Ryan, On Thu, 6 Aug 2009 07:46:18 -0400 Ryan Hottle <[email protected]> writes: I seriously recommend looking into it before simply > giving the > "knee-jerk" anti biofuel reaction. I have read a lot of the online papers and conference products, including Lehmann's, and discussed the question with him in his office. He was much more cautious than any of the online stuff when he realized that I, like anyone who has studied soil carbon pool dynamics, knew that there are effective farm soil organic matter building practices that produce the same results as the effects attributed to biochar. And at the same time produce food! Which the use of land to produce biomass for biochar does not do. biochar > is > special in that it is a highly recalcitrant C that is not easily > mineralized. The eventual effect of the aforementioned practices over time is to build a soil pool of carbon that is just as recalcitrant (meaning stable) as biochar. A fact that Lehman acknowledged. What do you think makes highly productive muckland black?
> biochar to > sequester C for centennial to millennial time scales can be > sustainably > harvested from all sorts of sustainably managed and harvested crops. > Short > rotation willow coppice, saw dust, saw ends, nut shells, storm > debris, urban > lawn debris, low-input high diversity energy crops Using willow or other energy crops does not answer the question, What is the trade-off? What crop is being sacrificed to grow biofuel on that acreage? How important is the alternative crop compared to the biofuel or biochar? In the post-hydrocarbon age, biomass again will become a main way energy enters our world. Its uses need to be considered carefully. The other sources you cite - like saw dust - are byproducts that 1) are simply too small to scale up, or 2) will become valuable for other more purposes. Like biofuel from french fry oil, they don't amount to a hill of beans. A Vermont farmer had to collect all the used cooking oil from as far as he could economically transport it, just to power one small farm. Hawthorne Valley farm, another producer of biodiesel for farm use from cooking oil, found that China had cornered the market on cooking oil from all the local fast food outlets. China! Because of steadily the rising price of sawdust, our farm will soon be unable to purchase the sawdust we use, first as horse bedding, then to beef up the C/N ratio of our farm-scale composting. As the oil age wanes, these are bellwethers of change in the way all sorts of biomass is valued in the marketplace. In time, unholistic approaches to all questions like how we use of biomass will be revealed as frivolous. Every problem needs to be studied in its proper context. Light talk of energy production using the "wastes" that currently litter our extravagant agro-, residential and industrial landscapes will soon be brought to heel by nature's law: waste=food=waste=food... ...and as food becomes more expensive, what will waste be used for, biochar or food? Biochar or winter heat? >And it [biochar production] means local manufacturing and local jobs... Oh please, this is the superficial level of thinking I would expect from my local congress critter... Karl > Karl: Yeah...Pyrolysis certainly generates CO2. It's 50% of so of that of > the > total carbon content of the biochar (WHICH IS CARBON NEUTRAL). > The other 30-50% is locked up as biochar for 100-1000s of years. > (WHICH IS > CARBON NEGATIVE). > > Of course this requires a sustainable biomass harvesting system, > which > generally means small scale, distributed CHP systems that do not > require > significant hauling distances. This also requires not competing > with land > for food crops. And it means local manufacturing and local jobs... > something much needed in Western New York and here where I live in > Ohio. > Solar panel manufacturing doesn't have that benefit. > > Good rotational grazing, organic no-till, mulching, manuring, cover > crops... > there are a lot of ways to get good C into the ground, but biochar > is > special in that it is a highly recalcitrant C that is not easily > mineralized. I seriously recommend looking into it before simply > giving the > "knee-jerk" anti biofuel reaction. I'm no fan of corn ethanol but > pyrolysis > is something entirely different > > Best, > Ryan ____________________________________________________________ Workers Compensation Legal Advice. Click here http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTOcqEMZ7QYZS7meDMdhii7rNp2sNnSG7g959WE0qITyTRIFx3qzQU/ _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
