Biochar and Terra Preta

[Charles]

Biochar is charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass, and differs from charcoal only in the sense that its primary use is not for fuel, but for biosequestration or atmospheric carbon capture and storage. Charcoal is a stable solid rich in carbon content, and thus, can be used to lock carbon in the soil. Biochar is of increasing interest because of concerns about climate change caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG). Carbon dioxide capture also ties up large amounts of oxygen and requires energy for injection (as via carbon capture and storage), whereas the biochar process breaks into the carbon dioxide cycle[clarification needed], thus releasing oxygen as did coal formation hundreds of millions of years ago.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXMUmby8PpU&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

Terra preta (literally “black earth” in Portuguese) is a type of very dark, fertile anthropogenic soil found in the Amazon Basin. Terra preta owes its name to its very high charcoal content, and was indeed made by adding a mixture of charcoal, bone, and manure to the otherwise relatively infertile Amazonian soil, and stays there for thousands of years.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQyRAHc7uhw&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060301090431.htm