Abstract :
The inspiration for the supplementation of soil with charcoal stems from observations made in the ancient agricultural management practices that created terra preta, deep black soils. These soils, found throughout the Brazilian Amazon, are characterised by high levels of soil fertility compared with soils where no organic C addition occurred (Harder, 2006; Marris, 2006; Lehmann, 2007 and Renner, 2007). One area in the renewable energy renaissance attracting significant attention is the use of biochar produced from the pyrolysis of vegetative biomass. One potential abatement strategy to increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) is to sequester atmospheric CO2 captured through photosynthesis in biomass and pyrolysed into a more stable form of carbon called biochar. Properties of biochar vary widely, depending on the biomass source used and the conditions of biochar production (Lehmann and Joseph, 2009).
Keyword :
Biochar, Breath, Soils