The eco-friendly charcoal known as biochar is one of the best things you can add to your soil. From a microbial to a global perspective, it’s an all-round winner:
- It increases the number of beneficial bacteria that are essential to soil and plant health.
- It improves water retention and the soil’s ability to hold onto essential nutrients.
- It moderates soil’s acidity.
- It reduces the leaching of nitrogen into ground water and the releasing of dangerous CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions into the atmosphere.
All this makes biochar a precious commodity in the fight to regenerate our soil in the face of its depleting health globally. But, believe it or not, biochar can do even more than boost soil fertility and sequester carbon in the ground. Here are just four of its other uses…
- Detoxifying cow farts
Yes, you read that right. Research is ongoing, but studies have shown that putting crumbled biochar into cattle feed reduces the methane content of their wind. While this sounds funny, it’s actually an extremely serious issue. The average cow produces between 70 and 120kg of methane each year. With a rising global demand for meat and dairy, this has a devastating effect on our environment. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, methane now accounts for 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions and most of that methane is produced by animal agriculture.
It looks, however, looks like biochar can help. A study by Souphanouvong University in Laos found that by feeding cattle a diet with 0.6% biochar, the cows not only grew 25% bigger on the same amount of food, but also produced nearly a third less methane. In the stomachs of cows reside trillions of special bacteria that assist in digestion (lots more than in humans, which is why they can eat grass and humans can’t). The researchers found that the massive surface area and porous nature of biochar meant it was the ideal place for these beneficial bacteria to thrive. In turn, this meant they could work more efficiently and, thereby, less methane was produced. These biochar-fed cows produced an astounding 29% less methane on average.
- Make buildings more eco-friendly
Two of biochar’s properties are its extremely low thermal conductivity and its ability to absorb water up to five times its weight. These make it a really good material for insulating buildings and regulating humidity.
Biochar can replace some of the sand content in lime and cement mortars. The resulting mix creates indoor plasters with excellent insulation and breathing properties.
The first building built using this biochar plaster was at the Ithaka Institute, a not-for-profit climate research foundation in Switzerland, in 2013. The scientists there are still rigorously testing the biochar plaster, but the results so far are highly promising. It can maintain humidity levels in rooms in both summer and winter. This, in turn, prevents not just dry air, which can lead to respiratory disorders and allergies, but also dampness and air condensing on the walls, which can lead to mould developing. It also absorbs odours, making it ideal for kitchens, bathrooms and public buildings.
Biochar can also be mixed with lime and applied to the outside walls of a building – as a substitute for Styrofoam insulation. Houses insulated this way become carbon sinks, while at the same time having a healthier indoor climate. Should such a house be demolished at a later date, the biochar plaster can be recycled as a valuable compost additive.
- Being used as a medicine
Since the time of the ancient Egyptians, charcoal has been used in medicines. However, in the last 40 or 50 years, it’s been largely forgotten about in the West – except when dealing with cases of accidental poisoning or drug overdose, when it’s used to remove toxins from the body. It’s so good at this because of its capacity for adsorption.
Absorption is the process in which a fluid is dissolved by a liquid or a solid. Adsorption is the process in which atoms, ions or molecules from a substance (it could be gas, liquid or dissolved solid) adhere to a surface of the adsorbent. Biochar’s porous structure makes it a good adsorber of multiple pollutants.
This ability is why it’s actually helpful when it comes to many other health issues, like: acne, digestive disorders, teeth whitening, alleviating hangovers, cleansing mould from the body and relieving insect bites. It can even be used to filter your tap water, removing dangerous chemicals. For more information, please read here.
- Treating waste water
Insufficient access to sanitation and clean water is one of the most prevalent problems for people in developing countries worldwide – and it’s only set to get worse. Due to global population and economic growth, rapid urbanization and climate change, water scarcity is expected to increase in coming decades, particularly within developing countries. The situation is dramatically aggravated by the fact that approximately 2.4 billion people still do not have access to improved sanitation and approximately 90% of the sewage in low-income countries is discharged without treatment into surface waters. Irrigation accounts for roughly 90% of total water consumption in many rapidly developing economies and is seriously compromised by the contamination of water bodies, which leads to widespread diseases in agricultural products.
Scientists have been looking at simple, efficient wastewater treatment systems to help deal with all of these problems. Many have suggested that biochar is a great solution, not least because it can be produced locally from organic waste products or agricultural residues. Because of biochar’s brilliant capacity for adsorption, it is a highly efficient – and low cost – way to treat waste water, by removing toxins and undesirable substances from it before it’s released into wider water bodies.
There are even more uses for biochar than these, which we will blog about another time. Of course, the one most people can easily do at home is to dig biochar into their garden soil – which is why on 1st September we’re launching Sacred Earth’s Biochar Soil Booster, via our online shop (£9.99 for 3kg). More updates on this shortly!
