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The new "Black Gold" is already on sale in Indonesia! | Terra Preta
Submitted by Tom Miles on Sat, 2007-09-01 04:38.The new "Black Gold" is already on sale in Indonesia!
Robert Flanagan, SAFFE, China, August 31, 2007
Black Gold
Dear David and terrapreta list,
All I can say is David, thank God there are people like you on this mailing list and I personally want to thank you for taking time to clearly point out the true magic of Terra Preta is the biology above all else!
Only yesterday in a conversation with Danny Day I stress the same thing "Stop talking about biomass to fuel and focus on biochar for soil restoration". I've been asking the same question time and time again "What is the best charcoal for long term microbial response"? To date I have not received an definitive answer! but as I've mentioned before Robert Hill noted that charcoal made in the flash carbonizer appeared the have a higher response.
Regarding the application of biochar in agriculture and the naming of "Black Gold" or "New Black Gold" there is already a company selling the closest thing I've seen to terra preta in Indonesia. This product is not just the output of some mindless mixing of "X" and "Y" to get "Z". Here they start the process by first introducing microbes into the animals feed then the take the odourless manure and mix that with waste mushroom compost, charcoal and dolomite. Then they apply more microbes and allow to ferment for one month and currently the Japanese buy every Kg they produce (1,100T/mt).
So if this approach was applied to all animal farming would we still need to char the manure? and how much further would each ton of charcoal go? If we want to start promoting the next revolution in "Carbon Capture Cropping" then we need to take a closer look at every thing we've done wrong in the past century and that starts from the ground up as David points out!
I just took some soil, leaf and corn samples from my field trial yesterday and I hope to have some data for you in the coming weeks. Attached is a photo from our modified seaweed extract + biochar at day66, as I've mentioned before NO organic or chemical fertilizer were added to the soil only biochar and foliar nutrients.
Corn 66 Days
For the future of energy production note, Stan Meyer's patent expired July this year and already two working models have been produced by open source engineering The Trade Association for Emergent Waterfuel Industries. This is in no way to be confused with Electrolysis (passing high electrical current through an electrolyte) YouTube - RAVI 'S STANLEY MEYER REPLICATION WATER FUEL CELL -008 low voltage and low current and this water fuel cell is getting over 400% efficiency.
Another sign of hope for the future is a water power car in Japan YouTube - Japanese Water Car . One thing to note about the HHO gas is that it's extremely reactive (Exothermic) and is a perfect gas to use in gasification to reduce any waste into H2:CO (syngas) so in the future this could take care of the offgas from our charcoal production Xogen.ca - About Us .
The point that I tried to raise a few weeks ago is still as relevant, we need less talk and more trials!
Regards,
Rob.
"Just an observation, from my view (Technician) we really need to focus on data collection at this point and maybe not worry so much about equipment (horse before the cart). The variables as I see them are feedstock's (Forest, agriculture and animal waste) then processor (pyrolysis, gasification & flash carbonization) then temperature. Now moisture content should help determine what feedstock is best suited to what reactor. The big variable that as yet remains unanswered is that is the most suitable temperature and what with the effect be when the same temperature char is used in soil of different pH? I've heard it all, high temp "V" low temp and the most credible information I've received to date is from Robert Hill that feedstock appeared to have more on an impact on microbial response then temperature but he did note that char make from the flash carbonizer appeared to have an extremely beneficial response. On my own field trials I've stuck with 500C and on this years rice hull char I'm getting a very positive response. Dr Zhong's student will collect all data from this trial and when he processes it I'll pass it on. We need a more practical guide for people to follow "Biochar manual" and at this point I don't think it has to be based on strictly published data. Note a technician never looks for the name of the guy that wrote the training manual, so at this point even if you just set up a few pots with and with out char and show us the results you'll be doing your part for the "Biochar training manual"
Robert Flanagan
Chairman & President
Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Skype "saffechina"
Tel: 86-571-881-850-67
Cell: 86-130-189-959-57
The new "Black Gold" is already on sale in Indonesia! | Terra Preta
Submitted by Tom Miles on Sat, 2007-09-01 04:38.The new "Black Gold" is already on sale in Indonesia!
