Ancient Process – Charcoal is created
both naturally as a result of vegetation fires and intentionally by humans in burn pits and hand-made
structures.
When charcoal is made
for the purpose of adding it to soil
as an amendment, it’s called biochar....
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Ancient Process – Charcoal is created
both naturally as a result of vegetation fires and intentionally by humans in burn pits and hand-made
structures.
When charcoal is made
for the purpose of adding it to soil
as an amendment, it’s called biochar.
Despite the good things that biochar
can do for soils, making charcoal in
the traditional method is not an environmentally friendly practice.
The first evidence of charcoal made by humans being used as a soil amendment was in
the Amazon Basin of South America over 2,500 years ago.
Archaeological evidence
suggests that ancient people piled and covered wood in earthen pits, then burned it
slowly with limited air.
This method, still used today in developing countries, creates
considerable smoke and releases half the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the original biomass
along with other greenhouse gasses (GHG’s).
That’s not healthy for people or the atmosphere and all that heat (energy) is wasted.
Kiln Technology - Production techniques did not ad
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