By Bruce Gardiner | Project Director
I went to Praveen’s farm near Banda, India with three skill sets in my quiver. The first one, Solar, I covered in the previous report and now I will describe the second one, Biochar.
Although Praveen has been farming and teaching farmers for over 40 years, Biochar was brand new to him. Biochar is the pyrolysis of organic material into a very stable form of charcoal that can be buried in the soil, where it will help retain moisture and enhance microbial life.
The production of Biochar is similar to that of charcoal, but at a higher temperature and with more control over the pyrolysis process. The goal of charcoal making is to end up with a fuel that contains many combustible gases, whereas the goal of Biochar is to produce a purer form of carbon with almost no gases left inside. And the one extra step to put the" bio" in Biochar is to charge or inoculate it with microbes.
For our first Biochar kiln I chose the 55 Gal drum cut in half style. These drums are available all round the world, but strangely they were hard to find in Banda and a little pricey too. None the less we found two serviceable drums and cut one of them in half. About one third of Praveen's farm is dedicated to fruit trees and this generates quite a lot of pruned braches and dead fall. I had the workers cut up these branches into even-sized pieces so we could control the final quality better.
The technique using this open flame style of kiln is to start a small fire with kindling and when that begins to show signs of turning to ash, put on another layer of chopped branches. When this next layer reaches the early ash stage, another layer is added, and so on until the kiln is full of wood that has been heated in the absence of oxygen, which takes about 2 hours. When the pyrolysis is complete, we quenched the charcoal with water to halt the process. The last thing we want is for the charcoal to turn into ashes!
The final step is to charge the Biochar by mixing it with material rich in microbes such as compost or worm castings. We chose to add it to Praveen's long established compost pile of cow manure and leaves. If the Biochar is not thusly charged, it will tend to attract exiting microbes in the soil, rather than adding new ones.
I sang the praises of Biochar such as its ability to improve soil structure and retain water, as well as to provide a comfortable habitat for countless microbes and enzymes. Although I didn't go through all the benefits, Praveen understood enough to invite me back next year to give some trainings as part of his own teaching schedule.
By Bruce Gardiner | Project Director
By Bruce Gardiner | Project Director
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