Biochar for real

So biochar will have to catch on right? I have been traveling all over the Midwest following some new tillage equipment and see the potential, but noting by skepticism. It's like ethanol has soured the taste of renewable fuel for these guys. Options are still out there though. POET had a field day a few weeks ago to demonstrate several methods of collecting biomass, some collected just corn cobs, and others collected as much field residue as possible. This was really good informationa and a step in the right direction. The POET spokesperson also noted their expected operating costs reduced significanlty. This is good, but also only means they are reduced, and not "very profitable." But I digress, back to biochar. building a pyrolysis reactor is easy, still getting good biomass to process will be the hard part. What incentive can you give a person to haul $500 worth of cobs to you when they could be hauling $2,000 worth of corn instead, and these are just small wagons. It is icing on the cake for farming operation, but it requires another operator (good ones are hard to come by and too expensive) and wear and tear on more equipment.

I will be putting together some of these numbers for a report soon to find how financially benificial biochar will need to be in order to make it valuable to a farmer to remove the biomass form a field to process into bio-oil and bio-char. I am certian that biochar will be a key in convincing farmers to begin to collect and sell biomass. This can only be done effectively with pyrolysis, or at least thermochemical conversion. Ethanol can have biochar to offer, but it will still require gasification of the slurry that remains at the ind of the process including the waste mash and the removed lignin during pre-processing.

Well to update... did go to brazil a while back, but no terra preta. First of all, the locals only know of tribes of natives called terra preta, there is no common knowledge of the dirt stuff. So I did get my guide to find some research programs going on with studying native soils - but it was all flooded out. under about 10m of water when I was visiting. The one thing I did notice while being near the river is that the land is severly flooded between seasons.

The water factor is a big issue when comparing the soil to Iowa/North America soil. I do not think that jsut adding char to poor soils without the extreme amount of water that is available in Brazil will have the same effect as what is found in Brazil.

Going to Bazil in late May, going on a Jungle adventure into the Amazon. Also visiting authentic Terra Preta sites

I would like to get to the point to seek individuals in west-central Iowa to begin getting involved in the biochar and bio-oil phenomena. First, the biochar is going to be used for agricultural fertilizer on agricultural soil due to inadequate top soil. The biochar should help this http://www.biochar-international.org/home.html and sequester carbon http://www.biochar.org/joomla/ .

Bio-oil is another great fuel. Several options exist and ideally will be used locally.

Feedstock: Start with ag waste since it is so easy to get and use, then move to MSW - municipal solid waste, demolition wood waste, and other agricultural residue. Low cost and combustible is a requirement. Assuming low contamination will be required in the long run but not to just get started.

Have to agree with Romil Patel 4-13-09:



"In the world, there are two types of businesspeople,

1. Greedy, Lazy, and "Gray Minded"
2. Greedy, Creative, and Worthwhile.

Some may disagree with me and say, there are entrepreneurs who are not greedy, but I beg to differ. If an entrepreneur isn't greedy, they wouldn't look out for their own interest or success. And which entrepreneur doesn't want to be successful? But any day, I would rather be working with entrepreneurs who are the second type over the first.


...What truly defines "awesomeness" for me?

• A business who's products or services come with value.
• A business which will last for a long time to come.
• A business which can be positively recognized for what it is.
• There is no deceptive marketing used, just educating consumers about what is available, with honesty.
• Ultimate "awesomeness" is achieved when consumers can stand by the products offered."

Fast Pyrolysis

Fast pyrolysis uses heat to transform solid waste into liquid fuel and solid fertilizer. Of the waste fed into the system, 50% goes to liquid, moisture free py-oil, 15% to solid agrichar, and 35% to continuously fuel the process.