Biochar and natural farming

Eamonn8448 wrote: »

why not store it above our soils too Tim, look up hemp concrete and its ability and benefits to lock down carbon.
i got no agenda here i dont burn charcoal or biochar , to me biochar is just carbon and ok i have a chemical background its always going to be element number 6 to me , next time i burn my toast ill post a pic of biochar/carbon lol:cool:

lets do that as well?
tim
imho its an urgent problem

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

If you look at a typical Irish landscape with all its hedge rows and cattle grazing in the fields, could we really be doing any more to trap carbon, apart from maybe planting the whole lot.

Think of the amount of ditches and scrub that would have been there 50 years ago and large losses from soils that we can't see. Probably the potential for an extra 100t+ co2 storage per ha across the majority of intensive grass

I've watched some of Gabe Brown's lecture series already. :cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A&t=2453s

I really think there is something in it. What first opned my eyes to it all was years ago when at the ploughing championship in Stradbally. I was walking though the car parks /fields and I couldn't believe the condition of the soil. I couln't see any topsoil. It all looked like subsoil to me.....and this was supposed to me some of the best land in the country. Years of growing conventional crops (without animal manure) had depleted it all.

Say my name wrote: »

https://www.thesun.ie/news/3432325/fertility-irish-fields-fallen-farming/

Teagasc are gradually getting there.

Expect to see carbon and soil profiles mentioned in the next few years instead of buy more n and p and k.
The mention of dung and slurry is stepping in the right direction. So at least biology is gradually being understood.
Penetromotors will be used.

There are some people in Teagasc who are thinking the right way all right and I think a couple feature in this program tonight, so it should be worth a look.

Rte 1 @ 8:30
10 Things to Know About
Episode 3: Soil

The science behind soil, with Jonathan McCrea finding out the importance of retaining, protecting and restoring Ireland's few remaining peat bogs in the battle against climate change. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin travels to Teagasc's research centre in Wexford to find out about some of the 213 different types of soil in Ireland and Kathriona Devereux take a closer look at DNA analysis of soil.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mjbgxH8rSQM
How about trying that :P

Say my name wrote: »

There was a Pyrolyses plant in Thurles producing biochar and electricity featured last night on RTE 1 on

10 things to know about Bioenergy.

They had an interesting note on it's performance during the drought this year.

Available on the RTE player.

you dont mention on which programme
tim

Say my name wrote: »

A bit of a talk on enchanced weathering at the climate talks in Poland recently.

https://youtu.be/0iAqxOMy61U

I can personally confirm that grass greens up after rainfall when crushed basalt is applied to land.



*Applied there ^^ in 2017.

A few questions

How much did you apply per acre?
Where did you get the basalt?
Do you have an after picture to show what is like now?
I wonder what's the brix reading of the grass compared to the grass beside it. It should be higher.

they'll need to perform better than existing scrubbers to survive in that world

How can biochar be produced on a scale to add to soils.

Say my name wrote: »

Here's an ongoing trial in England about a group of farmers feeding biochar to cattle.

Hopefully results will be posted up in this link when it's completed.

https://www.innovativefarmers.org/field-lab?id=0a0868eb-8fe1-e711-816a-005056ad0bd4

They all use the one kiln seemingly.

Sadly I was unable to login to view the details as they require a uk postcode but I'd imagine they are using a flame cap open kiln.

These are easy and fast and clean to use and work well with a variety of input feedstocks, hedging remnants for example. A flame cap open kiln is relatively cheap too, and has significant advantages over a simple open pit. primarily much more even charring, bottom quenching of the char, and tipping to empty on some designs.


Something as simple as an old iron bathtub and a screen of old corrugated iron will work. Most designs are sheel metal approximations of a cone with an air screen around to help with air preheating, edge vortex maintenance and clean combustion (no smoke unlike the last dry pile of bushes you burnt to waste in your field). the screen also facilitates the continuous feeding required as it protects the operator from the radiant heat of the vessel.


some links
https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Kon-Tiki_Kiln

https://greenyourhead.typepad.com/backyard_biochar/flame-cap-kiln/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275097537_Kon-Tiki_flame_cap_pyrolysis_for_the_democratization_of_biochar_production
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176378


I'd be happy to help anyone who wants to get started with a flame cap kiln. I just love to play with fire. Recycling farm waste into carbon and storing it in soils makes sense in my humble opinion.


tim

_Brian wrote: »

How can biochar be produced on a scale to add to soils.

Hi again Brian,
After easily converting a heap of sticks and brash into biochar in your lovely flame cap kiln, you'll want to activate the char before adding it to the soil.
Its not a fertiliser per se, more of a habitat for soil organisms,as a bonding substrate for holding nutrients and preventing leaching, and increasing the cation exchange capacity of the soil to which it is applied.

This is a good explanation of what works well when it comes to activating biochar
http://www.ithaka-journal.net/wege-zu-terra-preta-aktivierung-von-biokohle?lang=en


all the best
tim

_Brian wrote: »

I understand the activation process.

But say I want to improve 1 care at a time, how much do I need, and what are the resources consumed to produce it.

I presume 1 Acre at a time,

I have read that 10-50T/Ha is the goal, this is a lot.
Of course you could not ad this all in one go.
One would assume that building up the char content of your soils over time would be a better approach


For each 5 tonnes or so of stuff that you process into char you will get about 1 ton of char.


I'd say that by simply charring your waste on farm each year, you'd have a very significant addition of char to your soils after 5 years or so. i.e. just keep tipping away each year for a number of years to add sufficient char to your soils. Provided the char is properly activated before adding there would appear to be no practical upper limit to the amount you could add, although above about 10T/Ha it is my understanding that further gains in soil performance will be small.



charcoal is a bit too valuable to add directly to soils in any case.


The current char, activate, add to soil, paradigm is in my opinion a bit wasteful.
Instead char may be activated by using it for something else before adding it to soil, i.e. only add it to soil after you have used its capacity for something else
clear as mud right?
for example, add char to concentrate fed to cattle to improve animal health and reduce methane farting and conserve nutrients, then add further char to the manure produced in a compossting process, then add the resulting mix to the soil. In this way you will retain most if not all of the micro and macronutrients.

Char may be added to poultry bedding or animal bedding too, its very effective at moderating the smell of horse piss in stables etc, and gets activated n the process. Chickens don't like bigger sharp pieces, char for chickens should be well ground and mixed with the bedding.


tim

timfromtang wrote: »

The current char, activate, add to soil, paradigm is in my opinion a bit wasteful.
Instead char may be activated by using it for something else before adding it to soil, i.e. only add it to soil after you have used its capacity for something else
clear as mud right?
for example, add char to concentrate fed to cattle to improve animal health and reduce methane farting and conserve nutrients, then add further char to the manure produced in a compossting process, then add the resulting mix to the soil. In this way you will retain most if not all of the micro and macronutrients.

Char may be added to poultry bedding or animal bedding too, its very effective at moderating the smell of horse piss in stables etc, and gets activated n the process. Chickens don't like bigger sharp pieces, char for chickens should be well ground and mixed with the bedding.


tim

Thanks Tim..
That makes great sense now, sort of a double use from it with the primary being feed/bedding additive and second being spread along with manure already activated in the primary use..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhSmTPdDvAM


tim


A well known and widely used product in Asia.
multiple uses
easily made
produces charcoal too (this would be a somewhat tarry charcoal 70% fixed carbon or so and need further heat treatment for use as biochar)