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

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear AD

How about you trying this: soak some biochar in sugar and plant that along
with the seeds.  This might provide the host environment needed for microbes
and feed the ones needed for mineral breakdown at the same time.

If you were to try it on something you know has a certain response to sugar
only, you could look for a difference. Using char from an open fire, a TLUD,
a gasifier, and 'fuel charcoal' would also be useful.

It seems to me both methods have some promise (char and sugar) so why not
combine them? One could sell reject molasses-soaked char as a way to use two
byproducts.

Regards
Crispin

++++++

Dear Crispin,
Biogas slurry contains all the inorganic components in the original biomass,
plus certain organic compounds which the anaerobes are unable to digest.
Being an anaerobic process, there are a number of reduced compounds in the
slurry like NH3, H2S, etc. which serve as food for the soil micro-organisms,
which oxidise these compounds to gain energy. N, P and S are generally lost
while burning the biomass. But biogas slurry contains them because biogas is
formed at lower temperature.
Yours
A.D.Karve