards keeping excess phosphorous from damaging water bodies.

But there may be an even better way to actually reuse the nutrients instead of having it merely accumulate at the water’s edge. A few years ago Charchimedes and I dreamed up a type of permeable sock filled with biochar which could be used in a trench. The filling could be replaced every so often once the biochar has reach capacity for nutrient holding. It could then be put to better use as a fertilizer elsewhere on the farm.

Algae blooms are not the only problem wreaking havoc on lakes. Aquatic weeds such as Milfoil or Water Chestnut are the bane of a growing number of lake communities, not to mention the fish whose oxygen is being stolen by them. Various methods of control are being used with varying stages of success. Herbicides can kill it off but the N & P decomposes into the water and available oxygen is taken up during decomposition. Mechanical control is in the form of a kind of aquatic lawn mower that looks more like a steamboat. I visited the shores of Lake Ontario to watch one of the mechanical harvesters in action and its pretty amazing to see. Once the boat is fully loaded down with its catch of noxious weeds, it converts from an aqua creature into a terra bound one and then dumps its load of wet weeds onto the nearest farmer’s field. That might be a welcome addition during drought periods but I have to believe it’not the ideal scenario. Converting that biomass into biochar seems a much smarter use of it. Not only will this prevent any further nutrients from seeping back into the ground water, but it will convert the carbon into something that could be used around the lake to adsorb excess nutrients and toxins thereby preventing further infestations. An all-around better ‘soilution’, don’t you think?

I’ll take biochar over nasty plastic beads in my cosmetics any day!

Have you heard of microbeads? Tiny bits of plastic used in cosmetics. Loved for their exfoliating abilities. Hated for their environmental impact. Their negative impact has gotten so bad (read costly), that states are now beginning to ban them (yeah Ilinois, come on New York!). The properties of the microbeads that the cosmetic industry like include 1) cheap and 2) large surface area.

Not surprisingly there seems to be some collective industry moaning about how hard it is to find something to replace the miracle microbeads. Yet even scientists warn that substituting them with certain natural and biodegradable ingredients such as sugar or walnut shells, which take up oxygen during decomposition, will cause unwanted environmental problems.

Enter biochar (bet you could see that was coming, right?). Biochar can easily be milled down to the required size (~1mm) and it has plenty of surface area. If it does make its way into the Great Lakes and beyond, all the better! Some very interesting research out of Taiwan actually shows that feeding biochar to fish is pretty beneficial (see pages 7 – 8 …hat tip to fellow biocharista Frank in Taz for sharing this). Even if the fish don’t eat it though, the char should sink to the bottom harmlessly, or maybe it will take some nasty chemicals with it! Regardless it will safely sequester carbon all the while.

But back to its use in cosmetics, for a moment. Biochar or charcoal has been used in soap for quite some time. I had a local soap maker make me up a batch of “Char Wash” which I have used for years. It’s great stuff. Other products that you can find microbeads in include facial and body scrubs & peels, and toothpaste. I’ve even seen it used in nail polish. Can biochar be used in these products too? I would answer with a resounding yes. (Well maybe not the nail polish.)

If any of the big cosmetic companies would like a few samples of different types of biochar to test in their products, just give me (or any of the biochar makers out there) a shout! I’d be happy to send them a selection…

Biochar as a substitute for….salt?

As time goes on the number of different materials that biochar is being used as a substitute for is definitely on the increase.  This is absolutely necessary if we are to build a healthier, more sustainable bio-based economy. Originally the focus for biochar was on soils where it can be used as a substitute for lime, vermiculite, perlite and other soil amendments (e.g. coir, peat moss, etc.). The next big thing was activated charcoal (AC), also called activated carbon. Since biochar is basically in the same carbon family and generally less expensive to produce than AC, focusing on the many uses of activated charcoal, from remediation to water filtration, seemed a logical market to target for biochar.

More recently biochar has been tested in livestock feed where it could possibly replace relatively harmless materials such as diatomaceous earth (DE) which acts as a binding agent for toxins, or it could replace environmentally harmful materials such as anti-biotics which are used to boost feed conversion ratios and prevent illness (see more on that here). Reading up on other uses for DE, I learned that it can be found in tooth paste, anti-caking agents in feed, cat litter, and paint.  It can also help reduce food intolerances. Biochar can, and in some cases is already utilized for all of those. However as the price of food grade DE is pretty much on a par with biochar, the price advantage argument isn’t necessarily going to propel biochar forward in these markets just yet. As organic as DE is purported to be though, it is still a mined product which brings with it all the unavoidable negative environmental impacts that mining operations imply, not to mention the carbon footprint of shipping it to the manufacturer, then consumer, then landfill. Biochar has definite advantages over DE when it comes to environmental benefits and impacts.

Let’s go back to food for a moment though and see where else biochar just might be used as a substitute. Recently I was reading up on recipes for homemade play dough (like many of you I’m sure!) and found a salt dough recipe. [I promptly made some which looks well, horrible…more work needed on that.] Anyway this got me curious as to the role of the salt in dough, something which wasn’t all that easy to discover I will tell you. However I did find one bread blog which described salt’s impact on bread:

• Salt affects dough texture, making it stronger and less sticky.
• Salt reduces oxidation of the dough during mixing. Oxidation causes the degradation of carotenoid pigments in the flour that contribute to flavor and crumb color.
• Salt regulates yeast activity, causing fermentation to progress at a more consistent rate.
• Salt affects shelf life. Because it attracts water, it can help keep bread from staling too quickly in a dry environment.

The blogger goes on to say that the most noticeable impact is on taste (color me not surprised on that one). Based on my small experiments with tasting biochar, I seriously doubt it will be able to compete with salt in the taste arena. However I think biochar could give salt a run for its money on some of the other functions. And if it could also help with reducing food intolerances, perhaps it could alleviate some of the issues an increasing number of people have with wheat or other grains. Heck people add all sorts of ingredients to breads and brownies, both legal and illegal, so why not try adding biochar – it could very well be better for your body than salt. [If you do try this, keep well hydrated as charcoal can adsorb a lot of water and cause unintended stoppages…]

How many of these other 46 uses of salt could biochar be used for?