MEN Fair 2012 - Biochar

Biochar
Presented by Albert Bates of The Farm

This workshop was presented by Albert Bates, author of The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change and director of the Institute for Appropriate Technology and the EcoVillage Training Center at the Farm. A list of links to several works by Bates can be found on his online bibliography page on the Farm's website.

My reason for attending this workshop was to learn about ways of creating biochar to be used for improving garden soil. While the workshop did cover this topic, the focus was creating biochar in a way that also allowed the heat from the process to be captured and used. In principle I like the idea of getting as much benefit as possible from the process. From a practical standpoint, though, I have much more need of the soil improving capabilities of biochar than the heat producing capabilities.

I did learn quite a bit about the reasons that biochar improve garden soil. I also learned a few things that should be done to get the maximum benefit from the biochar, such as mixing with compost or manure to ensure that the biochar is inhabited by bacteria before adding to the garden. This gave me the idea of spreading biochar as the bottom layer when sheet composting.

Even though I am not especially interested at the moment in generating heat from biochar, I still enjoyed the discussion on the topic. There were several products mentioned that I'd like to research further, including retort kilns, the BioLite Stove, and the Beaner Backpacking Stove.

In addition to his own books and other works, the presenter also recommended a few other sources of information on biochar, such as the International Biochar Initiative and various camps offered at The Farm.