Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)

Excerpt:

That’s the theory, anyway. But today, the lion’s share of the CO2 captured from industrial processes doesn’t go back into the ground. Instead, 60 percent of it is used to extract more oil, in a controversial process known as “enhanced oil recovery.”

“I think it’s a huge problem,” said Lorne Stockman, research co-director of the advocacy group Oil Change International. “The oil and gas industry has done a very good job of co-opting our climate and clean energy policy.”

For over a decade, the U.S. government has been quietly funding the capture of CO2 that is ultimately used to drill more oil. Some experts and researchers argue that the climate impact is net positive: The oil will be drilled anyway, and the process can help companies learn how to capture CO2 more efficiently. But others say that the government shouldn’t be helping companies sustain more fossil fuel extraction.

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"Biochar production today ranges from small scale at a few lb per day to 50 tons - 300 cubic yards - per day. New production is being planned for 70-140 tons per day."Uses range from retail gardens to landscaping, turf and trees, community gardens, municipal stormwater, small to medium farms with high value crops, environmental applications and building products.

"Biochar accounts for 50% of the carbon and 20% of the mass of the biomass you start with. The other 50% of the carbon is available as condensable liquids, and non-condensable gases. We have limited markets for the liquid products today. In today's market you need to use renewable energy to justify production, which is a barrier to building industrial scale facilities." Down The Rabbit Hole biochar Image courtesy of Carbonculture When I first contacted Jock Gill, he warned me that biochar is a very deep rabbit hole, and he was so right.

There is a common misconception that biochar is one thing. Perhaps the most important benefit of biochar is that it converts about 50% of the carbon in organic waste into a stable compound that stays locked in the soil.

According to Grist, the amount of biochar being produced in the United States today - about 100,000 metric tons - is tiny compared to the amount needed to sequester carbon in a globally significant way.

"Biochar started to be promoted as a single solution and a silver bullet, and it's much more nuanced than that. A lot of people are trying to shift toward understanding that biochar is a class of products." To learn more about biochar, the USDA website has a wealth of information Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are putting together a national database to help farmers choose from the many different types of biochar and connect them with local producers, and Congress is weighing legislation with bipartisan support - the Biochar Research Network Act - that would increase funding for similar research.

Adding of crushed bamboo biochar to a horse manure bedding for a hands-off biological inoculation of the feedstock.

This isn't my usual worm farm (https://beehaw.org/comment/100268), just one I temporarily put together at a 50:50 ratio of 50L:50L manure:biochar for adding to a structural soil raised garden bed build some time in the future (the longer the better for inoculation purposes).

Mixed in are a small amount of castings from the actual worm farm to accelerate correct bacteria composition and then worms will be added for the processing. It may be fed sporadically, I haven't decided yet.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/2639720

Abstract

Stability and transformation products of incomplete combustion of vegetation or fossil fuel, frequently called pyrogenic or black carbon and of biochar in soil, remains unknown mainly because of their high recalcitrance compared to other natural substances. Therefore, direct estimations of biochar decomposition and transformations are difficult because 1) changes are too small for any relevant experimental period and 2) due to methodological constraints (ambiguity of the origin of investigated compounds). We used 14C-labeled biochar to trace its decomposition to CO2 during 8.5 years and transformation of its chemical compounds: neutral lipids, glycolipids, phospholipids, polysaccharides and benzenepolycarboxylic acids (BPCA). 14C-labeled biochar was produced by charring 14C-labeled Lolium residues. We incubated the 14Clabeled biochar in a Haplic Luvisol and in loess for 8.5 years under controlled conditions. In total only about 6% of initially added biochar were mineralized to CO2 during the 8.5 years. This is probably the slowest decomposition obtained experimentally for any natural organic compound. The biochar decomposition rates estimated by 14CO2 efflux between the 5th and 8th years were of 7
104 % per day. This corresponds to less than 0.3% per year under optimal conditions and is about 2.5 times slower as reported from the previous shorter study (3.5 years). After 3.5 years of incubation, we analyzed 14C in dissolved organic matter, microbial biomass, and sequentially extracted neutral lipids, glycolipids, phospholipids, polysaccharides and BPCA. Biochar derived C (14C) in microbial biomass ranged between 0.3 and 0.95% of the 14C input. Biochar-derived C in all lipid fractions was less than 1%. Over 3.5 years, glycolipids and phospholipids were decomposed 1.6 times faster (23% of their initial content per year) compared to neutral lipids (15% year1). Polysaccharides contributed ca. 17% of the 14C activity in biochar. The highest portion of 14C in the initial biochar (87%) was in BPCA decreasing only 7% over 3.5 years. Condensed aromatic moieties were the most stable fraction compared to all other biochar compounds and the high portion of BPCA in biochar explains its very high stability and its contribution to long-term C sequestration in soil. Our new approach for analysis of biochar stability combines 14C-labeled biochar with 14C determination in chemical fractions allowed tracing of transformation products not only in released CO2 and in microbial biomass, but also evaluation of decomposition of various biochar compounds with different chemical properties.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/2643215

