[Stoves] [biochar] Re: Report on APBC - first two days

Mon Sep 19 04:42:08 CDT 2011

Dear Lloyd,

The most significant type of biochar that's I've seen in Thailand has been
the use of charred rice husk (no shortage of that feedstock in Thailand!),
which has been used as long as people can remember. The largest user has
been the horticultural sector; however, I have also seen char being made
from various other agricultural waste feedstocks and there's murmuring of
the introduction of biochar cookstoves in my province (all happening at a
relatively small-scale though, but repeated a HUGE number of times).

Re. the charcoal side of things, Thailand has a fairly long history of
charcoal production from all manner of feedstocks, although the most common
today are eucalyptus, rubberwood (sometimes), bamboo (through the Japanese
influence), and another wood type that I am unable to recognise as yet (no
mangroves in my area, so I don't know the extent to which they're being
used). There is also some collection of wood smoke distillate, but the
market is still very small (read: the fertilizer and pesticides industries
are still too strong).

Karl Frogner has also been involved in some biochar production/use work in
Thailand (in collaboration with Kasetsaert University), although I don't
know the status of the project at the moment. And, looking at the agenda for
the Kyoto Biochar Conference, I also see that Kasetsaert University is
involved in more biochar work, although us "little people" have yet to
actually see anything come out.

Something that may be of interest to you is that we're in the process of
putting together a farmers network in our province and I'd like to begin
trialling rice husk biochar through it in a more targeted way (currently,
there are 3,500 farmers interested), so I hope to have some solid
data/results coming up in the next few years :) This will be done in
conjunction with various other soil amendments, growing methods, crop types,
and lab testing of soil mineral content and crop nutritional content
(depending on the health of my bank account, as this will all be self
financed until we can find a donor/sponsor), so hopefully there'll be some
good stuff in there.

Cheers,
Bryan
_________________
Bryan Hugill
Co-founder and Environmental Manager
RAITONG ORGANICS FARM
Tel: +66 (0)85 915 0961
E-mail: info at raitongorganics.com
Skype: bryan_hugill
www.raitongorganics.com
www.khaosrikram.com
www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=140808370801

LET'S GO ORGANIC FOR A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AND GOOD HEALTH!

On 18 September 2011 18:48, Lloyd Helferty <lhelferty at sympatico.ca> wrote:

