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Image
Black and white image of biochar in a man's hands.

Biochar made of chicken waste and wood chips from Josh Frye’s farm in Wardensville, West Virginia.

Credit: Jeff Hutchins / Getty Images

Biochar

Call to action:

Turn biowaste into biochar, which can last a thousand years, and use it to build soil health and sequester carbon.

Biochar has ancestral roots in the Amazon and Africa, where people have long used charred wood as part of an agricultural practice to create soil called terra preta(link is external), or “dark earth.” Burying biochar(link is external)—essentially charcoal created for purposes other than burning—creates a home for microbes, minerals, and water. In acidic, nutrient-poor, and/or sandy soil, biochar can increase crop yields(link is external) and reduce fertilizer and irrigation needs. Biochar has important benefits for climate change(link is external). It can reduce agricultural greenhouse gases from livestock or soils. Biochar production can avoid emissions from open burning or decay of biowaste from forests or farms. If produced carefully and buried for long periods of time biochar stores more carbon than it creates(link is external).

Nexus Rating SystemBeta

Solutions to the climate emergency have unique social and environmental effects, positive and negative. To develop a broader understanding of the solutions in Nexus, we rate each solution on five criteria.

Sources for each Nexus are graded numerically (-3 through 10), and the average is displayed as a letter grade. You can explore each source in depth by clicking “view sources” below. For more information, see our Nexus Ratings page.

Biochar
7.40
7.09
7.38
7.50
6.00

Biochar

Culture
B+
Women
B+
Biodiversity
B+
Carbon
B
Reference Social Justice Culture Women Biodiversity Carbon
Global meta-analysis reveals positive effects of biochar on soil microbial diversity(link is external) 9.0
Integrating Woody Biochar Women and Youth in Maines Bioenergy Industry: Benefits and Challenges(link is external) 5.0 5.0
Biodiversity and soil health: how protecting one safeguards the other(link is external) 8.0 8.0
Life Cycle Assessment of Biochar Systems: Estimating the Energetic Economic and Climate Change Potential(link is external) 6.0
Implications on Livelihoods and the Environment of Uptake of Gasifier Cook Stoves among Kenyas Rural Households(link is external) 9.0 8.0 9.0
Bolivians Turning Forestry Waste Into Biochar For Indigenous Farmers(link is external) 8.0 8.0
Indigenous biochar program looks at experimental carbon sequestration methods(link is external) 6.0 6.0
Indigenous African soil enrichment as a climate-smart sustainable agriculture alternative(link is external) 8.0 8.0 8.0
Refilling the Carbon Sink: Biochars Potential and Pitfalls(link is external) 7.0 4.0
Stockholm: Worlds First Urban Carbon Sink With Biochar(link is external) 8.0 7.0
Terra Preta and Terra Mulata(link is external) 8.0 7.0
Biochar as a tool for the improvement of soil and environment(link is external) 8.0 8.0
Gender and Improvement of Cooking Systems with Biochar-producing Gasifier Stoves(link is external) 9.0 9.0
Biochar effects on soil biota A review(link is external) 7.0
Gender-based participation spurs pilot biochar industry in eastern India(link is external) 8.0 7.0 8.0
BiocharIs It Time to Give Black Carbon the Green Light?(link is external) 7.0 7.0 8.0
A global synthesis of biochars sustainability in climate-smart agriculture - Evidence from field and laboratory experiments(link is external) 7.0
Gender and Improvement of Cooking Systems with Biochar-producing Gasifier Stoves(link is external) 8.0 9.0
Tribal Womans Participation in Biochar Production and Preservation(link is external) 6.0 6.0 6.0
The Terra Preta phenomenon: a model for sustainable agriculture in the humid tropics(link is external) 7.0 7.0 8.0
Nonprofit finds hope against wildfires with unexpected ally: charcoal(link is external) 9.0 8.0
The Properties of Fresh and Aged Biochar(link is external) 9.0
Identifying Barriers to and Opportunities for Adopting Biochar Production on Working Lands to Reduce Fire Risk and Improve Soil Health in Northern New Mexico(link is external) 6.0 6.0 6.0
Omiti Community Based Biochar Project in Namibia(link is external) 6.0
Biochar: the black gold for soils that is getting big bets on offset markets(link is external) 8.0 7.0
Biochar Production - Project Drawdown(link is external) 6.0
Biochar in climate change mitigation(link is external) 6.0
What is Biochar?(link is external) 6.0
7.4 7.1 7.4 7.5 6.0

Action Items

Individuals

Learn about the potential of biochar and its complexities. Biochar is created by pyrolysis(link is external), a process of heating organic matter to a high temperature while limiting the oxygen that would cause it to burn. The organic matter chars instead, capturing about 70 percent of the original carbon. The resulting biochar(link is external) is porous and attracts substances from ammonia(link is external) to zinc(link is external), making it useful for filtering water(link is external), removing contaminants(link is external), and amending soil. Because it is very stable, biochar can sequester carbon for hundreds or thousands of years(link is external), though its climate impact varies depending on what materials and processes are used to make it.

Use biochar to enrich your garden soils or compost. Look for companies or organizations that specifically use biowaste rather than farmed wood to produce their biochar, such as Rosy Soil(link is external) or Local Carbon Network(link is external). The US Biochar Initiative has a list of North American suppliers(link is external).

