Jim Miller's List: SYNGAS AND BIOCHAR

• Other announcements from RMBI: The Center for Energy and Environmental Security (CEES) is beginning Biochar greenhouse pot trials to assess fertilizer and biochar interactions. RMBI is proud to announce a recent success and future opportunity from one of our members, Biochar Engineering Corporation (BEC). BEC is an active member of RMBI, providing collaboration and assistance:  BEC has sold its first research unit to a joint BLM/USGS research project that is studying the affects of biochar application in mine tailings reclamation. BEC is taking names for a wait-list for those interested in these mobile units. These mobile units produce 50kg of biochar out of 200kg of woodchips every hour over a range of controllable operating temperatures from 300C-600C. The unit is priced at $50K and will be available in the spring. Please contact lopa@biocharenergy.com.
  
  Are you reading this from the Rocky Mountain Front Range? The Rocky Mountain Biochar Initiative would love to add you to our mailing list and engage you in our online portal. If you are interested send an email to biochar@colorado.edu or contact Jonah G. Levine at 303-492-4178.
  
• Pacific Northwest Biochar Initiative (United States)
  
  The Pacific Northwest Biochar Initiative has been launched in February 2009. A group comprised of academics, researchers, engineers, foresters, farmers, policy experts and business leaders has formed to thoroughly examine biochar and its possibilities for the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is a fertile ground for promoting biochar as an essential tool in the mitigation of global warming and advancing the development of biochar as a soil enhancer. Not only does the PNW have the available biomass to support biochar production, this region has a unique culture of people with the talent and enthusiasm for sustainability, capable of advancing the production, research and utilization of biochar.
  
  This PNW Biochar group has quickly gathered together an amazing brain trust and the represented skill sets could literally design, engineer and implement a vertically integrated sustainability model that treats excess atmospheric carbon as a resource to be harvested and utilized for green carbon reductive thermal energy to drive the retooling of the Pacific Northwest's infrastructure, beginning with putting the carbon back in our soils. Initial goals are to develop sustainability protocols, a field trials network and a PNW conference.
  
  To join the PNW discussion forum, visit http://groups.google.com/group/pnw-biochar?hl=en
  Contact: John Miedema, jmiedema@peak.org, 541-929-5975

• BEC is currently offering clean, low-cost technology to make biochar from waste biomass without energy co-products. These initial units are suitable for converting forest waste into biochar for university and government research; mine tailings reclamation; pine beetle kill remediation; forest fire fuel management; agricultural soil fertility; and within a few years, carbon credits.

    

    Our first field units process 100 kilos of biomass per hour, producing 25 kilos of biochar. Larger units will produce 2-tons per day of biochar. By 2010 we plan to offer containerized units producing a ton an hour. These mobile units can be deployed at the source of the biomass—minimizing transport costs; avoiding carbon emissions from transportation; and in some cases, tipping fees. The US alone generates 368M tons a year of forest product waste, with another 60M tons/year of wood from the Rocky Mountain pine beetle epidemic thus far; along with almost 1B tons of agricultural waste. BEC's ultimate goal is to provide cost effective solutions to transform waste biomass into biochar for soil fertility and atmospheric carbon remediation.

    

   The global carbon market more than doubled to $65B in 2007 and is expected to continue to grow rapidly. The negotiations for a new Post-Kyoto carbon-trading standard in 2012 should include biochar as a key source of high quality carbon-credits. BEC is working closely with the International Biochar Initiative to ensure biochar's recognition in new carbon trading mechanisms. Until that process has been completed, biochar will be a source of voluntary carbon-credits

• Nutrient Management; Pest Management; Prescribed Grazing; and Forage Harvest Management. States must consider using any appropriate practice that meets the resource concern on a particular operation.
• May 11 and May 29. Applications will be ranked at that time

• Promotion of conservation of ground and surface water resources.
• Reduction in soil erosion and sedimentation from unacceptable high levels on  agricultural land.  
• Conservation of ground and surface water resources
• Reduction in soil erosion and sedimentation from unacceptable levels on  agricultural land; and
• Conservation of ground and surface water resources;
• Reduction in soil erosion and sedimentation from unacceptable levels on  agricultural land; and

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• The biogas captured from the digester can be used for fuel in any equipment that normally uses propane or natural gas. These include boilers, heaters, chillers, internal combustion engines or gas turbines used for generating electricity. In addition, heat energy produced by these stationary engines running on biogas can also be captured and put to useful purposes. In some applications, it may be beneficial to the equipment to remove the hydrogen sulfide present in biogas (i.e., “clean” the gas) prior to use.
• Alternatively, the biogas may be cleaned and conditioned (water and carbon dioxide removed and gas compressed) for sale to a commercial gas pipeline. Cleaned and compressed gas can be used in mobile engines configured to run on natural gas or similar fuel.
   
     Furthermore, the methane in biogas captured from anaerobic digestion of dairy cow manure may be qualified to receive carbon credit if it is flared (burned off) or otherwise prevented from emitting into the atmosphere. The global warming potential of methane is equivalent to at least 21 times that of carbon dioxide. This means that preventing one unit of methane gas emission has the effect of reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emission equivalent to a reduction of 21 units of carbon dioxide.