<div>Dear List,</div>
<div>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. <br>
Yours</div>
<div>A.D.Karve<br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 12:09 AM, Erin Rasmussen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:erin@trmiles.com" target="_blank">erin@trmiles.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex" class="gmail_quote">Hi Doug,<br><br>I think one of the clearest papers on the soil properties of biochar and how<br>it can work in soil systems is by Bruno Glaser and can be downloaded for<br>
free in pdf from the publisher:<br><br>Daniel Fischer and Bruno Glaser (2012). Synergisms between Compost and<br>Biochar for Sustainable Soil Amelioration, Management of Organic Waste, Dr.<br>Sunil Kumar (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-925-7, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/31200.<br>
Available from:<br><a href="http://www.intechopen.com/books/management-of-organic-waste/synergism-between-biochar-and-compost-for-sustainable-soil-amelioration" target="_blank">http://www.intechopen.com/books/management-of-organic-waste/synergism-betwee<br>
n-biochar-and-compost-for-sustainable-soil-amelioration</a><br><br>When we're talking about biochar with plants, we are generally talking about<br>using biochar and compost together. Just as you wouldn't try to live on<br>
charcoal without food, you wouldn't want to feed your plants charcoal<br>without providing a source of nutrition. So in that sense Tom is right, it<br>does have the potential to tie up nutrients that are needed by plants. Dan<br>
is right too, sometimes the whole soil system works in ways that aren't<br>predicted by chemical analysis. But the work done by soil scientists<br>studying biochar in the last couple of years leads me to believe that the<br>
scientific community be able to understand these interactions well enough to<br>be able to make reliable application information available to people that<br>are interested in it.<br><br>kind regards,<br>Erin R. <a href="mailto:erin@trmiles.com">erin@trmiles.com</a><br>
<div class="im HOEnZb">-----Original Message-----<br>From: Gasification [mailto:<a href="mailto:gasification-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org">gasification-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org</a>] On<br></div>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">Behalf Of Doug<br>Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 10:03 AM<br><br>If what you say is correct, then I'd like to know why some charcoal can<br>survive thousands of years close to the surface and not be totally consumed.<br>
Any further explanation regarding this area of interest I'm sure would be<br>appreciated by those of us less informed.<br><br>Doug Williams,<br>Fluidyne.<br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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