This all encompassing book on biochar, Biochar for Environmental Management, is edited by IBI Board members Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph. The volume explores a diverse set of aspects needed to advance the application of biochar for environmental management. Authors with expertise in the basic sciences as well as economics, marketing and policy summarize our current knowledge and provide a roadmap for future research and development of biochar.
Biochar for Environmental Management Science and Technology
The first edition of this book, published in 2009, was the definitive work reviewing the expanding research literature on this topic. Since then, the rate of research activity has increased at least ten-fold, and biochar products are now commercially available as soil amendments. This second edition includes not only substantially updated chapters, but also additional chapters: on environmental risk assessment; on new uses of biochar in composting and potting mixes; a new and controversial field of studying the effects of biochar on soil carbon cycles; on traditional use with very recent discoveries that biochar was used not only in the Amazon but also in Africa and Asia; on changes in water availability and soil water dynamics; and on sustainability and certification. The book therefore continues to represent the most comprehensive compilation of current knowledge on all aspects of biochar.
Biochar is the carbon-rich product when biomass (such as wood, manure or crop residues) is heated in a closed container with little or no available air. It can be used to improve agriculture and the environment in several ways, and its stability in soil and superior nutrient-retention properties make it an ideal soil amendment to increase crop yields. In addition to this, biochar sequestration, in combination with sustainable biomass production, can be carbon-negative and therefore used to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with major implications for mitigation of climate change. Biochar production can also be combined with bioenergy production through the use of the gases that are given off in the pyrolysis process.This book is the first to synthesize the expanding research literature on this topic. The book's interdisciplinary approach, which covers engineering, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, economics and policy, is a vital tool at this stage of biochar technology development. This comprehensive overview of current knowledge will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and professionals in a wide range of disciplines.
N1 - Imported on 12 May 2017 - DigiTool details were: publisher = UK: Earthscan, 2009. editor/s (773b) = Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph; Issue no. (773s) = 5; Parent title (773t) = Biochar for Environmental Management: science and technology.
TechnicalGHG and CH4 global mitigation potential fromdairy manure management. (a) Net life-cycle GHG mitigation from dairymanure management consists of anaerobic digestion of dairy manureand varying degrees of biochar-composting of separated solid manure.(b) CH4 mitigation from dairy manure management consistsof anaerobic digestion of dairy manure and varying degrees of biochar-compostingof separated solid manure. For each figure, the x-axis shows the hypothetical number of dairy cows (in million heads)managed in systems with anaerobic digesters. We limit our analysisto the number of dairy cows kept in intensive systems globally. The y-axis shows the percent of solid manure separated fromdigesters that is managed through biochar-composting. Solid manurethat is not biochar-composted is assumed to be stockpiled.
PURPOSE: The main purpose for the creation of biochar is for carbon sequestration. Biochar is speculated to have been used as a soil supplement thousands of years ago in the Amazon basin, where regions of fertile soil called "Terra Preta'" (dark earth) were created by indigenous people. Anthropologists hypothesize that inhabitants of the region produced biochar by practicing 'slash and char' management on vegetation to improve soil fertility and crop yields (Mann, 2005). Biochar application to soil has been the assumed end use for the created biochar. Even though biochar can be used in other purposes as long as the biochar is not used for fuel or energy. The burning of biochar would not achieve the goal of carbon sequestration since this would allow the carbon to return to the atmospheric pool where it originated before being fixed in plants by photosynthesis.
