One of the most exciting new strategies for restoring carbon to depleted soils and sequestering significant amounts of CO2 for 1000 years and more is the use of biochar.

Last month we introduced biochar and the multitude of benefits it may provide. This month we will look specifically at the ability of biochar to sequester carbon. In fact, we will examine the entire biochar production system and its ability to sequester carbon through biochar and other methods in the system.

Walsh’s research uncovered inOvate, LLC, a robotics developer that has an ocean sweeper on the drawing board that can be deployed from a ship or airplane to make plastic and chemicals bubble to the surface. Once this debris is collected, the Bal-Pac machine, a technology developed by Balboa Pacific Corporation of San Diego, CA, can convert the toxic materials into beneficial byproducts including electricity and biochar (a charcoal-like material used as a soil amendment to sequester carbon from the atmosphere) without generating any pollution.

WorldStove receives a special mention on this press release from former President Clinton's website as the Special Envoy for Haiti.

WorldStove founder Nathaniel Mulcahy has just completed two months of work in Haiti, setting up a pilot project that will provide biochar-producing stoves and jobs for the Haitian people.

Sarah Carter at Biochar Innovation has been testing some biochar producing stove designs.

Albert Bates discusses his book in this video.

Former farmer Russell Burnett is developing a machine that he hopes will produce biochar to build soil carbon content.

Biochar is generating attention at the White House and in Congress because it enriches soil and locks-in carbon in its charcoal-like structure; that makes slow pyrolysis potentially a carbon "negative" energy technology, sequestering more carbon on balance than it releases into the atmosphere during production. There is tremendous research interest in biochar, but currently no production capacity exists in the United States, the feasibility study found.

A study published August 10 in the journal Nature Communications concludes "that biochar can play a significant role in the solution for the planet's climate change challenge," said co-author Jim Amonette.

As much as 12 percent of the world's human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be sustainably offset by producing biochar. That's more than what could be offset if the same plants and materials were burned to generate energy, concludes a study published August 10 in the journal Nature Communications.

Benefits of biochar include improved soil fertility, reduced nitrous oxide and methane emissions from the soil and, during processing, the production of gas and oil that can be used to generate electricity in place of fossil fuels, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications.

Nathaniel Mulcahy and team were in Sierra Leone from 5th to 13th August, 2010, focused on the training of trainers on the use of Lucia Stove.

An Economist article describing how Brazil has transformed its agricultural sector, and how it is poised for significant future growth. Biochar could play a role.

Win-win solutions can be hard to come by. But if Cornell University soil scientist Johannes Lehmann is right, there may be a way to lower our emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, save millions of people’s lives, and significantly boost the productivity of the world’s farms—all at the same time. Lehmann’s plan is to short-circuit this carbon cycle by creating a material called biochar.

Developing techniques that are capable of detecting and characterizing black carbon or biochar in soils is extremely important because soils contain the largest pool of organic carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, and can thus have a multitude of effects on global carbon budgets and the environment.

In addition to its other benefits in soil, we found that soil-applied biochar induces systemic resistance to the foliar fungal pathogens Botrytis cinerea (gray mold) and Leveillula taurica (powdery mildew) on pepper and tomato and to the broad mite pest (Polyphagotarsonemus latus Banks) on pepper.

A scientific study published in Plant and Soil on 2 September 2010 shows positive impacts of biochar on plant growth and investigates the possible reasons.

On September 1st, 2010, the Illinois Center for Sustainable Technology hosted the 2010 Biochar Symposium that featured presentations on biochar production, properties, and use in agricultural environments.

Cornell University's Johannes Lehmann thinks biochar - using organic matter to bury carbon dioxide in the ground - could be a large scale way to tackle global warming

An abandoned mine on the back side of Aspen Mountain could become a model for biochar based environmental remediation. Former Aspen Mayor John Bennett is helping oversee the project.

A straightforward guide to biochar published by the University of Hawaii and authored principally by Josiah Hunt