[Stoves] [biochar-production] Re: Stoves Digest, Vol 14, Issue 17

Anand Karve adkarve at gmail.com
Fri Oct 28 10:01:58 CDT 2011


Dear Crispin,
you are quite right.  Char can affect soil characteristics like soil
texture, water holding capacity, density, degree of compaction, etc.
Good quality charcoal, which does not have any volatiles and
pyrolignious acid in it, is not expected to serve the soil
micro-organisms as a source of nutrition. If one wants to extract some
energy out of biomass before putting it into soil, one should convert
biomass into biogas and apply the effluent to the soil.
Yours
A.D.Karve
On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 9:49 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Dr AD
>
> My question remains: Why would charring it first do anything except speed up
> access to ash?
>
> Shall I re-phrase it?
>
> Thanks
> Crispin
>
> +++++++
>
> Dear Crispin and stovers,
> biomass added to the soil serves the soil micro-organisms as a source of
> organic carbon. By feeding on it, they multiply their numbers. The microbial
> population density in the soil is positively correlated with soil fertility,
> because when they die, the minerals sequestered in their cells become
> available to the green plants.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
>
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 1:53 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
> <crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear Frank
>> Is there any good reason to suppose that putting the whole mass, the
>> whole biomass, into the soil, perhaps chipped or ground up? Why would
>> charring it first do anything except speed up access to ash?
>> Regards
>>
>> Crispin
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)




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