CU hosts first major 'biochar' conference in U.S.
By Laura Snider, For the Colorado Daily
Posted: 08/10/2009 10:00:50 PM MDT
In the last several years -- as world leaders have continued to debate how to stem the consequences of global warming -- an ancient farming method has begun to gain traction with scientists as a possible new-world solution for climate change.
Thousands of years ago, the indigenous people of the Amazon River basin turned relatively infertile soils into nutrient-rich dirt by adding biochar -- a type of charcoal they called terra preta, which means "dark earth" in Portuguese.
This week, the University of Colorado's law school is hosting the first major biochar conference ever held in the United States. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack gave the keynote address for the conference Monday afternoon.
Biochar can be created when organic materials -- which can include everything from dead trees to corn husks to chicken manure -- are burned in a low-oxygen environment. Without the oxygen, the combustion doesn't create carbon dioxide, and instead, the carbon is trapped inside the biochar.
When spread on agricultural land, the resulting porous chunks of burned bio-matter can help the soil retain nutrients and water. And because the biochar doesn't break down for about 1,000 years, the carbon stays locked away.
"Humble biochar has uncharted potential for capturing and storing carbon dioxide, while simultaneously improving soil fertility and agricultural productivity," Lakshman Guruswamy, head of CU's Center for Energy and Environmental Security, said in a news release.
Still, other scientists have been more cautious in their embrace of biochar.
A study published last year by Swedish researchers in the journal Science found that biochar may, perhaps, found that the extra nutrients in the soils caused an increase in soil bacteria and fungi in the soil.
The microorganisms, in turn, sped the decomposition of organic matter in the soil, which released more carbon back into the atmosphere.
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