Antal M.J., Gr?nli M. (2003) The Art, Science, and Technology of Charcoal Production?. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 42:1619-1640. DOI: 10.1021/ie0207919. Denevan W.M. (1996) A Bluff Model of Riverine Settlement in Prehistoric Amazonia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 86:654-681. Glaser B., Lehmann J., Zech W. (2002) Ameliorating physical and chemical properties of highly weathered soils in the tropics with charcoal - a review. Biol Fertility Soils 35:219-230. DOI: 10.1007/s00374-002-0466-4. Jones T.P., Chaloner W.G., Kuhlbusch T.A.G. (1997) Proposed Biogeological and Chemical Based Terminology for Fire-Altered Plant Matter Springer-Verlag, Berlin. Lehmann J., Joseph S. (2009) Biochar for environmental management science and technology, Earthscan, London ; Sterling, VA. pp. 1 online resource. Liang C.S., Dang Z., Mao B.H., Huang W.L., Liu C.Q. (2006) Equilibrium sorption of phenanthrene by soil humic acids. Chemosphere 63:1961-1968. DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2005.09.05. Mann C.C. (2005) 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Vintage and Anchor Books, New York, NY. M?ller A.P., Jennions M.D. (2001) Testing and adjusting for publication bias. Trends Ecol Evol 16:580-586. DOI: 10.1016/s0169-5347(01)02235-2. Novak J.M., Busscher W.J. (2011) Selection and use of designer biochars to improve characteristics of Southeastern USA Coastal Plain degraded soils Springer Science, New York, NY. Novak J.M., Lima I., Xing B., Gaskin J.W., Steiner C., Das K.C., Ahmedna M., Rehrah D., Watts D.W., Busscher W.J., Schomberg H. (2009) Characterization of Designer Biochar Produced at Different Temperatures and Their Effects on a Loamy Sand. Annals of Environmental Science 3:195-206. Spokas K.A. (2010) Review of the stability of biochar in soils: predictability of O:C molar ratios. Carbon Management 1:289-303. DOI: 10.4155/cmt.10.32.
A list of biochar distributors is provided on the United States Biochar Initiative website (USBI). Note the USBI neither provides endorsements nor accepts liability for any particular product or technology listed.
Because biochar is produced from biomass, including wastes, it is sustainable from an availability or supply standpoint. Sustainable biochar production, however, is less certain based on current economic constraints. Biochar has several potential markets and exploiting these markets is necessary for biochar production to be sustainable. Examples of specific markets include stormwater media, soil health and fertility, and carbon sequestration Biogreen (accessed December 10, 2019). Sustainable biochar production must also meet certain environmental and economic criteria, includign the following.
The sustainable-biochar concept is summarized in Figure 1. CO2 is removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Sustainably procured crop residues, manures, biomass crops, timber and forestry residues, and green waste are pyrolysed by modern technology to yield bio-oil, syngas, process heat and biochar. As a result of pyrolysis, immediate decay of these biomass inputs is avoided. The outputs of the pyrolysis process serve to provide energy, avoid emissions of GHGs such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), and amend agricultural soils and pastures. The bioenergy is used to offset fossil-fuel emissions, while returning about half of the C fixed by photosynthesis to the atmosphere. In addition to the GHG emissions avoided by preventing decay of biomass inputs, soil emissions of GHGs are also decreased by biochar amendment to soils. The biochar stores carbon in a recalcitrant form that can increase soil water- and nutrient-holding capacities, which typically result in increased plant growth. This enhanced productivity is a positive feedback that further enhances the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Slow decay of biochar in soils, together with tillage and transport activities, also returns a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. A schematic of the model used to calculate the magnitudes of these processes is shown as Supplementary Figure S1.
The main aim of this study is to provide an estimate of the theoretical upper limit, under current conditions, to the climate-change mitigation potential of biochar when implemented in a sustainable manner. This limit, which we term the maximum sustainable technical potential (MSTP), represents what can be achieved when the portion of the global biomass resource that can be harvested sustainably (that is, without endangering food security, habitat or soil conservation) is converted to biochar by modern high-yield, low-emission, pyrolysis methods. The fraction of the MSTP that is actually realized will depend on a number of socioeconomic factors, including the extent of government incentives and the relative emphasis placed on energy production relative to climate-change mitigation. Aside from assuming a maximum rate of capital investment that is consistent with that estimated to be required for climate-change mitigation24, this study does not take into account any economic, social or cultural barriers that might further limit the adoption of biochar technology.
Other constraints on biochar production methods arise because emissions of CH4, N2O, soot or volatile organic compounds combined with low biochar yields (for example, from traditional charcoal kilns or smouldering slash piles) may negate some or all of the carbon-sequestration benefits, cause excessive carbon-payback times or be detrimental to health. Therefore, we do not consider any biochar production systems that rely on such technologies, and restrict our analysis to systems in which modern, high-yield, low-emission pyrolysis technology can feasibly be used to produce high-quality biochar. 2ff7e9595c
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