If you are looking into commercial biochar production or applications, then I think this latest webinar is well worth the investment in an IBI subscription.
Here is an opportunity to wave the biochar flag in the Waikato…
Note that we have missed the 1st two meetings but 3 more to go…
Please take a look at the survey as well.
Here is a short video of the initial firing of a square kontiki kiln. It was fired on a mixture of paulownia and and unidentified hardwood. This prototype will probably be superseded by a more conventional and larger conical kontiki but if functioned very well.
Dr. John McDonald-Wharry will be speaking on biochar at the next Bioenergy Association conference on the 17 November 2015 at Waikato University.
http://www.bioenergy.org.nz/event/advances-biofuel-market-opportunities
Biochar is well integrated into the Bioenergy Australian. It is good to see some recognition and profiling now in NZ.
He is also scheduled to speak at the NZ Tree Crops Association 2016 conference in April. I will post separately on that closer to the event.
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_McDonald-Wharry
http://greenyourhead.typepad.com/backyard_biochar/2014/08/tfod-char-analysis-its-great-stuff.html
First 19min from Albert on biochar and the big picture… (show notes in the link below)
This Thesis does make mention of the potential for biochar as a denitrifier tool in NZ. You can download the full document as a PDF from the linked title..
THE INFLUENCE OF SOIL PARAMETERS AND DENITRIFIERS ON N2O EMISSIONS IN NEW ZEALAND DAIRY-GRAZED PASTURE SOILS
A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Soil Science, Massey University Palmerston North New Zealand
NEHA JHA
2015
Page 75: “One of the possible strategies to mitigate denitrification in soil could be the application of biochar. It has been observed that biochar application facilitates the reduction of N2O to N2 by both its liming effect and by enhancing the electron availability to denitrifiers, which helps completing the denitrification process to emit N2 as the end product (Cayuela et al., 2013). With biochar application, decreases in N2O emission by 10% to 90% have been observed in 14 different agricultural soils.
A set of management practices is needed that could either lower the N2O emission from soil or increase the N2O reduction to N2 . Management practices such as the application of crop residue, liming, increasing Cu availability, high SWC, biochar application, may enhance N2O reduction to N2. Higher N2O production from some soils may be due to its poor capacity of reduce N2O to N2.”
Page 230: “In this current study, Dicyandiamide (DCD), one of the most commonly used nitrification inhibitor, was tested for its impact on denitrification. Future work could look into changes in denitrifier community abundance, total denitrification, and, more importantly, into N 2 O and N 2 productions (employing direct gas measurement technique) in New Zealand pasture soils using other mitigation methods such as the addition of organic matter, liming, Cu addition, and biochar application.”
Page 237: References
Case, S.D.C., Whitaker, J., McNamara, N.P., Reay, D.S., 2007. The effect of biochar addition on N2O and CO2 emissions from a sandy loam soil – The role of soil aeration. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 51, 125-134.
Cayuela, M.L., Sánchez-Monedero, M.A., Roig, A., Hanley, K., Enders, A., Lehmann, J., 2013. Biochar and denitrification in soils: when, how much and why does biochar reduce N 2 O emissions? Scientific Reports 3, Article No. 1732.
Gareth Morgan implies here that in future video they will address C-sequestration options for NZ. If you feel strongly that more effort should put into trialing biochar in NZ agriculture, then please reply to the video with your suggestions. Biochar is getting zero profile these days in NZ media. We should put some effort into changing this.
Dear colleagues,
I’m emailing you today because we’re in the midst of reaching out to our community to request information for our 2015 State of the Biochar Industry data collection effort. We were able to include over 200 companies last year and are hoping to have a stronger data set this year.
To do this, I need your help. I’m asking you, as a regional biochar group leader, to send this message out to your colleagues asking them to please take our survey at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2260737/Biochar-Business-Survey-for-2015? It is at most 20 minutes and usually takes less time depending on responses. We conduct this survey to collect data on activities related to the commercial production, distribution, and marketing of biochar and biochar-related products and services. The deadline for input is October 31, 2015. You may review the published results from prior years at: http://www.biochar-international.org/commercialization.
We recognize that companies want to be sure that the information they submit is private. IBI will maintain the confidentiality of all information collected in this survey. Data will be presented in aggregate for trending analysis and the only personal information shared will be basic contact information such as website and location, in order to illustrate the growth in biochar/biochar-related businesses. In addition, we are launching a 4-question anonymous survey to ask biochar producers about the volume of biochar produced and sold at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2264439/Biochar-sales-volume-anonymous.
Thank you in advance for your participation and I hope this finds you well.
As usual, please feel free to send me any regional group updates on your activities for inclusion in our next newsletter.
Thayer
Ms. Thayer Tomlinson
International Biochar Initiative
Communications Director
(802) 257 5359
IBI is a non-profit, member-supported organization and is counting on your generous donation to put the Earth “Back in the Black”. Please join us at: www.biochar-international.org/join
Stunning results and always good science coming from Hans-Peter’s work. It may not represent NZ industrial agriculture but there is a lot to learn from this short video.
http://sea-biochar.blogspot.my/2015/10/farm-scale-biochar-production-biochar.html
Hans-Peter summarizes his recent work in Nepal which covers simple biochar production methods, biochar nutrient charging methods, application methods and the results of field trials on a wide range of crops including onions, potatoes, tea, pumpkin, maize and banana.
Maybe there is a biochar project waiting to rise out of this invitation. I would be keen to collaborate with anyone trying to put something together…