Paulownia, BTC/hydropower, compost w/ sargassum or BioChar?

Apologies but for some reason I can not see or respond to replies to my post.

Jay

That is because there are none, until now.

Maybe you need to start the discussion?   Nit sure what you are looking for honey

Planner, read his title on the first post.

I did. So does he want to discuss the use or can we use it or a new business or who is doing it?   I have no idea!  That is why i suggested he do more than post the subject but actually start the discussion.

My alerts showed me the following but I was unable to locate the reply.

"lennoxnev replied to the topic "Paulownia, BTC/hydropower, compost w/ sargassum or BioChar?" to which you subscribed, on the Dominican Republic forum."

Thank you

Now that is too weird as i get notified in all posts and i don't have that at all. 

I will ping him and ask if he posted! 

I hope you get the conversation you are looking for!

Planner,

I hear and obey !

OK, to get into one facet that subject header: Compost and biochar.

My interest stems from the fact that the DR has two low / no cost biomass feedstocks.  Coir (coconut husks) and sargassum (sea weed) .  Peer reviewed papers freely available looking at the  process and nutritionals / soil amendment values of the outputs.

The DR has a lot of land that has been grazed and cultivated hard.  Turning seaweed into something useful has an organic appeal to me, no pun intended.

Taking a bit further is to potentially  utilize (i need to investigate this more, I have done the work up on more woody mass but not the two mentioned above) coir and sargassum as supplemental feedstocks to produce biochar.

Biochar is a fantastic soil amendment and is produced by the pyrolytic decomposition of plant material. The material is heated to the point where it gives off it's combustible gasses (much as how the Germans powered cars w/ wood gas when petrol was in short supply in WWII) but not consumed by the flame.  You could think of it as a modified charcoal except the surface area is exponentially higher.

The biochar I made from the aquatic weed we have here, salvinia, has over two acres of surface area per ounce.

Why that matters is that plants take in CO2, photos and H2O, do their metabolic magic and pump some of those products out through their roots. On the surface area of the soils in which the roots grow communities of beneficial microbes etc consume what the plants put out and they in turn produce stuff needed by the plant.  Surface area afforded by the growing media means that the more surface area available the more the 'housing space' for the beneficial soil micro-organisms.

A secondary benefit is also enviromental.  As a plant grows it sequesters CO2 but when it dies and decomposes what it has absorbed is released back into the environment, with the mix of CO2 and methane dependent upon the decompositional process.

In the mfg of biochar this trapped CO2 is converted,  stable, elemental carbon so about half of the CO2 that the plant sequestered ends up being taken out of circulation.

You might google it, it's an interesting read.  In particular think of what a simple matter it is to convert a cheap batch process reactor to automated. 

I have a white paper I wrote investigating its application to aquatic weeds and pine tree sawmill waste if anyone is interested.

Kind regards,

JR

It was a suggestion honey and I am glad you took it.   Now this is interesting! 

You are absolutely correct farming here, especially sugar cane, depleted the soil badly!   There is need for what you are discussing.

I can't really offer much to the discussion other than the business end of it!

ALthough not a scientist of any nature, this is interesting. I have utilized my long past experience in farming and feed in places like CYprus and Bosnia. My DIploma Agriculture has proven useful at times. Having seen how the small subsistence farmers do here, I can see why their animals are not. in comparison to Canadian and US standards, healthy looking. THe small pastures, even though they rotate, do not grow fast enough to keep a good level of feed. Having a means to perhaps fertilize to stimulate grass growth that is cheap or free (depending how this is done) might be a means to healthier and better producing animals. AS these farmers can't afford to feed grains, producing faster grass would certainly be an asset - if I am understanding some bottom line uses of what you are speaking of...

I passed this link on to a friend who is in organic farming and knows some of what's currently being done.  I hope he chimes in.

The use proposition is:

1) Self-fund first a composting site, run the metrics, do the math.  Do it all in the context of working for a native Foundation that teaches kids about business and how to start one.  Not looking for free labor, just want to let other learn, win, lose or draw.

2) If that means giving an added value to something that folks (resorts) are paying to throw away then so much the better.

3) As picture becomes more clear investigate the BioChar route as an additional value added with the benefit of being able to label it a GREEN product (waste input and carbon sequestration in the process and just for fun, look on Amazon and see what it sells for.  Oh, about $12 / lb.

Net in last case?  Green product, carbon sequestration, trash into cash, employ lots of folks, remediate soils, any profits go to a non-profit like the one I set up here in memory of my late son (but not MY non profit, and $ goes further in the DR) which, as I have been able to afford it, has been purchasing and giving away 2 year old state of the art laptops at a cost of $75 USD/ea to DESERVING kids.  (Those who were having to stay out of school and were hungry to learn EVERYTHING online.  See Kahn Academy as an amazing, free resource.)

Not looking to make any money AT ALL from this.  Rather I just had to find a reason to live (thus the Jan Alino Reynolds Foundation on Facebook) and as he was doing, do something that was an alternative to:

1) Gov't loaning $ it didn't have
2) To kids who couldn't pay it back
3) To get a degree with which they couldn't make a living.

Hence the interest on cross-pollenation, peer-to-peer teaching and trying to line up the win/wins.

I had the BEST son in the world and I want to make him proud.

JR

I am sorry for your kids and understand your motivation to give back!  You inspire me