In the recent past Biochar has become popular among local media. The vernacular media is taking note and recognized the importance of biochar. We are happy that more farmers are showing interest to adopt biochar for management of their soils. About 200000 kgs of biochar compost is adopted by about 200 stakeholders in parts of India, including small and marginal farmers, tribals for horticulture, organisations, institutes and universities. This had been a seven years old Jounery for Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy: learning, understanding, designing technologies for charcoal production, biochar compost preparations, research, studies and developing methods of application. http://biocharindia.com With the support of GoodPlanet.org, France the process of research and dissemination accelerated. Now biochar has become 'biocharculture' with integrated wider applications for co-benefits and value addition.

CNN Biochar coverage

From saibhaskar press

Biocharcoal helps check global warming

From saibhaskar press

From saibhaskar press

From Sai Bhaskar in Press

From Sai Bhaskar in Press

biochar_image: 

Nikolaus Foidl, January, 2012

In a small non scientific trial in my garden i can observe increased resistance against cold. Since 35 days the outside conditions are hovering around - 4 degrees Celsius during the night and 4 degrees Celsius during the day and still all the char plus trace minerals and salicylic acid treated plants are growing and flowering. There are rosemary,sage,roses,perennial flowers strawberries etc. I get fruits on the strawberries and they continue flowering. As well the rose is flowering and new flowerpots are growing. It seems that char with mineral mix and salicylic acid increases frost or cold resistance. In 3 of the foots you can see the through where i did not apply and there only the winter hardy evergreens are surviving, the rose died and the rest of the plants are dead or dormant as well. I in general observed increased drought, heat and cold resistant with this mix. Might be of interest for the char community.
with my best regards Nikolaus

biochar_image: 

From Karl J. Frogner,Dacember, 2011

6 Dec ‘11
Ulaanbaatar

E, Kelpie, aloha kaua-

It is nice to see your interest in JR Ovens and particularly in getting them on the open source page. I think that they are destined to become the arch-typical biochar oven (Biochar ovens http://www.biochar-international.org/technology/production). And I think they are destined to play a big role in meeting biochar’s potential in climate change mitigation from thinly distributed feedstock (http://www.biochar-international.org/regional/ubi July update). I would hate to see any commercial impediments do to profiteering holding back implementation, though it would be nice to see some well made ‘back yard’ ovens on the market for urban/suburban yard trimmings.

I have been floating the idea of beginning a virtual UBI-sib to collect organized data, such as you are asking for, to be available to facilitate biochar oven development, particularly the JROs. Not the usual blog with the usual suspects pontificating on their usual topics. Answering questions for beginners and exchanging ideas, yes, but mostly a repository for particulars on designs and data on results of controlled tests and general operation. This is NOT something that Thayer should get stuck with maintaining – I’m guessing she has more than enough on her plate already. It would probably need to be moved to its own site with the UBI-sib just serving as a link through as soon possible. Or would the open source technology page be a good place to start it? Or could this biochar-production group develop such a function? Do you know of any bloggers who would like to manage such a site?

A word about nomenclature. Hugh McLaughlin invited me to join him and Paul Anderson at their BEF camp where John Rogers was also in attendance. In the interests of solidarity we settled on the name JR Oven (in honer of John Rogers who did so much to get things started with his TLUD ovens shown in Ann Augustine’s vidio) which yields the convenient acronym ‘JRO’ (pronounced “’j’-ro”).
As to your questions – here is most of what I know:

1. What is the best way to get primary air into the bottom of the drum and the best ways to control it?

I’ve been working primarily with natural draft 200 l JROs for use off grid by 3rd world small holders. My aim was first to develop an experimental ‘frame’ with adjustable primary, secondary air and stack flow in order to determine the important parameters. To that end I began with a set pattern of uniform sized primary air holes in the bottom of the oven to distribute air and a chamber made of 1/3 of a barrel with a port and slip ring arrangement to regulate air flow into the chamber (see pictures on http://www.biochar-international.org/regional/mongolia July update). I’ve never run the ports at anything but full open and so have taken to not using the air chamber, simply setting the oven up on 3 bricks.