ABSTRACT

Biochar is not a structured homogeneous material; rather it possesses a range of chemical structures and a heterogeneous elemental composition. This variability is based on the conditions of pyrolysis and the biomass parent material, with biochar spanning the range of various forms of black carbon. Thereby, this variability induces a broad spectrum in the observed rates of reactivity and, correspondingly, the overall chemical and microbial stability. From evaluating the current biochar and black carbon degradation studies, there is the suggestion of an overall relationship in biochar stability as a function of the molar ratio of oxygen to carbon (O:C) in the resulting black carbon. In general, a molar ratio of O:C lower than 0.2 appears to provide, at minimum, a 1000-year biochar half-life. The O:C ratio is a function of production temperature, but also accounts for other impacts (e.g., parent material and post-production conditioning/oxidation) that are not captured solely with production temperature. Therefore, the O:C ratio could provide a more robust indicator of biochar stability than production parameters (e.g., pyrolysis temperature and biomass type) or volatile matter determinations.

This is a bit tangential, but it is a well-framed commentary which applies when we think about CDR.

cross-posted from: https://aus.social/users/ajsadauskas/statuses/111062337668091472

Right now, could you prepare a slice of toast with zero embodied carbon emissions?

Since at least the 2000s, big polluters have tried to frame carbon emissions as an issue to be solved through the purchasing choices of individual consumers.

Solving climate change, we've been told, is not a matter of public policy or infrastructure. Instead, it's about convincing individual consumers to reduce their "carbon footprint" (a term coined by BP: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/23/big-oil-coined-carbon-footprints-to-blame-us-for-their-greed-keep-them-on-the-hook).

Yet, right now, millions of people couldn't prepare a slice of toast without causing carbon emissions, even if they wanted to.

In many low-density single-use-zoned suburbs, the only realistic option for getting to the store to get a loaf of bread is to drive. The power coming out of the mains includes energy from coal or gas.

But.

Even if they invested in solar panels, and an inverter, and a battery system, and only used an electric toaster, and baked the loaf themselves in an electric oven, and walked/cycled/drove an EV to the store to get flour and yeast, there are still embodied carbon emissions in that loaf of bread.

Just think about the diesel powered trucks used to transport the grains and packaging to the flour factory, the energy used to power the milling equipment, and the diesel fuel used to transport that flour to the store.

Basically, unless you go completely off grid and grow your own organic wheat, your zero emissions toast just ain't happening.

And that's for the most basic of food products!

Unless we get the infrastructure in place to move to a 100% renewables and storage grid, and use it to power fully electric freight rail and zero emissions passenger transport, pretty much all of our decarbonisation efforts are non-starters.

This is fundamentally an infrastructure and public policy problem, not a problem of individual consumer choice.

#ClimateChange #urbanism #infrastructure #energy #grid #politics #power @green

tldr several BILLION tons per year by 2050! Roughly equivalent to the total mass of all the cars in the world - every year.

In a deal that could be worth $200 million, Microsoft announced that it is purchasing 315,000 metric tons of carbon removal over a multi-year period from climate tech startup Heirloom Carbon. It's one of the biggest deals of its kind, reports The Wall Street Journal (paywalled). GeekWire reports:

San Francisco-based Heirloom is harnessing a geologic approach to catching and holding carbon dioxide. Limestone naturally binds to carbon, but Heirloom's technology dramatically speeds up the process, cutting it from years to days. The startup operates the only U.S. facility permanently capturing carbon. Even more important than the volume of carbon to be removed is the deal's ability to unlock additional funding and investments to grow Heirloom's business and the sector more broadly.

Microsoft previously invested in Heirloom through its $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund. The new deal represents a financially empowering "bankable agreement," said Heirloom CEO Shashank Samala. "Bankable agreements of this magnitude enable Heirloom to raise project finance for our rapid scale-up, fueling exponential growth like what we've seen in the renewable energy industry," Samala said in a statement. The guaranteed cash flow can facilitate financing needed to build Heirloom's next two commercial sites.

The deal is also "an example of the impact of the Biden administration's 2021 infrastructure bill," notes the report. "[T]he purchase was tied to Heirloom being selected by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of the nation's direct air capture (DAC) hubs. It will receive $600 million of matching funding thanks to the designation."

