Make biochar for both public welfare and economic benefit

July 21, 2012

Liaoning Biochar Engineering & Technology Research Center

Shenyang Agricultural University

Meng Jun

Biocharchina@yahoo.com

Liaoning Biochar Engineering & Technology Research Center

The first provincial research institution

for biochar in China.

Leading by Prof. Chen Wenfu of Shenyang Agricultural University, the

academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, BETRC endeavored

into the biochar research. After years of practices, "carbonization and

returning" strategy for agro-forestry residue utilization, which based on in

situ biochar production equipment and biochar based products, was

refined gradually.

0.5 billion tons of food production ability maintained for nearly 8 years.

Population scored 1.3379 billion and still increase.

1.38 mu or 0.092 ha cultivated land per capita, 40% of world’s average.

China is a middle dangerous food security country.

food security is still a great issue to be concerned in near future

1 Public concern

Cited from: http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp229328.pdf

Limited crop land suffered sever erosion

•1.826 billion mu or 0.12 billion ha crop land which still decreasing.

•70% of which is low yielding farmland at the end of 2009. (Ministry of Agriculture)

•Heavy metal contamination: According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 46.7% of 2.1

million mu arable land irrigated by waste water was slightly contaminated by heavy metals, 9.7%

was moderate contaminated, and 8.4% was severely contaminated.

•Erosion of black soil: In Heilongjiang

province, black soil layer decreased from 60 ～

100cm to 20 ～ 40cm, and still disappeared at 3 ～

3.5mm annually. In Jilin province, 12% of black soil

layer is thinner than 20cm, among which, 3%

acreage totally lost it.

•Dramatically acidify of red soil: 0.42

billion mu red soil, which pH bellow 4.5, even 2.6,

caused dramatically nutrition deficient. Cited from: 2008 Bulletin of land and resources of China

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ield

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Huge amount of agricultural residues

700 million tones of agricultural

residues.

Quantities of cereal straw, fungi

matrix, peanut hull and rice

husk.

Straw returning to soil might

be a good choice, but not

easily carried out, especially

in northern China which

restricted by low

temperature.

Significant environment pollution is

the inevitable result of lacking of

effective comprehensive utilization

method.

The current situation is: quantities of biomass residues, which should be considered as precious resources, are disposed or burned, and causes unaffordable ecological issues and notable soil degradation. How to get those biomass, what we get from the soil, go back to the soil, might be a great challenge we have to face to.

soil biomass

In spite of great efforts on straw returning, only 15 percent of those residues could be returned to the soil.

Current situation and questions put forward

•Advantages of biochar: •Porous structure to shield microorganism. •Alkalinity to ameliorate acidified soil.•Stability and high carbon content.•Available potassium.

•Good absorption ability.

•Farmers won’t pay for biochar because of additional input,

neither labor nor money.•Government may provide public subsidies but can not cover all

over the country.

•Farmer and government left the major role to enterprise.

2 Biochar might be a good candidate, but how to make it work practically ?

Porous structure of biochar

Enterprise: improve added value or lower the cost

Improving the added value means additional input in crop production in most

cases, and might not work if farmers have to pay for it.The only way left is lower the cost of biochar production and application in relatively near future.

So, the centralized production mode which increases transportation cost should be revised, and the labor saving application method should win its priority, especially in China.

Long distance transport of biomass Biochar for garden use, $29.95/10L

Step 1: Cost effective biochar production is the basis for utilization of agricultural residues at large scale

cost effective•Small scale

•Energy saving or energy free

•Mobility

•Environmental friendly

Traditional kiln Semi-hermetic kiln Modular kiln

Traditional biochar production mode of

biomass collection, transport and centralized

carbonization was transferred into a new one:

carbonization in situ, collect and transport

biochar for down-stream processing.

Step 2: Biochar based fertilizer/products facilitate the incorporation of biochar into soil

Biochar based

fertilizer Biochar based soil amendment

Nutrients in the pores of biochar

Combination of biochar and nutrients

• Increase fertilizer utilization ratio

• Cut off chemical input and decrease

environmental pollution

• CO2 emission reduction

• Water retention

Experimentation, demonstration and extension

Cooperating with peanut and potato industry system, more than 20

field trail stations were included in experimentation and

demonstration, 20 provinces were involved.

Plot experiments Demonstration sites in Liaoning province

BETRC

Demonstration sites in China

Returning of rice straw biochar

Application of biochar based peanut fertilizer

Biochar based potato fertilizer

Biochar granum remain in the soil

Research basis

Surface scan of biochar Root in biochar

Microorganism analysis Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of bacteria based on the genetic distance

Research expansions

Biochar serve as seed bed matrix of rice and tobacco

Application of biochar in acidified black soil, sandy soil and saline-alkali soil

Biochar ameliorated rice field

Step 3: A distributed biochar network

3 km

Field area=2826 ha

Utilization ratio=50%

Air dried biomass per ha=4.5 ton

Total air dried biomass= 6359 ton

Produce biochar=1908 ton

Produce biochar based fertilizer 100,000 ton;

Cover agricultural field 130,000 ha;

Need biochar 30,000 ton;

Consume biomass 100,000 ton, equals to quantities from 22,000 ha of field;

No resource competition

FarmerIn situ biochar

production

Operating mode

Farmer

Reduce transportation

cost

Reduce farmer labor

cost

Biochar cost about ￥ 300 ，equals to $47.

I give you biochar, you give me biochar

based fertilizer instead of currency!

3 News media take a real interest in biochar, which means the huge demand and market

CCTV reports titled by “Charring before sowing”

Introduce biochar for news agency

Reports from China Central Television (CCTV) and

Liaoning provincial media about our work.

4 Multiple economic and social benefits

No crop competition, no arable land competition.Come from agriculture, go back to agriculture.Hand grab for new countryside construction.

We are seeking for

a better answer!

We can not get more arable

land, but we can make it better!

We are BETRC

Thanks for your attention!

Your advices will be

helpful!