Campaigners fuel biochar mission
A campaign to reduce the amount of waste wood being burnt by businesses is gaining momentum, with growing efforts to set up a biochar industry in Tasman district and elsewhere.
Advocates of the process, to turn the wood into charcoal instead, applied to a government fund on Monday for money to look into the feasibility of establishing the industry in the region.
Biochar experts have also set up a workshop in Brightwater for later this month, aimed at educating local orchardists and other growers on how it’s made and the science behind it.
‘‘You could power many projects in the region on the energy that’s tied up in waste wood,’’ the chairperson of Carbon Action Aotearoa Inc, Katerina Seligman said, referring to the waste produced by forestry and orchard industries.
The Motueka-based environmental group is among organisations and businesses promoting the process of turning the wood into biochar/charcoal, as a way to produce fuels while at the same time cutting the greenhouses gases and air pollution caused by burning wood.
‘‘Charcoal is made by heating any plant or animal matter in the absence of oxygen,’’ Seligman said.
‘‘It gives off gases which can then then be fed back into the furnace to fuel the process ... so it doesn’t use any energy, it releases the energy tied up in the feedstock material.’’
About 50 per cent of the carbon remains as charcoal.
Biochar is the name given to charcoal when it is put in the soil, she said.
‘‘Putting charcoal in the soil builds soil structure and stability, increases water and nutrient retention and is a great habitat for the soil microbes.
‘‘Less water is required for irrigation, nutrients don’t end up leaching away into waterways and plants grow better,’’ she said.
A lot of the excess gas generated when turning the wood into charcoal could be condensed into fuel, and the heat produced could also be harnessed, Seligman suggested.
‘‘There’s this huge resource of waste wood in our region that could be used to generate electricity, heat buildings, hop kilns or swimming pools, and produce fuel, sequester carbon and deal with this local air quality problem.’’
The cost of setting up the initial infrastructure would pay off over the first few years, she maintained.
‘‘If we get the money for the feasibility study [from the Waste Minimisation Fund] this year, then the plan would be to apply for much larger funds next year to actually get the machinery required to get started.
‘‘There’s probably at least a million dollars worth of equip- ment that would be required to get this going on a small scale initially.’’
The study would look at whether the machinery could be used in a centralised facility or as smaller, mobile units.
Meanwhile an all-day workshop at Kaimira Wines vineyard in Brightwater on Tuesday May 29 will give orchardists, vineyard operators and other growers the opportunity to learn about biochar and make it themselves with the help of visiting experts, Dennis Enright and Trevor Richards.
A free one-hour introductory evening will also be held on Monday May 28, 7.30pm at MOTEC, Parklands School, Pah St, Motueka. Bookings can be made through www.allblackearthevents.org.nz. For further information call Katerina Seligman on 021 159 0263