If you could continually turn a lot of organic material into biochar, you could, over time, reverse the history of the last two hundred years…We can, literally, start sucking some of the carbon that our predecessors have poured into the atmosphere down through our weeds and stalks and stick it back in the ground. We can run the movie backward. We can unmine some of the coal, undrill some of the oil. We can take at least pieces of the Earth and – this is something we haven’t done for quite a while – leave them Better Than We Found Them.” Bill McKibben
PHLUSH researcher Jeff Holiman summarizes biochar’s benefits and its contribution to TPS as follows: “Biochar can be a beneficial for a variety of reasons: potential to provide habitat for soil bacteria and fungi, improve water retention, requiring less irrigation, improve cation exchange properties, binds up some heavy metals (Cu, Ca, Zn), sequesters carbon, etc… It really depends on what type of feedstock is being charred and the conditions of pyrolysis. Because of its affinity for nutrients, it is important to “charge” it with compost. Dr. Ralf Otterpohl et al. outline in Terra Preta Sanitation, acid fermented human excreta and bio-waste is perfect for adding nutrients and life to biochar. In this process waste is transformed into substrates that can further build life in the soil. Compared to aerobic decompostion (thermophillic compost), this process avoids immediately losing much of the carbon in the form of carbon dioxide gas.”