Charcoal Carbon Sequestration & and Carbon Trade
Christoph SteinerThe University of Georgia, Dep. Bio & Ag Eng.
Avoid Carbon Emissions
About 22% of the world’s total energy are utilized just in the United States, which has only 4.5% of the world’s population (USCB 2007)
North Americans consume more than twice as much energy (per capita) than Europeans (7,943 and 3,773 kg of oil equivalent respectively http://earthtrends.wri.org)
Each year, the USA population uses three times more fossil energy than the total solar energy captured by all the plants in the USA per year (Pimentel et al. 2009)
In the USA, only 1% to 2% home heating is achieved with wood (USCB 1990).
How Much Biomass is Available?
FAO, The State of Food and Agriculture 2007
“Waste Biomass Example Galveston, Tx
http://www.biochar.org/http://www.biochar.org/
Preserve Carbon Stocks in Vegetation and Soil
Picture: Christian Fischer
Sequester Carbon
What is Sustainable Biomass?
Example Slash and Char
1.31 Pg yr-1 (billion tons) of biomass is cleared in all secondary forests (fallow vegetation) (Fearnside 2000, Climatic Change)
Is secondary forest re-growing biomass?
Should forest re-grow and increase the stock in living biomass?
Can living biomass be utilized for biochar carbon sequestration?
Under which conditions? Alternative to fire?
Biochar Production emissions of PIC
Global Warming Potential (GWP)
Emission Factors from Biomass Burning 1
GHG 20 yr 100 yr 500 yr Tropical Forest
Charcoal Making
Agricultural residues
CO2 1 1 1 1580 440 1515
CH4 72 25 7.6 6.8 10.7 2.7
N2O 310 289 153 0.20 0.03 0.071 Emission factors are given in gram species per kilogram dry matter burned.(Andreae and Merlet, 2001)
Biochar Production emissions of PIC
http://www.twinoaksforge.com/ http://www.biochar.org/
How much recalcitrant carbon is in biochar?
PN UNWASHED PN washed PC unwashed PC washed0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
moistureVolatiles dryFixed carbonAsh dry
%
Proximate Analysis 50 C/min to 950C and held for 7 mins
30 – 35%
Keith Harris, [email protected]
30 130 230 330 430 530 63070
75
80
85
90
95
100
PN biochar
PC biochar
Temperature (°C)
Mas
s rem
aini
ng (%
)TGA aliphatic content (200 - 400 °C)PN Char = 4.6 %PC Char = 3.4 %
How much recalcitrant carbon is in biochar?Keith Harris, [email protected]
Half-life of biochar?
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 4000
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
PN 44PC 44PN 22PC 22Control
Days
C m
iner
alize
d (m
g kg
soil-
1)Keith Harris, [email protected]
Trade in Emissions Reducations Is biochar different?
Is the carbon value of biochar more than that of charcoal used to substitute fossil fuel?
Additionality? Is biochar additional as it will always compete with charcoal?
How to provide access to carbon credits for small scale projects (small farmers)?
Photo: Biocharfund
How to provide access to carbon credits for small scale projects (small farmers)?Aggregated transaction costs are currently averaging about $200,000 per project. (UNDP, CDM User’s Guide)