Robert Flanagan, SAFFE, China, August 31, 2007
Black Gold
Dear David and terrapreta list,
All I can say is David, thank God there are people like you on this mailing list and I personally want to thank you for taking time to clearly point out the true magic of Terra Preta is the biology above all else!
Only yesterday in a conversation with Danny Day I stress the same thing "Stop talking about biomass to fuel and focus on biochar for soil restoration". I've been asking the same question time and time again "What is the best charcoal for long term microbial response"? To date I have not received an definitive answer! but as I've mentioned before Robert Hill noted that charcoal made in the flash carbonizer appeared the have a higher response.
Regarding the application of biochar in agriculture and the naming of "Black Gold" or "New Black Gold" there is already a company selling the closest thing I've seen to terra preta in Indonesia. This product is not just the output of some mindless mixing of "X" and "Y" to get "Z". Here they start the process by first introducing microbes into the animals feed then the take the odourless manure and mix that with waste mushroom compost, charcoal and dolomite. Then they apply more microbes and allow to ferment for one month and currently the Japanese buy every Kg they produce (1,100T/mt).
So if this approach was applied to all animal farming would we still need to char the manure? and how much further would each ton of charcoal go? If we want to start promoting the next revolution in "Carbon Capture Cropping" then we need to take a closer look at every thing we've done wrong in the past century and that starts from the ground up as David points out!
I just took some soil, leaf and corn samples from my field trial yesterday and I hope to have some data for you in the coming weeks. Attached is a photo from our modified seaweed extract + biochar at day66, as I've mentioned before NO organic or chemical fertilizer were added to the soil only biochar and foliar nutrients.
Corn 66 Days
For the future of energy production note, Stan Meyer's patent expired July this year and already two working models have been produced by open source engineering The Trade Association for Emergent Waterfuel Industries. This is in no way to be confused with Electrolysis (passing high electrical current through an electrolyte) YouTube - RAVI 'S STANLEY MEYER REPLICATION WATER FUEL CELL -008 low voltage and low current and this water fuel cell is getting over 400% efficiency.
Another sign of hope for the future is a water power car in Japan YouTube - Japanese Water Car . One thing to note about the HHO gas is that it's extremely reactive (Exothermic) and is a perfect gas to use in gasification to reduce any waste into H2:CO (syngas) so in the future this could take care of the offgas from our charcoal production Xogen.ca - About Us .
The point that I tried to raise a few weeks ago is still as relevant, we need less talk and more trials!
Regards,
Rob.
"Just an observation, from my view (Technician) we really need to focus on data collection at this point and maybe not worry so much about equipment (horse before the cart). The variables as I see them are feedstock's (Forest, agriculture and animal waste) then processor (pyrolysis, gasification & flash carbonization) then temperature. Now moisture content should help determine what feedstock is best suited to what reactor. The big variable that as yet remains unanswered is that is the most suitable temperature and what with the effect be when the same temperature char is used in soil of different pH? I've heard it all, high temp "V" low temp and the most credible information I've received to date is from Robert Hill that feedstock appeared to have more on an impact on microbial response then temperature but he did note that char make from the flash carbonizer appeared to have an extremely beneficial response. On my own field trials I've stuck with 500C and on this years rice hull char I'm getting a very positive response. Dr Zhong's student will collect all data from this trial and when he processes it I'll pass it on. We need a more practical guide for people to follow "Biochar manual" and at this point I don't think it has to be based on strictly published data. Note a technician never looks for the name of the guy that wrote the training manual, so at this point even if you just set up a few pots with and with out char and show us the results you'll be doing your part for the "Biochar training manual"
Robert Flanagan
Chairman & President
Hangzhou Sustainable Agricultural Food & Fuel Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Skype "saffechina"
Tel: 86-571-881-850-67
Cell: 86-130-189-959-57
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