[Stoves] Fuel production, biochar, and feeding the stove in 2040

Crispin Pemberton-Pigott crispinpigott at gmail.com
Thu Aug 25 03:37:40 CDT 2011


Dear AD

 

Terra Preta soil in the Amazon is probably the result of at least 10,000
years of rotational slash-and-burn farming (on about a 7 year cycle) and it
formed accidentally. It is well established that the fertility of the soil
is much higher where the char is, and only a few feet away it is acidic and
much less productive.

 

OK, well and good. In the Amazon rain forest, there is nearly no nutrients
in the soil because anything that can be taken up has been. The value is all
above the ground, not buried in it. Is it possible that the char makes
things unavailable? That the real reason it works is that it hold the
nutrients away from the massive tree growth above?

 

Apart from the obvious water-holding ability (which some soils do not have)
is it possible the benefit comes from rotational slash-and-burn where the
forest grows and invests in roots and litter, and the high-char soils grab
and hold the fertility? Then some farmer comes along and plants a different
set of crops that specialise in growing underground (yams, peanuts etc) and
these plants are able to access the stored materials because they promote a
different set of bacteria on their (different) roots.

 

If the soil is in no need of additional water retention capability and is
already exhausted and no retained fertiliser is in it, then there would be
no benefit.

 

>The fact that even the so called insoluble minerals like quartz and opal
dissolve in water, suggests that charcoal buried in the soil might also be
dissolved in water and absorbed by plants and microbes.

 

Carbon has quite strong electrical charges at the tips of its structures,
right? That could induce mineral crystal breakdown together with a bacteria
or two.

 

>There are no records of molecular carbon being metabolized by living
organisms, but this line of thinking needs to be followed up and
investigated.

 

Correct. The fact that it seems to work well only in acidic soils might be a
pointer. Acid + electrical charge. What does that
give/liberate/stall/prevent/permit?

 

Regards

Crispin

 

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