- -01 Beating Climate Change Will Require Massive Government Coordination (Grist.org)
- "One of my recurring obsessions over the years has been the enormous difference between reducing carbon emissions and reducing carbon emissions enough. There are thousands of ways to reduce emissions relative to a business-as-usual baseline, many of which are relatively painless. But reducing emissions enough to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius — the agreed-upon international target — is another matter entirely. Plenty of policies and strategies can achieve the former but not the latter."
"That’s why, to my mind, some of the most important work in the world is being done at the Deep Decarbonization Pathway Project (DDPP). Convened by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, it consists of 15 research teams, one for each high-emitting country, each charged with developing concrete, detailed pathways by which its respective country could reduce emissions enough to meet the 2C goal." 11-14
- -01 Myths that Make Climate Disruption Inevitable (Awesome Library)
- "Myth #4: Most of the carbon dioxide going into the air each year is the result of burning fossil fuels." 11-14
- -Algae-Coated Buildings Touted as Climate Fix (CNet.com)
- "Engineers envision that long plastic tubes, called photobioreactors, be integrated into building designs or retrofitted onto existing skyscrapers. Algae would grow from pumped-in carbon dioxide and sunlight and be harvested for use either as a liquid fuel to run in a combined heat-and-power unit or turned into biochar, or charcoal used as a soil conditioner that also sequesters carbon from the air." 09-09
- -Barbecues to Remove CO2 (Guardian.co.uk)
- "Barbecues that remove CO2 from the air could play a role in the fight against climate change according to Durwood Zaelke, a leading expert on rapid responses to global warming." 10-10
- -Biochar Life Cycle Assessment (SpringerLink.co)
- Describes the results of a "life cycle analysis (LCA) for pyrolysis biochar systems was carried out to determine greenhouse gas balance, carbon cycling, and the economics of biochar production from different agricultural residues and wastes." 02-15
- -Biochar Product Standards (IBI)
- Provides draft standards for biochar products and (at the end) a sample label to identify biochar in a container. The draft standards also provide limitations on the amount of other substances may be included in the biochar product. 06-11
- -Climate Change: What We Can Do (Evaluation and Development Institute)
- "Earth's climate became very stable 10,000 years ago, allowing for agriculture for the first time. Our stable climate arose from a balance of three ingredients:
-Greenhouse gases
-Ocean currents and
-Polar ice
Greenhouse gases provided a stable temperature to allow ocean currents to mix heat and cold around the globe and to maintain a relatively constant amount of polar ice.
We now have 1/3 more CO2 in the air than we had only 150 years ago--and CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. The extra carbon keeps more heat in the air. The extra heat is absorbed by polar ice, soil, and the oceans. The ice over the Arctic Ocean is expected to be gone during summers within 5-10 years. Instead of ice over the Arctic Ocean reflecting heat, the Arctic Ocean will absorb heat. This will slow the ocean currents even more--they already are slowing because of the change in climate.
When the ocean currents stop and the Arctic ice melts, we will have a climate catastrophe that can be expected to last thousands of years. Permafrost in Russia and other regions will melt, releasing gigantic amounts of carbon and methane stored in the soil. The release will trigger even more extreme climate."
"Only one cost-effective solution has been found for quickly reducing the carbon in the air:"
"Each year we must convert enough biomass (organic waste) into biochar (charcoal) to extract at least 7 gigatons of carbon from the air and place it in our soils." 08-09
- -One Last Chance to Save Mankind (TreeHugger.com)
- "For those that don’t know who James Lovelock is here’s the one sentence bio: Originator of the Gaia hypothesis, chemist, did work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons which eventually led them from being banned, advocate of nuclear power. Which is to say, that when James Lovelock says humanity only has one chance left not to get annihilated by the effects of climate change in the 21st century, it’s worth shutting up and listening to what the man says." 10-10
- -Study: Biochar Can Provide Substantial CO2 Reduction (Tri-CityHerald.com)
- "The most comprehensive analysis yet of the worldwide potential of biochar -- a charcoal-like substance -- shows it could offset up to 1.8 billion metric tons annually of the world's human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study."
"The study found the maximum total offset amounts to 12 percent of the current 15.4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions that human activity adds to the atmosphere each year." 10-10
- 55 Uses of Biochar (Ithaka-Journal.net
- Decribes 55 uses for biochar. 12-14
- Biochar (SonomaCompost.com) at Power Plants (Carbonscape.com)
- Provides biochar for sale. Awesome Library does not endorse this product but provides it as an example. 08-12
- Biochar Companies Merger (SoilReef.com)
- "The Biochar Company and Biochar Solutions Inc. today announce the merger of their companies; two of the nation’s premier biochar businesses." 12-14
- Biochar for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at Power Plants (Carbonscape.com)
- "Carbonscape’s sequestered charcoal negates the drawbacks posed by traditional approaches of carbon capture and storage (CCS) techniques which include utilizing saline aquifers, existing oil and gas fields and unused coal seams." 03-12
- Biochar for Making Cheaper Supercapacitors (ISSSource.com)
- "For their project, the team designed, fabricated, and tested a prototype supercapacitor electrode. The group demonstrated biochar’s feasibility as an alternative to activated carbon for electrodes, which can go in hybrid electric automobile batteries or home energy storage in solar panels." 03-12
- Biochar for for Removing Phosphate from Water (WaterandWastewater.com)
- "In the study, researchers started by collecting solid residues left after beet tailings were fermented in a device called an anaerobic digester, which yields methane gas. The material was baked at about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit to make biochar."
