News from North American Biochar Conference

The big news from the recent North American Biochar conference (Boulder Colorado) was that Carbon Gold has put forward a methodology to the Voluntary Carbon Standard for carbon sequestration by biochar.

They state:

“The project category applies where it is possible to ensure (for example through optimising the temperature at which materials are pyrolysed) that the pyrolysed residues are no longer prone to combustion or decomposition. The pyrolysed residues will only be considered biologically inert if the volatile-carbon/fixed-carbon ratio is equal to or lower than 50%”.

This method is based on  Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) small-scale methodology AMS-III.L: Avoidance of methane production from biomass decay through controlled pyrolysis. This CDM category is applicable to project activities where it is possible to ensure the pyrolysed residues are no longer prone to anaerobic decomposition. The pyrolysed residues will only be considered biologically inert if the volatile-carbon/fixed-carbon ratio is equal to or lower than 50%.

Concerns were raised about this at the conference. Analysis of biochars produced revealed that few contained a volatile-carbon/fixed-carbon ratio equal to or lower than 50%. This emphasises the need for more rigid and realistic paramters to be established for setting biochar standards.

In the meantime, the fight for the retention of Biochar in Article 134 of the draft text for Copenhagen is still ongoing. Debbie Reed is hopeful that they can managed to keep biochar on the table at the next round of talks.