Offsetting the Man-made Carbon Loop with Biocharcoal

Sometimes the solutions to some of the world’s nagging problems lie in the simplest of things right in front of our eyes. Global warming comes to mind as an ongoing problem for all of us. And as we all know, global warming is caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane and nitrous oxide getting trapped in the atmosphere. So what’s the simple solution I talk about that’s staring us in the face?

It’s called offsetting the Man-made carbon loop. Nature preserves the natural carbon loop quite elegantly. Humans and animals inhale oxygen and exhale CO2. Trees and plants do the opposite by inhaling the CO2 and expelling oxygen. It is a truly symbiotic relationship. We are not as responsible as Mother Nature.

What is the Man-made carbon loop anyway? Well, its really the process of artificially emitting CO2 into the atmosphere and then taking it out of the atmosphere to complete the cycle. We are really good at doing the first part - emitting CO2 into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. It’s the second part that we’re not doing a good job of - taking back all that CO2 from the air. And hence, the loop isn’t closed. And to be honest, I’m not sure of a sure-fire answer of closing the man-made carbon loop. BUT, we can offset the man-made carbon loop by taking away more CO2 from the natural carbon loop.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to use charcoal, but not just any ordinary charcoal. It’s a special type of charcoal called bio-charcoal, and it’s made by burning organic biomass such as woodchips and garden waste in a chamber without the presence of oxygen in a process called pyrolysis. 

This type of charcoal is very high in carbon content and is very porous. But this special charcoal is nothing new. It has been around for many centuries. First employed by the Amero-Indians of Brazil, bio-charcoal was used as a soil fertilizer and enhancer to create a very dark, rich soil called terra preta.

And here’s where the CO2 offsetting happens. In the natural carbon loop, living matter such as plants die and decompose. During that decomposition, CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. However, by burning the dead organic matter through pyrolysis, this CO2 that is normally released gets trapped into the charcoal as pure carbon. The net amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in the carbon loop is decreased.