Biochar Policy Project

The National Center for Appropriate Technology’s Biochar Policy Project was created in 2019 to support development of a carbon-negative biochar and biofuel industry that creates good jobs and opportunity in rural America, while sequestering carbon and building soil health and productivity.

The project works with farm groups, conservation organizations, soil scientists, farmers, ranchers and foresters that think an important solution can be found in a porous black shred of carbon called biochar.

The project is addressing three critical barriers:

Critical knowledge gaps on biochar must be filled.
Barriers to private investment in launching the industry must be lowered.
A reliable supply chain of sustainable biomass feedstock must be developed.

The project is led by Chuck Hassebrook, who previously served 36 years with the Center for Rural Affairs, including 17 years as its executive director. It is represented in Washington by Bev Paul of Davenport Policy and Ferd Hoefner of Farm, Food, Environment Policy Consulting. Each brings decades of experience, Bev with Gordley Associates and Ferd as policy director and lead Washington representative of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Biochar in Action

Ag solutions company sparks biomass innovation and remarkable success

The fertile farm country of eastern Washington’s Palouse prairie region hosts millions of acres of grains, fruits, vegetables, forage, and forests that support its economy. And one Cheney-based company is increasing the economic value of these…

Stacked lumber with sawdust on the ground around it.

Arkansas carbon venture turns sustainable forestry management residuals into market-ready product

John Reese brings the boundless energy of a born salesman and a passion for every project he does. As general manager of EnviraPAC Monticello, his focus is on a business venture that superheats sustainable forestry management residuals to create…

Father/daughter Team Tackles Sustainable Carbon Venture

How one Southern startup recycles farm waste to purify water, build green, and generate power. As an entrepreneur running a business incubator in the Memphis area, Bryan Eagle knew nothing about the organic charcoal product known as biochar.…

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Biochar Research Network Act

The bipartisan Biochar Research Network Act would establish a national network research sites to test the full range of biochar types across soils, regions, and application methods to assess its potential to enhance carbon sequestration, crop production, resource conservation, and agricultural resilience. The research would encompass agriculture, horticulture, rangeland, and forestry, and evaluate a broad range of biochar feedstocks, production processes, and application treatments.

How to Scale Up Sustainable Biochar Research and Commercialization

Publication outlines actions to facilitate the development of a sustainable industry to supply biochar as a crop and grazing land amendment for farmers. Investment in research, production capacity, market mechanisms, outreach, and education will facilitate the broader application of biochar on farms and secure benefits for agriculture along with the delivery of renewable energy as a coproduct.

BIOCHAR POLICY PROJECT AIMS TO SCALE UP RURAL CLIMATE SOLUTION

When added to agricultural or forest lands, biochar can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and improve crop yields on marginal land. The pyrolysis process can produce useable, renewable energy in the form of hot water, bio-fuels or biodiesel. Biochar can help stabilize toxins in mining waste and boost revegetation. Each of these environmental benefits also provide an economic boost and create new jobs in rural America. Read more.

The Promise of Biochar

Soil is the globe’s second largest carbon sink, holding three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Agricultural soil alone holds nearly as much carbon as the atmosphere. But building and maintaining soil carbon is challenging on farmland.

Cover crops add carbon to soil, and no-till farming can slow breakdown of crop residue. Still, the organic matter is largely decomposed in a few years and released to the atmosphere as CO2. As the earth warms, that process will accelerate making it harder to build soil carbon.

Biochar offers more lasting carbon sequestration. It is a form of charcoal produced for use in soil by heating biomass in the absence of oxygen. It is not new. Biochar from prairie and forest fires is a significant portion of the organic matter in most U.S. agricultural soils.

The unique promise of biochar is that it provides “recalcitrant” soil carbon that lasts for hundreds to thousands of years in soil. In addition, appropriately designed biochar can slow the breakdown of other soil carbon. Thus, biochar integrated with other soil building practices may add more to soil carbon than total of each alone. Natural Climate Solutions (Griscom et al.,) ranks biochar first for soil carbon sequestration potential among all agricultural strategies.

In addition, research suggests that appropriately designed biochar can enhance soil health, increase soil water-holding capacity, reduce nitrous oxide emissions, improve forest establishment on degraded land, and increase crop yields. But research results are inconsistentbecause biochar’s characteristics vary based on its feedstock and the process and temperature by which it is produced. To realize biochar’s potential, coordinated research is needed to determine which types of biochar is beneficial in varying soils and circumstances.

There is also great potential to develop a carbon-negative biochar and biofuel industry that creates good jobs and opportunities across rural America. The fast pyrolysis process pioneered at Iowa State University produces not only biochar, but also oil and sugar that can processed into carbon negative biofuels. The fuel can pay for the biochar, and the biochar can make the fuel carbon-negative.

The potential is particularly great in areas with available biomass, such a combustible materials removed from forests, a portion of crop residues from highly productive soils and dedicated grass, and tree crops grown on marginal cropland.

To realize this potential will require supportive public policy – research funding to fill critical knowledge gaps, financing for pyrolysis facilities to produce biochar and biofuel, and market development for biochar-based carbon credits and the biofuels co-produced with biochar.