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Perry Morrow
By Perry Morrow
Graduate Student, Institute for Water & Watersheds, Oregon State University
Biochar is a promising new product for agriculture, stormwater remediation, and other applications, which can store carbon safely away for centuries to come. It is the solid byproduct of the decomposition of biomass (plant material) under high heat with little to no oxygen present.
I created this video to summarize some of the biochar research taking place at Oregon State University and help people understand a little more about biochar and its promising future. The video shows what biochar is and how it is made, its capacity to store carbon, and the biochar research occurring at Oregon State University on issues important to development of commercial markets:
Biochar has the ability to reduce the impacts of climate change by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. As the video highlights, the production of biochar transforms biomass through the pyrolysis process into a stabilized form of carbon (about 25%) which remains in a stabilized form for 500 to 1000 years. Carbon in the stabilized form is not as easily oxidized into carbon dioxide, therefore biomass that has gone through the pyrolysis process releases less carbon dioxide over time. By reducing the release of carbon dioxide from the biomass, sequestered originally from photosynthesis, biochar has the ability to reduce the impacts of climate change.
New video highlights biochar research at OSU — Climate Solutions
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