This spring, the ECO found some biochar at a trade show. Biochar is charcoal, a stable form of carbon that will persist in the environment for a very long time, and assist in the biological and nutrient status of topsoil.

Here’s a short video from CNN:

David Nuttle helps us understand how the stuff may help save our planet.

Research by Johannes Lehmann, Ph.D., at Cornell University, has established that the addition of biochar to soils reduces soil acidity, helps improve availability of water for plants, and increases soil microbial activity therby providing natural fertility (thus, reducing the need for most fertilizers). At the same time, the biochar performs a carbon sequestration function benefiting the environment and reducing global warming.

A study that was published recently showed that biochar could offset up to 12% of greenhouse gases. Study co-author Jim Amonette, a soil chemist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said:

These calculations show that biochar can play a significant role in the solution for the planet’s climate change challenge…Biochar offers one of the few ways we can create power while decreasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. And it improves food production in the world’s poorest regions by increasing soil fertility. It’s an amazing tool.

However, he cautioned that

Using biochar to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at these levels is an ambitious project that requires significant commitments from the general public and government … We will need to change the way we value the carbon in biomass.

(For more plain-language coverage of this report, see Science Daily, Ecoseed, Inhabitat and The New Republic.)

Another study showed that biochar reduces nitrous oxide emissions from soil by by 73%, and reduces inorganic nitrogen runoff from fields by up to 94%.  Senior author Bhupinder Pal Singh of Industry & Investment New South Wales said:

“Even small reductions in nitrous oxide emissions can considerably enhance the greenhouse mitigation value of biochar, which is already proven to be a highly stable carbon pool in the soil environment.”

Even Good Morning America is taking notice.

Tim Callahan, vice president of international development at re:char, stopped by “Good Morning America” today to talk about biochar.

“Biochar can be mixed in with your fertilizer, and when you’re planting to increase crop production up to 200 percent,” Callahan said. “As an added bonus 2.2 lbs of biochar offsets the carbon produced from three hours of your washer/dryer, 8.5 hours of a room air conditioning unit, or over two days of watching television.”

Some projects going on around the world:

• Biocharm Project: Biochar for Carbon Reduction, Soil Management and Sustainable Agriculture: A 12 month funded project, [to] look at the possible agronomic benefits which the addition of biochar can have to agricultural systems in South and South East Asia.
• Project on Biochar and African Dark Earths: This project investigates an overlooked dimension of African farmers’ management of soil fertility: the importance of charred carbon in soil systems and landscapes, and its potential contribution to sustainable and equitable land management.