Thanks for your very interesting article. I agree that industrial production of biochar would give many benefits. In particular, as you write, it would drive product characterisation and achieve lower production costs. Also benefit from larger capital resources to invest in R&D and specialised high tech equipments, leading to higher biochar quality and achieve greater carbon mitigation.
However, I wonder if promoting and focusing primarily on industrial production capabilities could result in the emergence of a few large corporations having subsequent control over the sector ? Which in turn could harm the development of smaller businesses and entrepreneurs, as they might disproportionately attract investments and have the ability to weight on how future regulations are written.
Moreover, the technological advances made by industrial scale businesses might not benefit to the broader biochar community if they do not disclose their findings.
It is also fair to ask in my opinion, if the the drive for profit of large companies outweigh the original hopes for biochar which is to address the climate crisis and support a sustainable agriculture (amongst many other...)?
Oppositely, if those worries about large scale industries turn out to be true, how could the biochar sector be kicked off ? By funding and promoting local, small entrepreneurs and startups with public and private funding ? Where DIY like projects showed their limits as you demonstrated in your Part 2, there might be a middle ground between back garden experiments and large scale industries.
(note: I have recently discovered biochar, and I have only started to learn about it in the last few weeks. This is an attempt for me to understand the bigger picture you are brilliantly depicting here in accessible terms. Not an attempt to bluntly criticise the ideas in your post. I'd be happy to have further discussions with you.)
Well, enter the charbecue! A simple little unit that burns all kinds of odd organic material - twigs, pine cones, dried weeds, paper etc. You use it to heat you food and you take the remaining char and put it into your soil. Rough and easy but saves a lot on the cost of barbecue charcoal. You get the heat and the soil amendment. Otherwise I agree 100% with what you say. Hotdog!
Thanks for your very interesting article. I agree that industrial production of biochar would give many benefits. In particular, as you write, it would drive product characterisation and achieve lower production costs. Also benefit from larger capital resources to invest in R&D and specialised high tech equipments, leading to higher biochar quality and achieve greater carbon mitigation.
However, I wonder if promoting and focusing primarily on industrial production capabilities could result in the emergence of a few large corporations having subsequent control over the sector ? Which in turn could harm the development of smaller businesses and entrepreneurs, as they might disproportionately attract investments and have the ability to weight on how future regulations are written.
Moreover, the technological advances made by industrial scale businesses might not benefit to the broader biochar community if they do not disclose their findings.
It is also fair to ask in my opinion, if the the drive for profit of large companies outweigh the original hopes for biochar which is to address the climate crisis and support a sustainable agriculture (amongst many other...)?
Oppositely, if those worries about large scale industries turn out to be true, how could the biochar sector be kicked off ? By funding and promoting local, small entrepreneurs and startups with public and private funding ? Where DIY like projects showed their limits as you demonstrated in your Part 2, there might be a middle ground between back garden experiments and large scale industries.
(note: I have recently discovered biochar, and I have only started to learn about it in the last few weeks. This is an attempt for me to understand the bigger picture you are brilliantly depicting here in accessible terms. Not an attempt to bluntly criticise the ideas in your post. I'd be happy to have further discussions with you.)
Well, enter the charbecue! A simple little unit that burns all kinds of odd organic material - twigs, pine cones, dried weeds, paper etc. You use it to heat you food and you take the remaining char and put it into your soil. Rough and easy but saves a lot on the cost of barbecue charcoal. You get the heat and the soil amendment. Otherwise I agree 100% with what you say. Hotdog!