WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-What is biochar?

Shelburne, Vermont - April 9, 2010

At one of Vermont's icons of conservation, Shelburne Farms, property caretakers are learning a new word: biochar. "I have very high hopes," says Marshall Webb, the landmark's special projects manager.

Biochar is a better kind of charcoal, made not by burning wood, but by baking it.

Jock Gill, of the Northeast Biochar Association, says, "Vermont could take a real leadership role in adding biochar as one of the regional greenhouse gas tools."

Scrap wood from Shelburne Farms' lumber operation that would have just decomposed and released carbon dioxide into the atmoshpere is instead being smoldered at high temperatures.

The clean process cooks off gases and other materials. A double-boiler type drum prevents the destruction of wood inside it, leaving mostly pure carbon. Biochar makers liken it to a house for valuable micro-organisms.

Eastham, Massachusetts farmer Bob Wells says a 50/50 mix of the carbon and nutrient-rich compost makes for such fertile soil, it has transformed his vegetable farm on Cape Cod. "I grow 10-pound turnips and they sell for $4 a pound," Wells says.

Evidence shows native peoples in the Amazon used the substance centuries ago to enrich their soil to feed a thriving civilization. New grassroots efforts are aimed at showing biochar is not ancient history. "I would love to change that," Jock Gill says.

There aren't many commercial biochar operations. Many smoldering rigs are homemade using old metal drums, and are cheap to run with scrap organic waste, turning a liability into an asset.

At Shelburne Farms, they think the porous black carbon chunks will work well as filters, placed in streams to capture eColi bacteria and phosphorous to prevent the pollutants from traveling in stormwater runoff from barns into Lake Champlain. "We want to teach and demonstrate good stewardship of the land out here," Marshall Webb says.

The "Made in Vermont" biochar is just an experiment at the historic site now, but biochar boosters believe the substance has long-term potential to revolutionize land use. It could produce clean heat while taking greenhouse gases out of the air, and make for healthier farm and forestland, they say.

Biochar is better than black gold, chuckles farmer Bob Wells: "This is more like platinum!"

The project leaders admit it could take years or decades for biochar to catch on, but they point out composting and recycling were once received as new concepts, too.

Click here for more information on biochar.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont