GREG MARTIN-BIOCHAR SEQUESTERS CARBON AND BENEFITS SOIL FERTILITY

ENVISION THIS: Harvesting clean energy that saves our forests, helps to reduce climate change, and can be used as a soil amendment.

You can see why our guest, Greg Martin, is enthusiastic about introducing biochar to you and to the world. Biochar is a name for charcoal created by pyrolysis, the direct thermal decomposition of biomass in the absence of oxygen. Biochar is stable, fixed, and 'recalcitrant' carbon that can store large amounts of greenhouse gases in the ground for centuries, potentially reducing or stalling the growth in atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. Its presence in the earth can improve water quality, increase soil fertility, raise agricultural productivity, and reduce pressure on old-growth-forests.

Pre-Columbian Amazonians are believed to have used biochar to enhance soil productivity.  Today biochar is produced through modern pyrolysis processes to obtain an array of solid (biochar), liquid (bio-oil), and gas (syngas) products. We think it is well worth our adding knowledge of this new/old technology to our  “kit” of ways to create a more resilient and Earth-friendly future.