The role of biochar in increasing crop land productivity and the removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases

几个世纪以来，各种文明都在使用生物炭来提高土壤的肥力。亚马逊的Terra Pretta(暗土)土壤仍然是世界上最肥沃的土壤之一。在带头申请者农场，20世纪60年代S时期清理了大片林区，人们仍然可以看到火灾现场，呈现出深绿色、更健康的一片片庄稼。生物炭再次受到关注，作为一种将农场废物流转化为生物炭的手段，特别是树木和树篱修剪以及软水果生长基质(椰壳)，否则可能会在农场焚烧或送往垃圾填埋场，转化为生物炭应用于土地。生物炭是一种非常稳定的碳形式，将在土壤中保留几个世纪。当与堆肥或粪便混合时，它会被激活，因为它的数百万个毛孔充满了养分，再次使养分更稳定，更容易被植物利用。这个项目将调查现代生物炭生产设施如何在扭转气候变化和提高肯特和梅德韦地区当地农场土壤生产力方面发挥作用。通过使用创新的等离子生物炭蒸馏器和肯特大学，该项目将展示农场生物炭生产的效率，展示可以从大气中去除多少二氧化碳并将其锁定在土壤中，以及生物炭如何提高土壤肥力和生产力。该项目的创新之处在于，尽管这是一项古老的技术，但目前还没有人将其应用于现代环境。该项目将设法展示如何利用农场生物炭生产来确保更具生产力和气候适应性的农业企业。该项目将对生物炭中埋入土地的碳进行生命周期分析，以及对土壤肥力的好处，特别是对土壤微生物群的好处，以及这如何影响土壤肥力。

Biochar has been used by various civilisations for centuries to increase the fertility of soils. the Terra Pretta (dark earth) soils of the Amazon are still amongst the most fertile in the world. Anecdotally on the lead applicants farm, where large wooded areas were cleared in the 1960's the fire sites can still be seen, showing up as dark green, more healthy patches of crop.Attention is being paid to biochar again as a means to turn farm waste streams, in particular tree and hedge prunings and soft fruit growth media (coir) that might otherwise get burnt on farm or sent to landfill, into biochar to apply to land. Biochar is a very stable form of carbon that will remain in the soil for centuries. When mixed with composts or manures it becomes activated as its millions of pores fill with nutrient, again making the nutrients more stable and more available to plants.This project will investigate how a modern biochar production facility can play its part in the reversal of climate change and increasing productivity of soils on local farms in the Kent and Medway region. By working with an innovative plasma biochar retort and the University of Kent the project will demonstrate efficient on farm biochar production, demonstrate how much CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere and locked into soils and how biochar can increase soil fertility and productivity.What makes this project innovative is that although this is an old technique no one at present has applied it in a modern context. The project shall seek to demonstrate how on farm biochar production can be brought into use to ensure more productive and climate resilient farming businesses.The project will work out the life cycle analysis of the carbon embedded in biochar when applied to land and the benefits to soil fertility and in particular the soil microbiome and how that influences soil fertility.