Biochar: the next carbon gamechanger

Taking Root is incredibly excited to announce the launch of biochar trials to enhance reforestation with farmers in Nicaragua. In partnership with German-based climate protection and tree-planting NGO, PRIMAKLIMA, farmers in the CommuniTree program are applying biochar to newly planted trees to improve forest and soil health, increase farmers’ incomes, and store additional carbon in the soil.

 

Back in 2017, we gave an update as we embarked on a journey with Canadian engineering firm, Thermotech Combustion, to explore ways in which Taking Root could sustainably produce and apply biochar within the Communitree Project. Three years later, a high-tech sustainable biochar reactor now operates in remote Nicaragua, producing biochar to help reforest farmland with farmers across the country.

Wait, what’s biochar?

Biochar has massive potential for carbon storage, improved soil & tree health, and increased farmer crop yields.

Before getting into the reactor and the trials, here’s a recap to explain what biochar is, how it’s made, and what makes it so exciting. Biochar is a substance very similar to charcoal, with properties that give it massive potential for carbon storage, improved soil & tree health, and increased farmer crop yields.

It’s created by heating an organic material (e.g. wood) to a high temperature with very little oxygen. That process does two things; first, it reduces the wood to be almost pure carbon (around twice as carbon-dense as wood in its pure form), second, it increases the space between particles, giving the biochar a sponge like form. After being transformed, biochar becomes equipped to deliver a wide number of benefits.

A gamechanger for farming and the environment

There are two primary environmental benefits to biochar; enhancing soil & tree health and storing additional carbon in the ground. For the former, the sponging properties are key, as they allow biochar to increase soil and forest health. When biochar is put in the ground, it absorbs nutrients, water, and microbes from the soil when they’re overly abundant, soaking them all up like a sponge. Then, when they become scarce (e.g. a drought), the biochar feeds these nutrients back to the plants, allowing for an extremely stable and constant flow of food for trees. Consequently, all of which reduces the need for additional fertilizers, reducing costs and increasing incomes for farmers.

Second, because of its carbon stability, biochar is a high-potential solution to climate change. As we know, trees take carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in their biomass. When wood is converted into biochar, the carbon becomes highly stable, so when it’s buried in the ground, it’s locked away for hundreds to thousands of years!

Why doesn’t everyone make biochar?

Given all of these amazing benefits, it begs the question, why isn’t everyone making biochar? The answer is twofold. For one, biochar can be really polluting to make because of the high energy required in its production, which releases greenhouse gases and defeats the whole purpose its carbon storage. Secondly, it’s really challenging to produce it affordably and without pollution at a small scale. When it comes to smallholder farmers, costs are a huge barrier, as most farmers do not have the resources to spend making sustainable biochar or a good knowledge of how to optimally apply it to their crops. Partnering with the engineering experts at Thermotech Combustion, they helped tackle both obstacles by creating a small-scale but highly energy efficient production process.

A hand holding biochar in front of the Thermotech Combustion biochar reactor.

Thermotech Combustion helped build a biochar reactor that’s sustainable and cost-effective.

How Taking Root is producing sustainable biochar

Thermotech Combustion developed a circular model in which the reactor captures and powers itself using the greenhouse gases released by the wood as it heats up and is being transformed into biochar. The result is a process which is extremely energy efficient while creating minimal emissions. This process is outlined in the diagram below:

Diagram illustrating how Taking Root's biochar reactor works.

By recirculating the energy, Taking Root is able to produce biochar sustainably.

Bringing it back to the farmers

So how does all of this help farmers? In more ways than one.

Farmer José Hernandez adds biochar fertilizer to the soil before planting his tree.

  1. New source of income: Farmers get a new source of income through selling waste and pruned wood from the forests they are growing with Taking Root to be turned into biochar. As farmers’ forests grow, trees are selectively harvested and pruned so that the remaining trees can grow taller and stronger, storing more carbon. The harvested trees and prunings are too young and small to be sold as timber at this stage, but completely viable to be sold as biochar, generating additional revenue for farmers.
  2. Reduced tree mortality = reduced costs: Biochar improves tree health, reducing tree mortality and so reducing the cost of growing a forest. If a tree dies, all of the labour and capital that have been incurred into that tree can’t be recovered. Therefore, if you reduce tree mortality rates, you reduce costs.
  3. Higher crop yields: When crops are fertilized with biochar, they yield greater quantities without the need to apply expensive and often polluting alternatives, giving farmers more crops to sell and allowing them to increase their revenues.

Biochar being applied in different quantities within a Taking Root tree nursery to assess the benefits of different applications.

How is Taking Root applying biochar?

This year Taking Root launched trials with farmers growing coffee agroforestry and mixed species forests. Selected farmers have been adding controlled amounts of biochar to the soil in tree nurseries and newly planted coffee trees to assess the optimal application of biochar for maximum benefits. So far, the anecdotal results have looked exciting with enhanced root growth and tree health across trees planted with biochar. These trees will be periodically monitored and measured over the next two years to assess the full impact of biochar and how it can be used most effectively across the CommuniTree program.

What are Taking Root’s plans with biochar in the future?

Early signs that biochar is improving tree health!

Supported by climate protection and tree-planting NGO, PRIMAKLIMA, Taking Root will be expanding its trials across farms in 2021. In addition, using the designs created by Thermotech Combustion, their experts are coaching the Taking Root team to build our own new reactor to increase production and expand trials. This is an exciting prospect, as it will make the project fully localized to Nicaragua using only local resources and giving the team the tools to keep scaling the project into the future.

Stay tuned for regular updates from the team as we gather initial results and continue to grow this exciting project and fulfill biochar’s potential to drive reforestation, mitigate climate change and improve farmer livelihoods.

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