Biocharcoal a new environmental technology to enhance agricultural produce and has environmental value. Do not pollute land as the chemical fertilizers do. A way to trap carbon.

1. Biochar: A way of trapping carbon with "green coal"
Name:-Vennela .A. Nampalli
(BSc Biotechnology II year)
Any biomass waste – from wood to peanut shells releases carbon as it
decomposes. But it can be burned in a kiln by pyrolysis (an airless burning
technique) to create biochar, also known by the soubriquet green coal. The
biochar is then dug back into the ground in order to lock carbon into the soil
following a system set out by ancient. According to experts, billions of tonnes
of carbon could potentially be sequestered in the world's soils, specifically from
agriculture and forestry residual biomass. Biochar appears to lock carbon in for
much longer than other forms or sequestration: a plant or tree will only
sequester for 15 to 20 years, for example, whereas it seems reasonable to
suggest that the biochar system will sequester for at least 100 years. Also,
biochar just happens to anchor soil nutrients extremely well at a time when the
planet's soils have lost half of their carbon thanks to industrialised agriculture.
Biochar is defined as carbonised biomass obtained from sustainable
sources and sequestered in soils to sustainably enhance their agricultural and
environmental value under present and future management.The technique of
using charcoal to improve the fertility of soils originated in the Amazon basin at
least 2500 years ago. The native Indians of the region would create charcoal and
incorporate it in small plots of land from 1 - 80 hectares in size. Terra Preta, as
it is known in this area of Brazil, remains highly fertile until today, even with
little or no application of fertilizers. And this is in a region of the world known
for its highly infertile soils.
Typically, Terra Preta (TP) soils are found in patches of approximately 20
ha containing higher soil organic matter, greater concentrations of nutrients
such as N, P, K, and Ca, and up to 70 times more biochar than surrounding
infertile soils. Biochar alone is not responsible for the formation of these highly
fertile soils. Research shows that nutrients in TP soils were incorporated in the
form of human and animal excrements, aquatic and terrestrial biomass, and food
residues such as mammal bones, fish bones, and turtle backs.

2. To really solve the problem of global warming, we need to focus on two
things. We need to find ways to remove historic emissions from the atmosphere,
particularly carbon emissions, and we need to find ways to replace fossil fuels.
Our emphasis is on initiatives focused on removing and sequestering
greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and on developing and producing
ecologically sustainable biofuels to replace fossil fuels.Biochar can achieve both
of these objectives, and the technology is both sustainable and scalable enough
to make a significant difference.
Researchers have concentrated on making biochar from diverse sources
of biomass at different production parameters. wet feedstocks such as sewage
sludge and animal manures raise the question of which kind of carbonisation
process would be best to use since they would require significant energy to dry
before going through slow pyrolysis.It can be done in three different ways,
namely, Pyrolysis, Gasification and Hydrothermal carbonization. In all these
processes, biomass is heated at a high temperature in the absence of air. This
releases the volatile gases leaving behind carbon rich biochar. During pyrolysis,
a high proportion of carbon remains within the biochar giving it a very high
recalcitrant nature. This increases the soil water and nutrient holding capacity
When biochar is created from biomass, approximately 50% of the carbon
that the plants absorbed as CO2 from the atmosphere is "fixed" in the charcoal.
As a material, the carbon in charcoal is largely inert, showing a relative lack of
reactivity both chemically and biologically, and so it is strongly resistant to
decomposition. Research scientists have found charcoal particles as old as 400
million years in sediment layers from wildfires that occurred when plant life
first began on earth. Hence, biochar offers us a golden opportunity to remove
excess CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it in a virtually permanent and
environmentally beneficial way.

3. In November 2015, the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) released
the “standardized product definition and product testing guidelines for biochar
that is used in soil”. The “IBI Biochar Standards” provide recommendations to
ensure that biochar is safe to produce and use but do not prescribe parameters
for production and feedstock handling, nor do these provide thresholds or terms
for defining the sustainability of the feedstock’s orbiochar products.
Biochar distinguishes from charcoal that is used as fuel for heat, as a
filter, as a reductant in iron-making or as a colouring agent in industry or art.
Biochar, a porous material, can help retain water and nutrients in the soil for the
plants to take up as they grow. The diversion of biomass from landfill or open
burning in fields to biochar production offers an improvement in waste
management. Also the heat and the carriers of renewable energy co-produced
during biochar production can be recovered to meet the energy needs of the
local communities adopting a be successful adoption of biochar-making stoves
could reduce biomass consumption for cooking, and therefore reduce the rate of
deforestation and CO2 emissions.Biocharis climate change mitigation.