Co-composting Manure with Biochar to Meet Global Methane Goals
This paper in Environmental Science and Technology journal found that biochar-composting reduces CH4 by 79%, compared tocomposting without biochar. ABSTRACT: Livestock are the largest source of anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions, and in intensive dairy systems, manure management can contribute half of livestock CH4. Recent policies such as California’s short-lived climate pollutant reduction law (SB 1383) and the Global Methane Pledge call for cuts to livestock CH4 by 2030. However, investments in CH4 reduction strategies are primarily aimed at liquid dairy manure, whereas stockpiled solids remain a large source of CH4. Here, we measure the CH4 and net greenhouse gas reduction……
A Perspective on Terra Preta and Biochar
The Modern Discovery of Terra Preta, and a Brief Modern History of Biochar In the Amazon Basin, there exists thousands of hectares of cultivated plots consisting of unusually fertile black soil, termed Terra Preta de Indio — “dark earth of the Indians” — called Terra Preta for short. These soils are many hundreds if not thousands of years old, and have remained remarkably fertile in spite of the tropical rainfall, which accelerates the weathering of soil and the leaching of water soluble nutrients. Modern scientific interest in this material began with a Dutch scientist named Wim Sombroek, whose book Amazon Soils, published in 1966, began the……
Biochar Usage in Dairy Manure Composting
Co-composting dairy manure with SkyCarbon biochar In the Local Carbon Network, we convert available green waste into value-added ‘climate products’ such as electricity, heat, water and biochar through a carbon negative process that combats climate change on multiple fronts. The Local Carbon Network uses biomass gasifiers from All Power Labs in Berkeley, California, to produce SkyCarbon Biochar, a clean, porous, high-temperature char certified by the International Biochar Institute and officially listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI). When used as a soil amendment, SkyCarbon Biochar can offer a range of powerful agronomic benefits to plant productivity, soil biological activity,……
Co-composting with Biochar for Agronomic & Climate Benefit
Our monthly Open House events continue this Friday with a talk and demonstration of the agronomic and climate benefits of co-composting with biochar. We’re convinced we’ve stumbled across a highly significant optimization for biochar usage and deployment with this co-composting scenario. The solution is uniquely high performance in soil, easy to do, leverages the already existing infrastructure of compost operations globally (personal, commercial, and municipal), and achieves carbon impacts far beyond the raw biochar entered into the system. We’ve spun off the Local Carbon Network to help promulgate the solution. Resident biochar expert, Austin Liu, will be giving……