Credit: https://slashdot.org/story/418838

Studies assessing the effects of biochar used as a soil amendment in agriculture and forestry have indicated variable results, from significant improvements in growth and health to no effect at all. Research into biochar use for trees within the urban landscape is extremely limited. This review is aimed at arboricultural practitioners and professionals involved in urban tree landscape management and provides a critical analysis of the use of biochar to support tree health and establishment. Biochar, specifically wood biomass-based biochar, has the potential to enhance tree establishment and survival. However, considerable variability in the physical and chemical properties of biochar currently limits universal application. Therefore, practitioners should aim to use biochar types suitable for the desired function, such as transplant establishment, remediation of declining mature trees, and pest/disease management. Biochar also represents a promising complementary amendment to more established soil management techniques such as mulching and fertilization, but further long-term studies in a range of conditions typical of urban environments are required to fully understand the effects of specific biochar types on urban trees.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1356760

Lead author Dr. Rajeev Roychand from RMIT University said the team developed a technique to make concrete 30% stronger by turning waste coffee grounds into biochar, using a low-energy process without oxygen at 350 degrees Celsius.

Australia generates 75 million kilograms of ground coffee waste every year-most of it goes to landfills.

Published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, the study by RMIT engineers is the first to prove that waste coffee grounds can be used to improve concrete.

"The inspiration for our work was to find an innovative way of using the large amounts of coffee waste in construction projects rather than going to landfills-to give coffee a 'double shot' at life," said Roychand, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT. "Several councils that are battling with the disposal of organic waste have shown interest in our work."

"The concrete industry has the potential to contribute significantly to increasing the recycling of organic waste such as used coffee."

"Our research is in the early stages, but these exciting findings offer an innovative way to greatly reduce the amount of organic waste that goes to landfill."

"Our research team has gained extensive experience in developing highly optimized biochars from different organic wastes, including wood biochar, food-waste biochar, agricultural waste biochar, and municipal solid-waste biochar, for concrete applications," Saberian said.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/2421501

There seems to be a huge number of miscellaneous projects for a specific type of environmental restoration or some other activity that is specifically aimed at carbon sequestration. For example, seagrass restoration alone has a plethora(1,2,3). Is there a decent list of these projects? I found this cool list of CCS projects(4), but that’s different.

If such a list exists, I have another question: Is there an objective way to compare their effectiveness?

https://www.projectseagrass.org/

https://www.medseafoundation.org/index.php/en/portfolio-ita-2/a-sea-forest-to-save-the-planet/34

https://www.seegraswiesen.de/en/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carbon_capture_and_storage_projects

https://postimg.cc/gallery/KvR33Vh - so you can zoom in if you want.

The Danish EPA gives green light for appli­ca­tion of biochar from sewage sludge for use in farming: Biochar from sewage sludge can now be used as a ferti­lizer.

The EBI calls on the EU Commis­sion to include biochar from sewage sludge in the EU Ferti­lizer Regu­la­tion as an important step towards a safe and sustainable circular economy and agri­cul­ture.

Stan­dard hygie­niz­a­tion of sewage sludge e.g., heating of the sludge to 70°C, does not elimi­nate spores, pyro­gens or pathogens.

Pyro­lysis elimi­nates micro­pol­lut­ants from sewage sludge.

Evidence from the US EPA Office of Rese­arch and Deve­lo­p­ment work with Bioforcetech's commer­cially installed PYREG pyro­lysis plant shows that pyro­lysis at 600°C for 10 minutes and combus­tion of pyro­lysis gases at 850°C elimi­nate PFAS from sewage sludge.

Pyro­lysis elimi­nates micro­plastics from sewage sludgeRese­arch indi­cates that sewage sludge is a sink for micro­plastics and further hand­ling of sewage sludge is critical for poten­tial dispersal.

The phos­phorus present in the feed­stock is retained in the pyro­lysis char. Phos­phorus must be reco­vered from sewage sludge in more and more EU member states so that fields can be ferti­lized with this recy­cled phos­phorus in the future.

Thinning out dead poles in preparation for a flame-shielded kiln burn session.

This particular bamboo is very thin-walled and processes quickly (burns fast). Every few years or so, I thin out the dead poles for another session as I don't use it for anything else.

I wish there just a biochar community, I feel like content like this doesn't belong here?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2582945

TL;DR: New research shows that biochar made from phosphate-poor feedstock encourages much more symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi, compared to biochar made from phosphate-rich feedstock, which encourages very little mycorrhizal symbiosis.

Net Zero is when the bathtub quits overflowing, CDR is how we mop up the water and pump out the flooded basement.

Besides the information in the article, I trialled an earth render (and earth mortar) using biochar as an additive. Here is a picture of an earth oven showing weathering from excessive storms:

Underneath the render are mud bricks also featuring biochar: