Agrichar a New Industry? Biofuel

Kelpie Wilson Birth of a New Wedge
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050307R.shtml
As delegates met in Bangkok this week to debate climate change solutions contained
in the IPCC's latest report, one technology not mentioned in the draft report was being closely examined at a conference in Australia.

The first meeting of the International Agrichar Initiative convened about 100 scientists, policymakers, farmers and investors with the goal of birthing an entire new industry to produce a biofuel that goes beyond carbon neutral and is actually carbon negative. The industry could provide a "wedge" of carbon reduction amounting to a minimum of ten percent of world emissions and possibly much more.

"The exceptional properties of charcoal in soil were first noticed in
the Amazon where there are large areas of what is called "terra preta"
or Amazonian dark earths. These dark earths can be several feet deep and
contain up to nine percent carbon, as compared with nearby soils that
have only about half of one percent. In one of the most fascinating
aspects of this story, the terra preta soils turn out to have been
deliberately created by a lost Amazonian civilization. Some of the areas
have been dated going back to more than 7,000 years, and they are still
highly fertile.
Field trials and experiments in pots show impressive yield gains in
charcoal-amended soils, but so far researchers don't completely
understand why. One question is whether the effect is primarily chemical
and physical or primarily biological. Charcoal is a highly porous
material that is very good at holding nutrients like nitrogen and
phosphorus and making them available to plant roots. It also aerates
soil and helps it retain water.
Charcoal's pores also make excellent habitat for a variety of soil
microorganisms and fungi. Think of a coral reef that provides structure
and habitat for a bewildering variety of marine species. Charcoal is
like a reef on a micro-scale.
One of the research papers presented at the conference documented an
increased diversity of beneficial microbes in terra preta soils as
compared with unamended soils, but there are still no answers about
whether the fertility increase is due to physical or biological factors.
The best answer may be that it is both.
One very evident tension at the conference was between the
scientists who are trying to better understand how agrichar works, and
the farmers and investors who want to apply the technology as soon as
possible. But one obstacle to deploying agrichar is the ability to
quantify its effects in order to create both a reliable product for
farmers and a solid guarantee of agrichar's carbon-fixing capacity for
the carbon-trading market. "