Guidelines for a Safe Biochar Industry/Biochar Characterization Work Group

[Katie Birkhauser]

The IBI (International Biochar Initiative) just posted a draft of the
"Guidelines for a Safe Biochar Industry" document. This document, as
some of you may know, is a result of the Characterization Work Group's
discussions at the U.S. 2009 regional conference.
To check out the document, or join the Characterization Work Group go
to http://www.biochar-international.org/workgroups.
Since biochar quality is extremely variable, in my opinion it is
incredibly reassuring to know that in the future there will be
standards that biochar producers can choose to use as guidelines. As
well as labels that tell the consumer if the product has met these
standards. This is a much-needed system that ensures quality,
although much research is needed to characterize "high-quality
biochar" (i.e. slow/low-temp. pyrolysis, etc.)
I would love to see the Characterization Work Group take this a step
further and create Sustainability Standards as well, where biochar
products can be labeled as "sustainably produced" (i.e. using only
waste feedstocks and not feedstocks grown for the purpose of biochar
production...etc.).

[Stanley Petrowski]

Group, please permit me:

Katie Birkhauser wrote:
> I would love to see the Characterization Work Group take this a step
> further and create Sustainability Standards as well, where biochar
> products can be labeled as "sustainably produced" (i.e. using only
> waste feedstocks and not feedstocks grown for the purpose of biochar
> production...etc.).

A big ditto from the Umpqua! Let's fix the broken parts first. That will
fuel development of the technology and markets and give us time to
narrow down ecologically sensitive methods of management. Ones that all
players will benefit by.
Stan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O O o o ° ° . . >< )))(°>
------------------------------------
Stanley Petrowski
President/Director
South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership
34620 Tiller Trail Hwy.
Tiller, OR 97484
sta...@surcp.org

[John-- PNW Biochar]

Hello all,
We have been working on such "Sustainability Standards" for biochar
production and utilization --please see
http://sites.google.com/site/pnwbiochar/sustainability-protocol
I will also add a link from our PNW-Groups home page...

I introduced this document to the larger group at the Boulder Biochar
meeting and it was taken on as the precursor to a more fully developed
process. On the last day of the conference we received a unanimous
vote of approval from the attendees to continue our work along these
lines.

We are also in the foundation stages of an American Biochar Initiative
(Though we have not completely decided on the name yet) and the
development of this Biochar Sustainability Protocol will be among our
first tasks.

Thank you,
John Miedema

[Katie Birkhauser]

Thanks for the direction to the link. I didn't see it at the top of
the site. This is so encouraging that you all have taken the first
steps to creating a protocol. Nice work. It would be great to hear
about the progress of the formation of the American Biochar Initiative
(or whatever it will be named). This is all wonderful news! Thanks!

On Aug 21, 8:42 am, John-- PNW Biochar <jmied...@peak.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
> We have been working on such "Sustainability Standards" for biochar

> production and utilization --please seehttp://sites.google.com/site/pnwbiochar/sustainability-protocol