Goals

The Charcoalab Project aims to educate people about climate change, the carbon cycle, sustainability and biochar by giving children from all over the world an opportunity to contribute to global reasearch into greenhouse gas emissions reducing technologies. It includes extensive information, links, as well as a fun, kinesthetic educational experiment that demonstrates the long term benefits of the use of charcoal for both soil and plant health.

This project encompasses a variety of curriculum areas including global warming, abrupt climate change, the carbon cycle, the "biochar" concept and the need for the development of new sustainable technologies and research. We hope that it will lead to an interest in research and development at a grass roots level and trigger a global movement towards environmental awareness and sustainability.

The kit

The kit is designed to be a practical, student-based scientific experiment in which participants will attempt to grow 6 sunflowers, from seed, in 6 garden pots. Of these 6 pots, 3 will be control samples (seed and local soil) and the other 3 will contain a quantity of analyzed, temperature and biomass specific charcoal, as well as local soil.

These plants will be maintained and observed, as they develop, by the students who will then submit their results to this website. The experiment will be accompanied by resource manuals for the educator and the participants as well as various materials, links and ideas for additional educational activities related to the project.

Besides providing facilities for the submission of the experiment results, this website will provide links to a variety of associated research groups and websites, and include a page where schools and participants can view their results and those of participating "researchers" around the globe.

Background on charcoal in soil

The motivation for using charcoal in agriculture for both soil amendment and carbon sequestration follows the discovery in the Amazon of large areas of "Terra Preta" or Dark Earth, the most fertile soil man has ever made. It was shown that these soils contain charcoal many times over that of the surrounding areas, and explained the improved quality of vegetation and soil fertility on Terra Preta.

The use of charcoal is raising interest in the international research community and at the beginning of 2007, the newly found group IAI (International Agrichar Initiative) held the first ever conference in Australia.

The SAFFE company recently sent research grade charcoal out to ten of the top universities in the world to start a unified research project promoting the most sustainable and beneficial form of carbon sequestration available on the planet. The Charcoalab Project is a continuation of this effort, of which a participation of children from all over the world is anticipated.

Why is charcoal so beneficial to soil ?

Analysis has shown that charcoal possesses a remarkable ability to hold nutrients in the soil and to retain more moisture. Additionally, charcoal assists in cation exchange capacity and aggregate formation (both critical factors in healthy soils) and in some cases, it has also be found to increase the soil pH. These properties, along with its shelf life in soil, may explain the high productivity of soils enriched with charcoal. However, research still needs to be done to better understand the results of biochar on the quality of soil, and we hope that the Charcoalab Project will contribute to this knowledge pool.

Challenges to overcome

Getting international recognition for charcoal as a method for carbon sequestration has yet to be achieved, although many publications are available online which indicate that the presence of charcoal in the soil (which has improved soil fertility), extends beyond 1000 years.

A key challenge is to get research institutes around the world to elaborate on these findings and push this information forward to governments to get policy, implementation and support for the application of charcoal agriculturally.

Developed countries should also be encouraged to support the renewable production of charcoal in the developing world. Several categories of biomass available in poor regions could indeed be used as feedstocks for charcoal production. Positive results already exist for the agricultural application of biochar from bamboo, coconut shell and agricultural residues such as rice husks, corn stover, nut shells or cotton gin waste.

Our strategy for the promotion of charcoal

If we can get children around the world conduct the same simple pot trials with the same charcoal and submit their findings, we will have a much faster indication of whether there is any potential negative effect of using charcoal in soil or if it is at all beneficial.

The simple submission of a pH measurement of the soil at the start and the end of the experiment, complemented with weekly measurements of the height of the plants and, if possible, with pictures showing the differences between the test and the control plants could give us a clear indication on the impact of using charcoal.

How is the project being financed ?

The potential use of free space for advertisement on the packages of the kits and on the website could be "sold" to private companies or NGO's supporting the project. This could provide the opportunity for foundations and academic institutes to send a message to a mass market, not only for children, but also their parents and the wider public and through associated advertising in media channels.

The kit could also be eligible for environmental education grant funding. Moreover, the promotion of renewable charcoal production from methods like downdraft gasification could, with further research, open the door to emissions reduction credit funding. Another possible avenue of financial support could exist from International "mega" corporations, such as "Virgin" which have committed their profits for the next ten years to climate change solutions.

Finally, the kits could well be adopted and supported by government departments, with the task of promoting environmental awareness, sustainability or simply encouraging kids to pursue careers in the field of science.