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Interest is
building in this concept. One organization is proposing a process which
produces charcoal based fertilizer and hydrogen fuel from agricultural
wastes. This could include a wide range of materials including waste wood,
straw, manure, and sewage sludge.
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This appears to
be another opportunity to integrate energy production with greenhouse gas
management. Energy will be required to
produce charcoal.
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An earlier slide
indicates humans are responsible for agriculture and forestry activity which
absorbs 24 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually. The use of
a small fraction in this kind of process could take care of the 6 billion
tonnes from fossil fuel combustion while re-building our soil.
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As a mechanical
engineer, my training revolved around burning fossil fuels. I’m excited by
the prospect we may be able to burn fossil fuels to release carbon
dioxide and then partially burn the
plant material produced by it to establish a durable carbon sink which enhances the soil.
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I think we will
be hearing much more about this in coming years.
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