A new type of "black gold"

Read from this very interesting and educational article, "Can you dig it?" from 28 Feb 09 edition of the FT Weekend Magazine on 'biochar'. Biochar has been touted as one of many panaceas to capture CO2 from the atmosphere, especially when our natural carbon sinks are currently overloaded and unable to cope with increasing CO2 emissions. Some companies are already working on commercialising biochar, which can be easily produced by heating organic materials such as wood, straw or crop waste in the absence of oxygen - a process known as "pyrolysis". The potential of biochar is heavily promoted by the International Biochar Initiative, a non-profit organisation. However, biochar's potential to sequester carbon for long period, and the methods to produce biochar in large commercial scale are still contentious. As it is now, the UK Carbon Trust is unconvinced about the potential benefits and it disallowed companies to include biochar product of pyrolysis as part of carbon savings when these companies apply for funding.

It seems to me that biochar technology is undergoing the same challenge as other sustainable development technologies when they are still new and quantitative methods to prove their long term effects on the environment are often contentious. More work by scientists (to prove the benefits), engineers (to develop large scale production methods) and entrepreneurs (to commercialise the technology) is needed. More critically, governments need to be more open and flexible - they are often the biggest hurdles with conservative mindsets. So, watch this space as I track the development of this technology.