>  Thanks again, Ron.
> I'll be looking for more detail about some of the points you brought up,
> namely:
>
> 1) Of the "*10 companies* getting some mention" from Stephen Joseph, were
> any *Canadian*?
>
> 2) P.S. Interesting note about "*a lot of activity in Thailand*".  The
> first time I heard about Biochar activities in Thailand was through
> correspondence with *Bryan Hugill*, who is also a member of *Biochar
> Ontario*.
>
> 2a) ... Although, the work in Thailand might also be the result of *collaboration
> with the Japanese*.
>  I noted that Professor *Kaneyuki Nakane* in the Graduate School of
> Biosphere Sciences, Hiroshima University (within the Division of
> Environmental Dynamics and Management) was "*making a lot of ongoing
> projects in Thailand*" with "bamboo charcoal"...
>  Professor Nakane is the guy who did the fantastic *Rooftop Garden*project(s) with Biochar (in collaboration with the Banks, which use
> greenroofs to *keep the buildings that house ATMs cooler*, and therefore *reduce
> energy requirements*).
>   http://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en/top/research_HU/researchnow/no12/
> See also the section starting about half way down the page about "*The
> Hilltribe People of Thailand* and Burma..."
>
> 2b)  I believe that the people of Thailand could probably teach us a thing
> or two about Biochar by now also...
> I read once that the King of Thailand had ordered rescue workers to "spray
> the bodies with (powdered) Biochar" after Thailand experienced a *tsunami*-- "because the Biochar will 'deodorize' the decaying bodies in minutes" --
> and also because the Biochar "invites Beneficial microorganisms as
> decomposters" (once the bodies are buried).
>
> 3) I would love to see that *report from Taiwan*. (As you know, I have
> 'close ties' to Taiwan... and had not really heard much of anything from
> that island nation about any Biochar research ~ although I read once that
> *Dynamotive* was at one point supposedly “developing two plants in
> Taiwan", in cooperation with a company called *Marketech International
> Corporation*.)
>
> 4) I find it very interesting that there are no reports coming out of
> China, considering that *Rob Flanagan* had helped a Chinese company create
> one of the very first "*NPK-C Biochar Fertilizers*"...
>
> 5) Very interesting that "a Governmental *forester*" reported from
> Mongolia. (I didn't think that there were enough trees in Mongolia for the
> government to actually hire a "forester"... perhaps his job title should be
> "reforester" or "afforester".  ;-)
>  -- just kidding
>
> 6) What is "the *Cool-Vege *concept" from Japan?
>
>   Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
>   Principal, Biochar Consulting (Canada)
>   www.biochar-consulting.ca
>   603-48 Suncrest Blvd, Thornhill, ON, Canada
>   905-707-8754; 647-886-8754 (cell)
>      Skype: lloyd.helferty
>   Steering Committee member, Canadian Biochar Initiative
>   President, Co-founder & CBI Liaison, Biochar-Ontario
>     Advisory Committee Member, IBI
>   http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
>   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42237506675
>   http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-ontario
>   http://www.meetup.com/biocharontario/
>   http://grassrootsintelligence.blogspot.com
>    www.biochar.ca
>
> Biochar Offsets Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2446475
> "Necessity may be the mother of invention, but innovators need to address problems before they become absolute necessities..."
>
>
> On 2011-09-17 7:14 PM, rongretlarson at comcast.net wrote:
>
>
>
> Biochar and stoves lists:
>
>   This to provide a short recap of the third day of the Asian Pacific
> Biochar Conference (APBC2011).
>
>
>
>   The day was again partly (mostly) in English and partly in Japanese (with
> translations and headsets).  Very good translators. Most of the Asian
> countries gave a talk.  The starter was Stephen Joseph for Australia.  His
> was unusual in that it concentrated on corporate activity - at least 10
> companies getting some mention.  There were many research papers earlier and
> few earlier on the privates sector (exception being Adriana Downie and
> PacPyro mentioned yesterday).  I asked Stephen about organized opposition to
> Biochar and he said none/little.  He responded partly in terms of early
> strong support from former PM Malcolm Turnbull - and new government has not
> changed that.
>
>
>
>    I won't go through each (my notes are not so good), but I remember being
> surprised at a lot of activity in Thailand, and good work in the
> Philippines.  ( I was surprised that there was no report from Vietnam (where
> I will be for next three weeks), as Australian Peter Slavich (working full
> time in Aid project in Vietnam) in earlier private conversation said there
> was a long history of using spent charred rice husks - and he knew of work
> of Paul Olivier (who I will be visiting).
>
>
>
>    Good report sfrom Taiwan and New Zealand;  none from China.  Report from
> Mongolia by a Governmental forester, not from Karl Frogner and his UBI
> group  (Karl had a paper).
>
>
>
>    The last two country talks were for Japan.  First was entirely on the
> Cool-Vege concept.
>
>   Later Prof Ogawa gave excellent Plenary talk - entirely on the extensive
> Biochar history in Japan.
>
>
>
>   Prof.  Johannes gave his usual great talk.  Said he was delighted with
> progress and optimistic.  That Biochar unknowns are like for any other ag
> area.
>
>
>
>   I have run out of time.  More later.
>
>
>
> Ron
>
>   ------------------------------
>
> *差出人: *rongretlarson at comcast.net
> *To: *"biochar-policy" <biochar-policy at yahoogroups.com><biochar-policy at yahoogroups.com>,
> "biochar" <biochar at yahoogroups.com> <biochar at yahoogroups.com>, "Discussion
> of biomass" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org><stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> *送信済み: *2011年9月17日, 土曜日 午前 7:48:44
> *件名: *Report on APBC - first two days
>
>  Biochar and stoves lists:
>
>   This to provide a short recap of the first two days of the Asian Pacific
> Biochar Conference (APBC2011)
>
>   Maybe 100 persons here - maybe 75 to 80 percent Japanese..
>
>
>
>   Regular contributors to these two lists who are here include Tom Miles
> (and wife and son),  John Miedema,  and Karl Frogner.  Apologies to other
> list members I don't recognize.  At least 10 other people I judge from
> Australia (Stephen Joseph, Lukas van Zwieten, Adraian Downie, and Annett
> Cowie being some I knew previously).   The final Plenary speaker of first
> day was Evelyn Krull  who gave a wonderful description of the great Biochar
> work going on in Australia (all or mostly CSIRO??).   They are working with
> 104 different chars - and identifying what makes each unique  (temperature,
> species, etc)
>
>
>
>     I know two here from Europe - maybe a few more.   Others from US (not
> or rarely writing to these lists are IBI's Debbie Reed and Johannes
> Lehmann).  The names of presenters are available at the APBC site.  Two
> stoves/Biochar list contributors who are in program but couldn't make it are
> Kelpie Wilson and Jason Aramburo  (and who are missed).
>
>
>
>    The first day,  Thursday, was in both Japanese and English - with
> everyone having earphones for the alternating translation need.  The
> outstanding talk for me was by IBI's Debbie Reed - giving an exciting
> summary of the growth of IBI.  About 11,000 hits on the website per month
> now - and 50% are new first time users each month.  Still plenty of growth
> in Biochar technical literature, etc.  Debbie gave more background and
> status on the forthcoming IBI draft standards.  Last night, I attended part
> of an ad hoc meeting on the standards - which should be available within
> weeks at the IBI site (for four weeks comment period).    Obviously a lot of
> work has gone into these standards - but a lot more still to be done.
>
>
>
>    Yesterday was all in 20 minute presentations in three parallel tracks.
> The majority of the papers seemed to be soil-production related.
> Unfortunately (my giving a talk) I missed several coming from Lukas van
> Zwieten's NSW group on success with N20 capture, but he says that is showing
> continued importance.  Quite a few talks that relate to the Science article
> by Dr. Wardle;  no firm answers yet - but conversely I heard nothing that
> supports the Wardle contention that Biochar causes excess CO2 release.
> Adriana Downie gave several talks on her progress towards a new “PacPyro”
> firm that has just received a major multi-million grant and is going
> public.  I enjoyed a talk on LCA given by CSIRO's Annette Cowie.
>
>
>
>    Today I expect to learn a lot more about Japanese Biochar work as we get
> back to a single Plenary format and translation. Much evidence of Japan
> having done Biochar work for a long time - with a government-sanctioned
> program since the 1980's.   Also Johannes is scheduled for 40 minutes.
>
>
>
>    Many new people to meet.  Have enjoyed especially two potential funders
> from the ADB and FAO and researchers from the Philippines, Korea, and
> Uganda.  And of course many from Japan.
>
>
>
>     The city of Kyoto is exceptionally modern and well maintained - a major
> tourist town.  Prices seem close to double those I am used to.  A cash
> economy - with my having major difficulties with no (presently valid) ATM
> card!  Thanks to three listed above who could take my check in exchange for
> Yen!
>
>
>
>     Questions?
>
>
>
> Ron
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