By: Ronal Larson

Ronal Larson — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 14:19:42 +0000

— Thanks to Tom Konrad (an old friend) for carrying this introduction to biochar by Dr. McLaughlin (a newer friend). Let me add a few more thoughts from a climate change policy perspective, expanding on Hugh’s use of the term “gigaton”. That is a huge and difficult amount, but both mandatory (for climate reasons) and possible. I believe biochar is by far the best climate dioxide removal (CDR) option – because of this non-competing soil-based economic rationale. Biochar suffers in climate policy discussions because it is moving rapidly (two-year doubling time (??)) for its soil enhancement values – which is unrecognized in CDR circles.
— It appears that the Chinese are now the global leader in this technology – as they have been for wind and solar. But there are now hundreds of small biochar firms all around the world. Besides the above URL site for USBI (where I am a board member), I recommend http://www.biochar-international.org, for additional insights. IBI’s excellent bibliography identifies several thousand technical papers since the term “biochar” was adopted in 2007. Unfortunately, “biochar” replaced the term for the highly successful, but only recently re-discovered “Terra Preta” (dark earth) technology of the Amazon.
— Again thanks to Tom and Hugh for this alert with considerable “Alternative Energy” investment potential. Ron

Comments on: Biochar and Activated Carbon Markets

By: Ronal Larson