Why the Big Biochar Experiment?
There is increasing interest in the use of biochar as an organic soil enhancer. The first UK Biochar Research Centre was established in Edinburgh in 2008. Since its official introduction into the Climate Change debate at the United Nations Conference of Parties in Poznan, biochar has been hailed as the solution to several environmental problems of our century, including climate change, deforestation and food security [6]. Experiments in tropical and sub-tropical soils have shown that biochar massively increases crop productivity [2]. However, research on biochar in Britain is still in its infancy [5]. Whereas we understand the long term benefits it has had on the Amazonian Terra Preta soils, studies on European soils are just beginning.
Biochar

Biochar is the carbon rich product obtained from heating biomass (e.g. plant waste) in a closed container with little or no available air. In more technical terms, biochar is produced by thermal decomposition of organic material under a limited supply of oxygen (O2), and at relatively low temperatures (<700°C), a process termed low temperature pyrolysis. This produces a highly stable form of carbon, essentially trapping carbon in a structure that prevents its release back to the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. Therefore biochar has potential as a carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation technology as well as providing a sustainable way to restore the soil fertility of existing farmed areas.
Application of biochar to land is not a new concept. Recent research on the dark earths of the Amazon Basin, the 'Terra Preta', has revealed that large applications of charred materials, likely residues from burning biomass, were applied to the soil making them significantly more fertile than surrounding soils that did not benefit from this practice [8, 10]. What the Terra Preta story really tells us is that the future of humanity and this planet could well rest on us re-learning what our ancestors once knew [4].
Application of biochar to land is not a new concept. Recent research on the dark earths of the Amazon Basin, the 'Terra Preta', has revealed that large applications of charred materials, likely residues from burning biomass, were applied to the soil making them significantly more fertile than surrounding soils that did not benefit from this practice [8, 10]. What the Terra Preta story really tells us is that the future of humanity and this planet could well rest on us re-learning what our ancestors once knew [4].