The circled square pattern of holes has been modified slightly and standardized with the corners of the square at the rim of the barrel. There are a number of geometric principles that can be used to determine the size of the square, the simplest seemingly is to rap a chord or flexible tape around the outer edge of the barrel and then use it to divide the circumference into 4 equal lengths which determine the location of the corners of the square. Next mark the edges of the square off into 4 equal segments and connect each point to its equivalent on the opposite side. Extend these lines until they intersect the rim or the barrel. You now have a 5 x 5 grid with 25 points where the lines of the square intersect and an additional 12 where the extended lines meet the rim. These are where the 37 primary air holes are drilled on the bottom of the oven. To date I’ve used ½ inch (13mm) holes, but am planning to run tests using sets of 3/8” (9.5mm) & ¼” (6mm) holes to see the effect as well as if multiple small holes (2, 3 or 4) can be substituted at each point for the bigger holes for those who don’t have large drills.

Sorry, I have to catch a plane to the Korea symposium today so I need to break off for now to get ready. I’ll finish up with some more of the primary air options and the rest of your questions as soon as I get a chance.

Me ke aloha-
frog

Karl J. Frogner, PhD, OZP
President & Project Development Head; UB International (UBI)
Project Development Head; Mongolian Biochar Initiative (MoBI)
Project Development Head; UBI Saiam
Project Development Head; UBI Hawaii (UBI HI)
Member, Advisory Committee, International Biochar Initiative (IBI)

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From: Kelpie
To: biochar-production@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, December 4, 2011 3:42 AM
Subject: [biochar-production] Jolly Roger TLUD help

Hi everyone,
I am looking for help in designing and building a 55-gallon drum TLUD based on the "Jolly Roger" design you can see here:
http://www.biochar-international.org/technology/opensource
in the video by Ann Augustine.

This is a simple idea, but I know that many people have tried different configurations and I would like to know what worked best. This is for my own use, but I would also like to post more information on the IBI website on the open source technology page. Here are some questions:

What is the best way to get primary air into the bottom of the drum and the best ways to control it?
What are good ways to provide secondary air?
What is the optimum chimney diameter?
What kind of insulation have people used, if any?
How do these configurations change based on the feedstock used?
What are the feedstock dimensions that work best? This is my biggest question. Will wood chips work or do they pack too tightly? If I add a fan to the primary air source does that make wood chip feasible?
If I have chunks of wood, ie, chopped up sticks or cut up construction waste, what is the optimum size?

Thanks!
Kelpie

--------------
Ms.Kelpie Wilson
IBI Project Development Director
www.biochar-international.org
Email: kelpie@biochar-international.org
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IBI is a non-profit, member-supported organization and is counting on your generous donation to put the Earth Back in the Black!

December, 2011

The Austrialian Department of Agriculture of Fisheries and Forestry has issued a thoughtful summary paper that surveys the existing research on with biochar, and its implications for agriculture and suggests further areas of research.

Download the paper here:
Biochar: implications for agricultural productivity

Paal Wendelobo, from Africa, November, 2011

A common Miombo forest in Africa will give about 3 ton wood per ha a year. 3 ton of dry wood will give 800 kg of charcoal. A household of 5 consume 2-3 kg charcoal a day or about 800 kg a year. To produce 3 kg of charcoal you need 10-12 kg of dry fire wood in a common kiln. That will give one day cooking on a charcoal stove, and almost no biochar. 10-12kg dry chopped wood will give 3 days of cooking on a TLUD-ND or another FES and 2.5 kg of biochar

Energy forestry using just the sprouting every year can give up to 10 ton wood per ha a year, easy to cut to appropriate fuel for TLUD-ND’s or other types of FES. By adding some biochar to soil of bad quality 20-30 % increased yields can be obtained, which will give more food, more household energy, more jobs, better economy, better health for women and children and saving the forest. It can probably be as simple as this and is that not some of what we are looking for and need?

We know some changes have to take place on the household energy sector and we have to start somewhere. Why not start with small scale farmers on sandy soil, and from there develop the new household bio-energy strategy for developing countries. Probably also with the charcoal business, they have the whole infrastructure intact and can easy change from charcoal to alternative biomass like chopped wood or pellets from agriculture and forestry related waste.

For more information about this cooking stoves project see:
http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/content/zambia-peko-pe