BIOCHAR seems simple enough to make - you can pyrolise wood waste in an open ended 220 litre drum and come up with a usable soil amendment. But to get it to increase production the same as modern chemicals it must be created scientifically.
Biowaste consultant Mark Glover from EcoWaste has been tooling around with biochar production for the past 12 years and says temperature and time in the pyrolising chamber must be regulated to tweak the burn and create specific biochars for bespoke applications.
At the moment that is happening only on a very small scale.
Mr Glover's vision is to have technically proficient biochar plants scattered throughout the landscape so that biomass doesn't have to be trucked further than necessary - after all transport only adds expense.
When it comes to woody waste pyrolising is the perfect technology. But when it comes to very wet slurries from feedlots and piggeries it makes more sense to bio-digest the material first, capturing methane and allowing nutrients to fall into the sludge gathering at the bottom of the pit. That sludge can then be dried and pyrolised into a nutrient-rich biochar.
Currently Mr Glover is analysing the scale of bio-waste resource - concentrating on the Northern Rivers and the Central West - and will balance the ledger, so to speak, to see if these waste streams can work together to produce viable products.
China moves forward with biochar
In China biochar is being used to improve farmed soils and wash industrially contaminated soils - sequestering lead, zinc and cadmium in the process.
The use of bio-materials to create tar, or bio-oil, is even being used to smelt copper and steel to create 'green' industrial products that command a premium price.
Despite all that, mainstream Chinese farmers have yet to embrace the biochar revolution while small family farmers who recognise its benefits do not have the profit power to progress the bio-technology, says Professor Dr Genxing Pan from the Institute of Resources, Ecosystem and Environment of Agriculture at Nanjing Agricultural University.
But DPI research scientist Dr Lukas Van Zwieten says changes coming out of China will flow overseas. Currently in China biochar is as low as US$200/tonne.
Prof Pan says straw and stubble that used to be burnt in-field - leading to poor air quality - is now being converted to biochar with assistance from the State.
Prof Pan says furnaces exist in China capable of producing biochar at a rate of a tonne every hour at temperatures ranging from 350-550C and Dr Van Zwieten believes this technology will soon be imported into Australia for our own use.