4.16

Biochar: Reversed Coal Mining to Improve Soils and Locking Away Carbon

In this final step on more sustainable materials made from wood and biomass, we’ll look at how biochar can be an important tool for mitigating climate change on a global level and improving local soils.

Biochar is a lightweight, black, highly porous, and stable form of charcoal made from organic materials like wood, crop waste, or manure. When applied to land, it dramatically improves water retention and nutrient cycling in soil. Its key environmental benefit is permanently locking away the carbon content of the original biomass for hundreds to thousands of years.

The video below explains that biochar, created by heating biomass without oxygen (pyrolysis), is an ancient technique to enrich soil, lock in carbon, and potentially decarbonize modern agriculture.

The following video summarizes the Biochar Demonstrator project, which studies the large-scale use of stable charcoal (biochar) in agricultural land to store carbon for centuries and reduce fertilizer use.

The Biochar Demonstrator project is an ambitious UK research effort applying over 200 tonnes of biochar across test soils. The goal is to prove the material’s viability as a greenhouse gas removal method, as its stable form sequesters carbon for an estimated 100 to 1,000 years. Researchers are testing application rates up to 10 tons per hectare (far exceeding current guidelines), with the target of scaling up to 1 to 2 million tons of biochar production annually in the UK by 2030-2035 to meet climate targets.

Further reading, learning and references

The Biochar Demonstrator https://biochardemonstrator.ac.uk/

Biokol Sverige https://biokolsverige.org/

Wilson Biochar https://wilsonbiochar.com/

Wilson, K. (2024). The Biochar Handbook: A Practical Guide to Making and Using Bioactivated Charcoal. Chelsea Green Publishing https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-biochar-handbook/

Bates, A. (2010). The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change. New Society Publishers https://newsociety.com/book/the-biochar-solution/

© Daniel Mossberg, CEMUS, Uppsala University and Sonali Phadke, studio Alternatives and Stephanie Foote