[Sustainable-biodiesel] Another path to sustainability of biofuels

[John Bonitz]

Friends of biofuels,

For those of us interested in production of alternative fuels, much debate
is focused on how much can be harvested without doing too much damage.  The
following paper proposes a fundamental paradigm shift: "The scientific
debate should be focused on how to design integrated agricultural
biomass-bioenergy systems that build soil quality and increase productivity
so that both food and bioenergy crops can be sustainably harvested."

This very interesting paper outlines a vision of carbon sequestration using
charred biomass.  This article was published online a few days ago.  I have
enclosed the citation and abstract.  Those interested in the full text of
the article may find it online here:
http://agron.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/100/1/178

Sincerely,

John Bonitz,
Farm Outreach & Policy Advocate
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
PO Box 1833, Pittsboro, NC  27312
Phone: 919-545-2920
Mobile: 919-360-2492
bonitz at cleanenergy.org


Southern Alliance for Clean Energy promotes responsible energy choices that
create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy
communities throughout the Southeast.  Learn more at
http://www.cleanenergy.org.




Laird, D.A. (2008) The Charcoal Vision: A Win¡VWin¡VWin Scenario for
Simultaneously Producing Bioenergy, Permanently Sequestering Carbon, while
Improving Soil and Water Quality Agron J 2008 100: 178¡V181.

Abstract: 
Processing biomass through a distributed network of fast pyrolyzers may be a
sustainable platform for producing energy from biomass. Fast pyrolyzers
thermally transform biomass into bio-oil, syngas, and charcoal. The syngas
could provide the energy needs of the pyrolyzer. Bio-oil is an energy raw
material (¡ã17 MJ kg-1) that can be burned to generate heat or shipped to a
refinery for processing into transportation fuels. Charcoal could also be
used to generate energy; however, application of the charcoal co-product to
soils may be key to sustainability. Application of charcoal to soils is
hypothesized to increase bioavailable water, build soil organic matter,
enhance nutrient cycling, lower bulk density, act as a liming agent, and
reduce leaching of pesticides and nutrients to surface and ground water. The
half-life of C in soil charcoal is in excess of 1000 yr. Hence, soil-applied
charcoal will make both a lasting contribution to soil quality and C in the
charcoal will be removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for millennia.
Assuming the United States can annually produce 1.1 ¡Ñ 109 Mg of biomass from
harvestable forest and crop lands, national implementation of The Charcoal
Vision would generate enough bio-oil to displace 1.91 billion barrels of
fossil fuel oil per year or about 25% of the current U.S. annual oil
consumption. The combined C credit for fossil fuel displacement and
permanent sequestration, 363 Tg per year, is 10% of the average annual U.S.
emissions of CO 2¡VC.