Biochar: Many potential applications
Welland Tribune / Maggie Riopelle / 29 September 2009
Biochar has many potential applications that can benefit the environment -- helping soil retain nutrients, mitigating climate change, and processing energy.
Biochar Ontario held a demonstration and presentation on biochar -- the name used for agricultural charcoal -- this past weekend.
Rob Diermair, who works for Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority as a restoration projects lead and is involved with the Welland River Keepers, invited the organization to his property -- land he hopes will become a research site for the benefits of biochar for rehabilitating soils in a project with Niagara College students. Discussions, he said, have already been held with the college and now all the students are waiting for is a green light for research funding.
Diermair learned of biochar while doing some research about the human-made rich soils in Brazil that were fertilized thousands of years ago and still remain fertile to this day. The primary ingredient, he said, is plant charcoal. He also attended a biochar demonstration and saw firsthand how a biochar stove was developed with low-emissions that could be beneficial for people in Third World countries.
"I wanted to share what I have learned of its potential uses," he said.
Asked why he is interested in biochar, Diermair said because of its many benefits. When it comes to climate change, biochar, when placed in soil, removes excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it for thousands of years. It reduces the need for fertilizers and in turn reduces emissions from manufacturing and using fertilizer.
In soils it helps to retain nutrients and moisture and can improve medium and long-term productivity, fertility and stress tolerance for crops.
It can also act as a an additional filter in the soil between the source and surface or groundwater during storms. According to Biochar Ontario, that in turn may help to purify water sources, increase the return of wildlife and reduce the need for artificial filtration systems.
"The fourth reason, it's green energy. You can use biochar in very low-emission stoves that release a tremendous amount of heat," he said. "It can be captured and utilized. You could collect those gases and run a generator."
