[Gasification] Bio-Char

Anand Karve adkarve at gmail.com
Wed Dec 4 19:11:39 CST 2013


Dear List,
Most of the minerals that the original biomass has, are retained in
charcoal. If the charcoal yield is 30% of the original biomass, it means
that the minerals get concentrated by a factor of three when the biomass is
converted into charcoal. We obtained excellent results when charcoal was
added to a biogas plant, which used only human food waste as feedstock. But
the benefit lasted only for about 3 months. I feel that the beneficial
effect vanished because the minerals in the charcoal were consumed by the
bacteria and Archaea in the biogas plant.  An indirect confirmation of this
assumption was obtained through experiments which showed that even ordinary
soil caused increase in biogas production.
Yours
A.D.Karve
On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 12:09 AM, Erin Rasmussen <erin at trmiles.com> wrote:

> Hi Doug,
>
> I think one of the clearest papers on the soil properties of biochar and
> how
> it can work in soil systems is by Bruno Glaser and can be downloaded for
> free in pdf from the publisher:
>
> Daniel Fischer and Bruno Glaser (2012). Synergisms between Compost and
> Biochar for Sustainable Soil Amelioration, Management of Organic Waste, Dr.
> Sunil Kumar (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-925-7, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/31200.
> Available from:
>
> http://www.intechopen.com/books/management-of-organic-waste/synergism-betwee
> n-biochar-and-compost-for-sustainable-soil-amelioration
>
> When we're talking about biochar with plants, we are generally talking
> about
> using biochar and compost together. Just as you wouldn't try to live on
> charcoal without food, you wouldn't want to feed your plants charcoal
> without providing a source of nutrition. So in that sense Tom is right, it
> does have the potential to tie up nutrients that are needed by plants. Dan
> is right too, sometimes the whole soil system works in ways that aren't
> predicted by chemical analysis. But the work done by soil scientists
> studying biochar in the last couple of years leads me to believe that the
> scientific community be able to understand these interactions well enough
> to
> be able to make reliable application information available to people that
> are interested in it.
>
> kind regards,
> Erin R. erin at trmiles.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gasification [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]
> On
>  Behalf Of Doug
> Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 10:03 AM
>
> If what you say is correct, then I'd like to know why some charcoal can
> survive thousands of years close to the surface and not be totally
> consumed.
> Any further explanation regarding this area of interest I'm sure would be
> appreciated by those of us less informed.
>
> Doug Williams,
> Fluidyne.
>
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
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