Power Naps

 Biochar: A Carbon Negative Fuel!

What is Biochar?

When biomass is baked (heated) in the absence of oxygen - it becomes biochar retaining most of the feedstock’s carbon. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and can hold carbon in soils for hundreds to thousands of years! 

Biochar is mainly produced through pyrolysis or gasification — processes that heat biomass in the absence (or under reduction) of oxygen.

In a crude way, it can also be made in pots or kilns in your backyard! Yes, it's that simple. However, the yield (amount of biochar produced per unit of biomass) depends greatly on the raw feedstock characteristics. Umm..lets say you are going to make a spicy chicken curry..so the amount of time you give to marinate the chicken will make the chicken nice and tender. Basically, it helps absorb the spices nicely.  In the same way, if the raw biomass is processed well i.e. dry (moisture less than 10%) and smaller in size (3-6 mm), it will give the greatest biochar yield!  However, the pre-processing step can be quite expensive and can cause millions of dollars to the company if not selected judiciously. You will see, many big companies putting a lot of investment into the selection of suitable drying and size reduction equipment. Additionally, one can utilize low-grade waste heat from existing plant operations for this process. You can do this if you set up your fast pyrolysis plant and integrate it into one of the existing industrial plants. If this existing plant is a Pulp & Paper (P&P) mill, it is going to give you maximum returns ($$). This is because now you can also use some of the P&P mill's waste biomass (like barks and residues), waste heat or energy, and some equipment like spare debarkers and chippers into your biorefinery plant. It's going to be a win-win situation for your biorefinery as well as an existing P&P mill because you can actually sell the pyrolysis oil (the main product from the fast pyrolysis process) to the mill and offset some of the operational cost!

Why should we consider Biochar as a valuable byproduct?

Biochar may have several potential applications. It depends a lot on how the biomass is processed and what are the key properties of biochar.

• Biochar can produce 2.2-4.4 gigatons of CO2 emissions reductions by 2050.
• It is used for wastewater treatment
• For soil amendment
• It has role in improved Biogas production during Anaerobic Digestion
• The treatment of drinking water
• Use of biochar in the building sector
• Uses in animal farming

Can it really sequester carbon-dioxide and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Biochar- An agent for CO2 sequestration

Yes! Creating biochar actually reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because the process takes a theoretically carbon-neutral process of naturally decaying organic matter and turns it carbon-negative:.

When plants decay, they emit carbon dioxide, which other plants eventually absorb, and the cycle continues. Biochar stabilizes that decaying matter and accompanying carbon-dioxide and puts it in the ground to stay for — potentially — hundreds or even thousands of years. This idea, with supposedly enormous potential to help slow global warming, has drawn an impressive array of supporters toward biochar. 

Currently, although the importance of biochar is being realized, however, there are many uncertainties related to its potential application as well as no such mature market yet exist for biochar.