Resource information
Biochar is the carbon-rich organic
matter that remains after heating biomass under the
minimization of oxygen during a process called pyrolysis.
There are a number of reasons why biochar systems may be
particularly relevant in developing-country contexts. This
report offers a review of what is known about opportunities
and risks of biochar systems. Its aim is to provide a
state-of-the-art overview of current knowledge regarding
biochar science. In that sense the report also offers a
reconciling view on different scientific opinions about
biochar providing an overall account that shows the various
perspectives of its science and application. This includes
soil and agricultural impacts of biochar, climate change
impacts, social impacts, and competing uses of biomass. The
report aims to contextualize the current scientific
knowledge in order to put it at use to address the
development climate change nexus, including social and
environmental sustainability. The report is organized as
follows: chapter one offers some introductory comments and
notes the increasing interest in biochar both from a
scientific and practitioner's point of view; chapter
two gives further background on biochar, describing its
characteristics and outlining the way in which biochar
systems function. Chapter three considers the opportunities
and risks of biochar systems. Based on the results of the
surveys undertaken, chapter four presents a typology of
biochar systems emerging in practice, particularly in the
developing world. Life-cycle assessments of the net climate
change impact and the net economic profitability of three
biochar systems with data collected from relatively advanced
biochar projects were conducted and are presented in chapter
five. Chapter six investigates various aspects of technology
adoption, including barriers to implementing promising
systems, focusing on economics, carbon market access, and
sociocultural barriers. Finally, the status of knowledge
regarding biochar systems is interpreted in chapter seven to
determine potential implications for future involvement in
biochar research, policy, and project formulation.