Become part of a biochar community with a Local Carbon(link is external) Network to produce biochar, compost it, and use it in community gardens. If you produce five tons of woody waste per month you can become a biochar-producing node. You can also commit to using biochar in your compost and get monthly supplies, or volunteer at a local garden.

Replace your barbecue with a biochar stove for outdoor cooking (not briquettes(link is external)!). Top-lit updraft gasifier (TLUD) stoves have low emissions and are simple to make(link is external). You can also buy different models(link is external) of gasifier stoves(link is external). If you want to produce larger quantities of biochar, see Producers below.

Help research biochar. Citizen science, in which volunteers collect data scientists need, is a powerful tool for better understanding biochar’s complexities.

Groups

Land Managers

Reduce emissions and air pollution by producing biochar with forest thinnings instead of using burn piles. Using simple, portable kilns(link is external) reduces the risk of fire, preserves soils, reduces pollution, and creates biochar instead of ash.

Farmers/Ranchers

Use biochar to improve soil, reduce irrigation needs, and improve plant and animal health. Different biochars(link is external) are effective for different uses. It is important to consider your soil, crops, and the biochar you intend to use when deciding when and how to use it. This synthesis(link is external) is a good introduction to how biochar interacts with soils.

Work with biochar producers or researchers to dispose of crop waste. See Producers below or Land Managers above for examples.

Biochar Producers

Fine-tune biochar kilns to reduce emissions. Methane from some kilns(link is external) can negate(link is external) the short-term effect of biochar carbon sequestration. Make kilns that take into account best practices:

Source your feedstock from waste materials. Life-cycle analysis of biochar showed that biowaste feedstock(link is external), instead of biomass grown for biochar production, is essential to making biochar a negative emissions technology.

Produce and label according to quality and ingredient standards to enable consumers to compare biochars and select the best for their needs.

Adhere to sustainability protocols so your biochar is socially, environmentally, and economically responsible. The US Biochar Initiative(link is external) and the International Biochar Initiative(link is external) both have protocols. Elements include:

  • Greenhouse gas reduction or neutrality through the life cycle
  • Maintaining biodiversity
  • Maintaining food security (not displacing food-growing land uses)
  • Involving local communities
  • Fair labor practices

Perform a life-cycle analysis on your process and be transparent about the results. Only a thorough analysis(link is external) of greenhouse gases from biochar production and use, preferably with standardized methodology, can show that your biochar is truly a negative emissions technology (see Researchers below).

Acknowledge the traditional roots of biochar and explore fair compensation models for Indigenous peoples. The popularity of biochar is based on Indigenous techniques,(link is external) and business models for producing biochar may even capitalize on the term terra preta(link is external). Yet large-scale biochar production(link is external) potentially harms the people who showed the way.

Local Governments

Invest in biochar solutions to handle green waste, draw down carbon, and provide citizens with multiple benefits. Biochar avoids transportation costs and emissions when feedstock is processed close to the source(link is external), so it can be an important climate lever for local governments.

  • Stockholm(link is external) utilizes a biochar plant to use tree trimmings and yard waste to heat homes, then adds the resulting biochar to the soil to absorb stormwater and increase fertility.
  • Minneapolis(link is external) is exploring the feasibility of a local biochar plant and piloting small projects to see how biochar can improve the city, while mixing biochar with compost to improve agricultural production.
  • Boulder County, Colorado, and Flagstaff(link is external), Arizona, are part of a coalition attempting to draw down carbon and put climate solutions in the hands of communities; they see biochar from forest thinnings as one potential solution.

Listen to and work with Indigenous peoples. Indigenous groups in the Amazon(link is external) and in Africa(link is external) have produced dark earths or terra preta for centuries(link is external) by burying the remains from cooking fires in midden with household waste. Their expertise in pyrogenic carbon should be consulted, and they can benefit from truly cooperative research(link is external).

Companies

Invest in biochar solutions for medium- and long-term carbon sequestration. Because biochar can sequester carbon for long periods of time, it addresses the challenge of permanence(link is external) that compromises many nature-based sequestration efforts, including those used by companies to offset greenhouse gas emissions. However, biochar projects must also have additionality(link is external) to be effective (i.e., they need to sequester carbon that was not already being sequestered). Certifying bodies have struggled to create a protocol for biochar projects(link is external), and projects that have been certified do not necessarily provide additionality. However, Charm Industrial(link is external) and Takachar(link is external) are among especially promising projects (see Onsets Nexus).

Governance

Include biochar in organic standards and feed standards. Many organic standards(link is external) support the use of biochar, although they may not have a standard for biochar itself. The EU has strict standards for biochar(link is external) as an animal feed additive, allowing it in organic feed and limiting the amount of heavy metals in biochar as feed.

Support research into biochar as a nature-based carbon capture mechanism. The United Kingdom(link is external) is investing several million pounds into researching biochar in several different land-use cases.

Support potential users and biochar producers entering the market. In an emerging market, biochar producers can benefit from policy, technical, and monetary support.

Learn

Read

Burn: Using Fire to Cool the Earth(link is external) by Albert Bates and Kathleen Draper / Chelsea Green Publishing

Pyrogenic Carbon Capture and Storage(link is external) by Schmidt et al. / Wiley Online Library

Biochar Research: Biochar and the Environment(link is external) by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

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