[Greenbuilding] Biochar Bricks for Green Buildings

[RT]

On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:09:11 -0500, Erin Rasmussen <erin at trmiles.com>  
wrote:
>
> Slideshare Presentation: Biochar Bricks for Green Buildings
> http://www.slideshare.net/saibhaskar/biochar-bricks-and-green-buildings


I'm not slamming this "biochar" thing because I don't know anything about  
it but this message did cause me to wrinkle my brow in puzzlement and  
utter a mental "Huh ? How could making charcoal be considered "Green" ?"

Back when wood charcoal was in widespread use, charcoal-making was a very  
air-pollution intensive process and the charcoal makers who tended the  
charcoal mound were feared/shunned as being wierdos because of the  
requisite lifestyle (eat/sleep/unwashed next to the smouldering wood pile  
for a month or so ) and when emerging from the woods after the charcoal  
was done, they'd be black with sweat encrusted soot from head to toe .

Does the  "biochar" production process not involve a long, smouldering  
fire (ie inefficient burning) to convert the material to charcoal ?

In the places where the bio-charcoal is used, aren't they places where  
sunlight  (ie solar cookers would be a "Green" alternative to traditional  
charcoal cooking) and people (and their poop for biogas production) are  
abundant ?

Would it not seem to make more sense to simply feed the green vegetative  
waste into a biogas digester to produce clean-burning fuel rather than  
consuming fuel to burn the vegetative waste to turn it into charcoal ?

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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