Permaculture East Bay

There is BIG Difference in that the Bio-Char Process is being done by Gen-Set technology that is engineered to burn any Bio-Mass within a chamber at very low temperatures, collecting all the off gassing, Via methane and powers a 4 kW generator for power, The charcoal can be pelletized and then used as a soil amendment, similar to how Pelletized Organic Fertilizer is used today.

Power, soil building, AND lockin Carbon up in very slow released (700-1000 yrs) pelletized form, Now if we can add some rock
dust to these little pellets we would have a rockin' product.

Jim Founier, founder of Planetwork, hasbeen heavy into this for the last three years as well as some other cheif scintists and at the recent Conference on Climate Change in relations to soil, this was one of the main solutions being talked about, because of it readily wide-spread usablity, Just need to build the Gen Sets and place in small rural communities, whwere the bio-fuel is,
Apreda, out of colorado has been working on this for a number of years and Jim branched off of that project to get Gen Sets actually built and into developing rural communities, they had a test site in Brazil last i heard.

I would hope to get some of our farming communities set up in this way here in California, where we have loads of biomass, farmer's can produce most if not all of the energy for the greenhouses, water pumps etc, via a Gen-set, also sell mass Carbon Credits from the Keyline and Bio-char being done in the fields, Oh yeah Did I mention food.......

This has huge potential and hoping that some of these Bio-Char folks can attend or connect with us durning our KDC here in Big SUr. Nov 30-Dec 4



Penny Livingston posts

Hey there,



Having checked out bio-char and having witness charcoal making, a very smoky operation… I’m just curious about the balance between the carbon released into the air by the charcoal making and the sequestering of the CO 2 once it’s in the soil. What is the difference between “slash and char” and “slash and burn” as it relates to co2 released into the air?

Is there actually a net gain?



Just curious…



Penny



From: fahrer_benjamin [mailto:benja77@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:33 AM
To: eastbaypermaculture@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [eastbaypermaculture] Lovelock's Point




Last Year I was invited to a small talk and discussion with Dr. James
Lovelock,The Earth Island Institute folks were there, along with
about 30 other activists, organizers and philanthropists,We gathered
to see his presentation. At the end many of us stood up to ask Dr.
Lovelock about his stance on some of the issues he suggests in his
latest book, Gaia's Revenge ( see review
http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/1416 ) especially on the points of
Nuclear and GE foods.

His response was a humbled one, he basically stated that he didn't
have the answers and these were suggestions, and at this point we have
to use every angle possible to continue as a species, for we are
headed for collapse. At this point in the game it is about mitigation,
a triage situation, seeing who is going to make it, who we can help,
and who is going to die.

His powerpoint presentation made Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and the
11th Hour look like a walk in the park, In his small english accent he
demonstrated his prediction of Climate Chaos, the heating and cooling
and where their will be areas of Refuge, for species of plants,
animals and people.

The Genie is out of the bottle in so many areas,
Lovelock's was a sobering talk on where that all stands, he ended his
talk with an answer from a person about the concept of Gaia;s revenge
and the attribute's of our amazing planet; He stated that 'We as
people give the planet attributes that are somewhat humanistic, Gaia
is a living, Intelligent, and self-regulating community of being,
however the planet is not a he or she, and does not think, it simple
is and is the true essence of being' * not a direct quote but rather
summarized and of the essence

I am optimistic as Penny is about CO2 sequestration into the soil,
yet not just by Keylining, as the CO2 is not necessarily 'locked' up
in the soil for any major length of time. This is why the Kyoto
protocol does not endorse CO2 sequestering by soils enhancement alone
(although it should using the keyline method, check
http://www.carbonfarmersofamerica.com/ )

What is very exciting is keylining in use with Bio-Char (
http://www.biochar.org/joomla/ ) This technology locks up Carbon for
hundreds of years and add to soil fertility, Combined with the
seeder/fertilizer boot the pelletized Bio-char can be set down into
the soil via the Key-line plow. We were hoping to Demonstrate this in
the Keyline workshop here in Big Sur, yet now we do not have access to
the Yeoman's Plow with these features. Some of the main researchers
and funders were planning to come for a day to see the plow in action,
based on conversations and priming that i have been working on since
last April after Taking Darren Doherty's 6-Day KDC. Penny is fortunate
enough to have the Plow with all it's bells' and whistles for her
course this weekend and I highly recommend that if any of you have a
chance to make this one you should. We do hope to have a plow and do
some amazing implementation here in Big Sur, the first weekend in
December, your last chance this time around with Darren.

Check out
http://www.wiserearth.org/group/keyline
for means to discuss and network around keyline design as well as the
KDC graduate Group within this group for those who have gone through
the KDC training
http://www.wiserearth.org/group/KDCGraduates

Always focus on the positive my fellow permies and look forward to
connecting with you all soon again!
"The land is rich, so we don't have to be"
unity
benjamin