What is biochar?

Biochar is a combination or mixture of the char of any biomass with the nutrient source which is required for the plant to grow like compost, manure, urine, poultry litter, FYM Etc. Biochar, also known as “agrichar,” is a relatively stable carbon compound produced by the thermal decomposition of a variety of biomass materials in low-oxygen environments. Biochar is the permanent carbon structure, product of carbonization, made by pyrolysis or heating up the biochar making biomass with limited oxygen. If we heat biomass in presence of open oxygen, all biomass will turn into ash, which is we don’t want to make. The quality of the biochar is very much dependent upon the types of biomass used and production method used.

 

What is biomass?

Biomass of the biochar means that those things or material which is used to make char or biochar. It can be anything which is turned into char like wood, bamboo, rice husk, wood dusk, weeds, etc.

Note: In the above pic, these are only an example of biomass, Biomass can be anything which has been turned into char.

What do we need to make biochar?

To make biochar we can use any biomass which can be turned into char. While making biochar we should be careful about following things about biomass;

1.  Biomass should be dry enough because to make biochar we need heat and drying biomass also needs heat.

   1st is drying up fresh biomass

   2nd making biochar by dry biomass through heat

So to save energy, money, and time you should dry your biomass using natural source of energy: sunlight, which is free of cost. If you don’t have much time then you can use double energy but I don’t recommend it.

2. If you use fresh biomass to make biochar, you will waste heat energy to dry biomass, but with the same heat energy, you can make double quantity of biochar by using dry biomass than fresh.

3. Fresh biomass produces smoke a lot, which is very harmful to human health, animal, and the environment.

So just imagine how much energy, time, money, and environment you can save by using dry biomass than fresh. So I recommend using dry biomass.

Are charcoal and biochar the same? If not what’s the difference between them?

  • Biochar= char which use in the soil in the combination of a source of nutrient
  • Charcoal= char which is used as a fuel, like for cooking, smithing and forging, burning maize, etc.

So overall both are char but the method of use is different.

So Biochar= Charcoal

Biochar = Char + Manure( any source of nutrient)

Char store the nutrient and water ( nutrient are always taken up by the plant in water-soluble form)

Biochar has a very porous structure, there are many pores, a larger surface area in which water and nutrient can be stored and the biochar itself is negatively charged so it attracts positively charged nutrient, like a strong magnet, until it gets saturated and also it can store water double its weight; 1kg of biochar can store 2L of water.

Why do we need to charge biochar? And what does it mean?

Biochar itself is not a fertilizer, It doesn’t have any nutrients. So before the use of the biochar in the field, we need to soak or mix (in moist condition) biochar with nutrients or source of nutrients (it’s called charging of biochar). So to make biochar fertilizer or full of nutrient we need to charge it.

Note; Red dots represent nutrients

Another drop like things represent water droplets

What if we didn’t charge the biochar?

If we didn’t charge the biochar then it sucks all the nutrient around it in the soil and tends to make itself saturated but does not waste the water and nutrient, somehow after reaching the plant root, the plant will take the water and nutrient but it takes some time to reach plant root to the biochar. So we need to charge biochar before applying it.

So to make biochar from biomass to the application process we need to do the following process

  1. Collect biomass
  2. Dry the biomass
  3. By using technique or equipment to turn biomass into char
  4. Charge it, by soaking or mixing up with a source of nutrient
  5. Apply it to the field by different methods.

So, Biochar is like a sponge or cloth, it will suck any nutrient and water around it and make itself saturated by storing. It catches water and nutrient strongly and doesn’t let water and nutrient go out until plant root absorbs from them.

 

what are the differences between ash and biochar?

 

 

To get biochar we just have to burn our biomass?

  • No, if we only burn the biomass we will get only ash, not char.
  • So to make biochar we need to use the technique and equipment which emits very low smoke and gives limited oxygen.