IBG MEETING ARCHIVES - Illinois Biochar Website

The Illinois Biochar Group met on June 9, 2011, at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbanan-Champaign. The 25 attendees heard talks on the latest biochar work by IBG members, discussed future plans to provide educational webinars for both IBG members and the general public about biochar issues, and explored collaborative efforts for future research and use of biochar and bio-oils.

• Dr. B.K. Sharma of ISTC discussed the results of his work on feedstocks, bio-oils and biochar.
• Dr. Wei Zheng (click to download Power Point presentation and video) also from ISTC presented results of ammonium and phosphate soprtion studies and his IL Dept of Agriculture project field trials showing improved crop yield with biochar mixed in the soil. The best results were with biochar made from corn cobs. Also results indicated that biochar could be used along with 50% less fertilizer to obtain similar corn yields as control with 100% fertilizer. (Click here to download the final report)
• Dr. Krishna Reddy of the University of Illinois - Chicago's work on methane adsorption by biochar looked very promising. Further testing is being conducted.
• Dr. Kurt Spokas of USDA-ARS in St. Paul, MN (click to download Power Point presentation) told about the recent review of all biochar field trial literature that he and his colleagues have completed (200 years of study) and will publish later this year. They looked at different feedstocks, how produced, how long stored, how stored - all of this affects the reactivity of biochar in the soil along with the type of soils, moisture, etc. This literature analysis showed mixed results for biochar improving crop yield; most of the studies were with wood as feedstocks since US Forest Service has been involved with biochar for long period of time. Biochar made from poultry litter can give an increase in crop yield probably due to nitrogen in the litter.
• Dr. Spokas also mentioned the current work of USDA with various field trials all over the country and the USDA-ARS Biochar-Pyrolysis Initiative with 15 locations. He continues to advise caution on the use of biochar in agriculture since each char is different - even when use same feedstock and production method for various batches - and some can cause harm to soils rather than improve fertility. He would like to see more promotion of use of biochar for carbon sequestration.
• Dr. Spokas also stated that the American Society of Agronomy is setting up a Biochar Community which will focus on biochar research. At the ASA conference on Oct. 16-19 in San Antonio, there will be 1 1/2 days of talks and posters presentations on biochar. For more information, visit https://www.acsmeetings.org/home
• Dr. Paul Anderson of Chip Energy, Inc. (click to download Power Point presentation) discussed the progress by IBI on biochar standards and characterization. The Illinois Biochar Group talked about working on developing standards. Dr. Anderson also mentioned his upcoming project which will be bringing cook stoves to Uganda. We discussed the possibility of exploring carbon credits for the producers of biochar there.
• Paul Wever from Chip Energy, Inc. provided demonstrations of one of the Chip Energy cook stoves and also a larger pyrolyzing unit (click here to view the pictures).