[Stoves] Char used for cooking

[Andrew Heggie]

On 21 September 2017 at 15:31, Nikhil Desai <pienergy2008 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Andrew:
>
> What "heavy metals" in what kind of biomasses?

Nikhil I was not implying that the biomass had heavy metal but rather
that biochar was able to adsorb heavy metals and mitigate their
effect.

>From what I remember there was little initial benefit from early
biochar trials in UK, largely because it was used on good agricultural
land for trials when it seems best used in more "challenged" soils.

Our Forestry Commission  did a lot of research into re afforesting
old industrial waste contaminated land, quarries and mining tips. One
early success of biochar use was in establishing tree growth on old
mine tailings and it was because it was able to remove certain heavy
metals (lead and zinc I suspect) from the ground water in the rooting
zone enough to establish a tree crop where one could not be got going
before.

I've not been involved with later usage because I was not able to
secure paid work in the field and had to take a position in a firm
with little interest in environmental matters, to my chagrin but I'm
my own boss again now.

Andrew