BioEarth's newly Licensed Tri-gen Pyrolysis Technology Produces High Grade
BioChar
WE are going to expand our "BioEarth Clean Bangladesh Initiative" to commit
1000+ Tons Per Day of organic waste to BioChar  Production for each plant.

UNCCD Submits Proposal on Carbon Sequestration in Soils to AWG-LCA 5

13 February 2009: The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has submitted to the fifth Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 5) a proposal stressing the need to include in the UNFCCC negotiation agenda practical approaches, such as biochar-related (charcoal) mitigation, focusing on increased land productivity.
The submission notes that actions related to sustainable land management influence directly, through the soil component, the increased capture and sequestration of carbon and other greenhouse gases that mitigate global climate change. It emphasizes that the recognition of soil carbon as a greenhouse gas abatement technology can be optimally achieved with the utilization of biochar, including through inclusion of biochar in the Clean Development Mechanism along with afforestation and reforestation that are currently already included. [UNCCD Submission]

Use of biochar (charcoal) to replenish soil carbon pools, restore soil fertility and sequester CO_{2   > Submission by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification}

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“Carbon sequestration in soil also has

Biochar Research and Extension Program in the 2008 Farm Bill
With both houses of the U.S. Congress having passed the 2008 Farm Bill (H.R. 2419, the Food and Energy Security Act of 2008) with a veto-proof margin, the bill was sent to the President on May 15, 2008, for his signature, and final enactment.  

The Farm Bill establishes the first federal-level policy in support of biochar production and utilization programs in the world, and is one of a handful of new, high-priority research and extension areas identified in the Research Title of the 2008 Farm Bill.  

Biochar Program Bill Language:
"Biochar Research.  Grants may be made under this section for research, extension, and integrated activities relating to the study of biochar production and use, including considerations of agronomic and economic impacts, synergies of co-production with bioenergy, and the value of soil enhancements and soil carbon sequestration."

Climate change mitigation

Biochar has been given a lot of attention recently as one means of addressing climate change. It has the capacity to do so in three ways: the storage of carbon over long periods; the reduction of greenhouse gases such as methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) that can be generated from waste disposal, waste processing or recycling; and the production of renewable energy.

Through the production process, around 50 per cent of the feedstock’s carbon content is retained in the biochar. This compares to the 10 to 20 per cent that remains in biomass after 5 to 10 years of natural decay, and the less than 3 per cent that remains in ash after complete burning. [17] Some analyses have suggested that ‘up to 12% of the total anthropogenic [carbon] emissions by land use change can be off-set annually in soil, if slash-and-burn is replaced by slash-and-char’. [18] If it proves practicable to replace traditional slash-and-burn practices with slash-and-char methods, biochar may present a real quantifiable and verifiable option for storing carbon in the long term.

At the same time, it has the potential to reduce emissions from other activities that might need to take place in the absence of the biochar option. These other activities are the waste disposal process described above and any recycling process. Both can be sources of greenhouse gas emissions, either as carbon dioxide from transport and processing, or methane from landfill sites.

Finally, the pyrolysis process also produces viable forms of renewable energy. The syngas and bio-oils that result from the biochar production process, and the generated heat, can be used either to produce electricity, or as fuel. [19] Not only does this represent a renewable energy alternative but it also improves the energy efficiency of the pyrolysis process. ^[20] Moreover, it has been calculated that ‘the emission reductions associated with biochar additions to soil appear to be greater than the fossil fuel offset in its use as fuel’. [21]

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[17]. J Lehmann, J Gaunt and M Rondon, ‘Bio-char sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems—a review’, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, no. 11, 2006, pp. 403–27[18]. J Lehmann, J Gaunt and M Rondon, p. 403.[19]. J Lehmann, ‘Bio-energy in the black’, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2007, vol. 5, pp. 381–7[20]. J Lehmann and S Joseph, p. 7.[21]. J Gaunt & J Lehmann, Energy Balance and Emissions Associated with Biochar Sequestration and Pyrolysis Bioenergy Production, Environmental Science & Technology, 2008, vol. 42, pp. 4152–8