How It Works

Biochar is produced using a process know as pyrolysis, which is the process of heating biomass to a high temperature in the absence of oxygen. The result of this procedure is a low BTU gas and/or bio oil and a solid char residue know as biochar. The low BTU gas and bio oil can be used as a fuel or as a feed stock for other processes to make gasoline, alcohol, diesel, or fuel oils. The solid char generated, is a stable, almost pure carbon residue that has many uses. Biochar can be used as a feed stock to make activated carbon, as or as a soil amendment to improve soil health, water and fertilizer retention. Biochar can also be used as feed additive to improve animal gut health. In livestock barns and animal houses biochar can be added to the bedding to aide in the control of odors, reduce ammonia production and reduce nitrogen runoff from manures. Biochar is stable in soil for centuries and can be used as a method of carbon sequestration (removal and storage of carbon), or as fill material for construction projects, or as an additive to concrete or asphalt.

Plants consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Utilizing the energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, and water, chlorophyl utilizes the carbon in carbon dioxide to form simple sugars. Sugars are the building blocks that a plant uses to form all of a plants biomass such as the leaves, bark, flowers, fruits, roots, stalks, stems, etc. 50% of the dry mass of a plant is composed of carbon harvested from the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide.

In the carbon cycle almost 100% of the carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis is returned back into the atmosphere when a plant decomposes. On the other hand, in the biochar cycle, only 50% of the carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere is returned back into the atmosphere. The other 50% is converted into biochar. The fraction of biomass converted into biochar is permanently removed (sequestered) from the atmosphere. If economical methods could be developed to capture the carbon in the gases and bio oils released from the pyrolysis process then almost 100% of the carbon dioxide captured by a plant could be permanently removed from the atmosphere. The diagrams below a representations of The Carbon Cycle and Bio Char Cycle.