Biochar is not your normal charcoal.

It’s mostly used as an amendment for deficient soils.

It boosts the soil with carbon and provides a home for good microbes to enrich it.

In that sense, biochar is a good product.

But is there any benefit that could arise from its production process?

HEAT

The production of biochar involves heating organic matter under low oxygen.

This process is called pyrolysis.

So what remains after is a hard substance that can withstand heat.

This black matter is what we call biochar or in some quarters, charcoal.

But what happens during this conversion?

VOLATILES

Organic matter such as wood, agrowastes etc contain two types of carbon…

One that easily escapes under heat and the other that is stable enough to remain as the black mass.

So during pyrolysis, the one that easily escapes (also called volatile), is burnt producing heat as the wood or agrowaste is converted to charcoal or biochar.

Now stay with me here…

If these volatile substances produce heat during conversion, is there a way we can store or use up this heat?

TOP LIT UP-DRAFT (TLUD) GASIFIER

This is an innovative stove that efficiently converts dry agrowaste into biochar while at the same time availing the heat from the process for use.

It allows air to flow from an opening below creating an updraft which allows burning of the volatile matter producing heat.

See diagram below.

This heat could be used for cooking as the agrowaste is simultaneously converted into biochar using the same process.

In other words, it’s a system tailor made to capture heat from charcoal production.

So the user benefits on two fronts…

First, uses heat produced to cook…

Secondly uses the biochar (finished product) for farming.

The TLUD stove could be upscaled to an industrial level allowing capture and storage of this heat to drive steam boilers etc.

IN CONCLUSION

The process of biochar production is an opportunity to tap into energy.

Knowing the benefits that biochar avails to us, we could still tap into the heat used to produce it and benefit twice. 

Besides, putting biochar in soil helps put carbon out of our air and that’s good for the climate.

Just sayin.