"The biochar was added to a water-and-phosphate solution and mixed for 24 hours. It removed about three-fourths of the phosphate, much better results than researchers obtained with other compounds, including commercial water-treatment materials. The phosphate-laden biochar can be applied directly to soils as a slow-release fertilizer." 03-12
- Co-Production of Power and Biochar (RenewableEnergyWorld.com)
- "A nascent biochar industry is emerging in connection with biomass power technologies that coproduce electricity and char via gasification and pyrolysis." 08-13
- How Biochar Is Different from Charcoal (SoilReef.com)
- Decribes 5 ways that biochar is different from charcoal. "In order to be called biochar, it must be suitable (and therefore safe) for use in soil. Commercial charcoal is not going to necessarily be good for use in soil." 12-14
- How Biochar Is Made (Diacarbon.com)
- Describes the general pyrolysis method for making biochar.
- How Biochar Is Made (Vertrolysis.com)
- Describes the general pyrolysis method for making biochar.
- How Much Biochar Will Be Needed to Return to Pre-Industrial Levels of Carbon? (TerraPetra.BioenergyLists.org)
- "The Earth’s surface area is 51 gigahectares (nice unit!) of which 1.36 gHa are arable (by George M’s figure) - that’s 2.7% of the total. So:"
"If all the 'excess' carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were converted into carbon and spread across all the earth’s arable lands, there would be 17kg of charcoal per square metre, in a layer 8cm thick."
"That’s not an unfeasible notion. The Gardening with Biochar FAQ mentions biochar application rates of around 5kg/m2." 08-09
- Stability of Biochar (UCSUSA.org)
- "Major et al (2010) produced biochar and applied it to soils in a Colombian savanna, then measured the amount of the biochar carbon respired as CO2 from the soil and the amount percolating through the soil. Two years after the biochar addition, their measurements indicated that up to 3% of the biochar had been respired as CO2, but they could not account for 20-50% of the biochar. Presumably it washed off the fields during intense rainfall, but Major et al. had no direct measurements of biochar in runoff. Assuming that none of the “missing” biochar carbon was respired and converted to CO2 after leaving the site where the investigators were measuring soil CO2 emissions, the authors calculated a mean residence time for the biochar of approximately 600 years."
"Haefele et al. (2011) produced biochar from rice husks and applied it to rice cropping systems in the Philippines and Thailand. At one site they measured CO2 emissions from the soil immediately after application and again two years later. At all sites they measured biochar carbon in the soil after application and two years later. Where Haefele et al. measured soil respiration they found no change between the two time points, and, more significantly given the limited sampling of CO2 emissions, found no change in the amount of biochar in the soil. The authors conclude that 'realistic residence times might be in the range of thousands of years….' ” 01-17
- The Value of Biochar (Economist.com)
- "But there are those who think biochar may give humanity a new tool to attack the problem of global warming, by providing a convenient way of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere, burying it and improving the quality of the soil on the way." 08-09
- Biochar Crusher (Appropedia.org)
- A crusher for some types of biochar, such as corn cobs, may be needed. This crusher is supposed to be able to keep dust out of the air when crushing the cobs. 07-09
- Comparison of Lump Charcoal Makers (NakedWhiz.com)
- Provides a review of the various brands of lump coal. 07-09
- Comparison of Lump Charcoal with Briquette Charcoal (NakedWhiz.com)
- Provides a comparison in burn time, amount of charcoal needed, heat, and smell. 07-09
- Retail Cost of Lump Charcoal (ChucksSmokehouse.com)
- The Humphrey charcoal costs $5.99 for a 5 pound bag of charcoal. The "lump" charcoal has not been compressed into a standard size and therefore does not have chemical binders added. 07-09
- -Biochar (Coolplanet.com)
- Provides 10 quarts of biochar, called Cool Terra, for $20. Sells by cubic yard also. Awesome Library does not endorse this product but provides it as an example. 02-15
- Maker of Activated Charcoal (Biochar) (CalgonCarbon.com)
- "Calgon Carbon Corporation (NYSE:CCC), a global manufacturer and supplier of activated carbon and innovative treatment systems, provides value-added technologies and services for optimizing production processes and safely purifying the environment."
- 06-09