Christoph Steiner, Bruno Glaser, Wenceslau G. Teixeira, Johannes Lehmann, Winfried E. H. Blum and Wolfgang Zech

Austrian Academy of ScienceUniversity of Bayreuth

Nitrogen Retention and Plant Uptake on a highly weathered central Amazonian Ferralsol amended with Compost and Charcoal

EUROSOIL 200825 – 29 AugustVienna, Austria

• Infertile Soils

•Low CEC

• leaching of mineral fertilizer

• Low soil organic matter contents

→ maximum 3 harvests

→ new burning

Amazonia Ferralsol

Terra PretaFerralsol

Terra Preta de Indio

B. Glaser

Cash crop farming

Irrigated horticulture lawn production

Terra Preta fertility

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Terra Preta charcoal

Terra Preta fertility

Terra Preta research (Glaser et al. 2000)

Terra Preta: CEC = 4,6636 OC - 13,931R2 = 0,8286 ***

Ferralsol: CEC = 0,2166 OC + 4,579R2 = 0,1993 **

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

0 50 100 150OC [g kg-1]

CEC

eff

[mm

olc

kg-1

]

Days after fertilization0 10 20 30 40Am

mon

ium

cum

ulat

ive

leac

hing

[kg

ha-1

]

0

20

40

60

80

100

FerralsolFerralsol + fertilizerFerralsol + charcoalFerralsol + charcoal + fertilizerAnthrosolAnthrosol + fertilizer

LSD0.05

Terra Preta & Charcoal research (Lehmann et al. 2003)Reduced Ammonium leaching

~50% of C remains as charcoal

Amazonia Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn

~2% of C remains as charcoalPhoto: Steve Welch

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Biochar Research Terra Preta Nova

http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Experimental station of EMPRAPA Amazonia Ocidental

Ca. 30km north of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil (3°8´S, 59°52´W; 40-50 m a.s.l.)

Humid tropical climate- 2500mm rainfall yr-1

- mean temperature 26°C

- mean humidity 84%

Research location

FAO: Xanthic Ferralsol

Terra Preta Ferralsol

Clay ~75%N g kg-1 < 2pH 6.3 3.7CEC [cmolc kg-1] 44 < 2P [g kg-1] 2 0.004Ca [g kg-1] 7.8 0.01C [g kg-1] 92 20-25

Zech et al. (1990)

Research soil characteristics (0-0.1m)

Organic Matterials in February 2001:The amount of OM was calculated after the C content and was approximately the charcoal yield of a 10-12 year old secondary forest (Uhl+Jordan 1984, Sanford 1985, Buschbacher 1988, Hölscher 1995)

• Increase Corg by 25% in 0-0.1 m

– Applied OM: Charcoal 11 t / haCompost 67 t /ha

First Mineral Fertilization (MF) in March 2001 : N (30), P (35), K (50), lime (2100)

Research setup

NPK fertilizer & charcoal NPK fertilizer without charcoal

Plants after 55 days

Research results, second harvest sorghum

Research results, cumulative yield

Steiner et al. (2008), Plant and Soil, n=5, means and SE

Second fertilization 15N

• Second Fertilization:April 2002 N (55 kg ha-1), P (40), K (50), lime (430)

• 15N isotope enrichment

• 15N labelled (NH4)2SO4 , 10 atom % 15N excess.

• Mixed in a ratio 1:1 with conventional (NH4)2SO4

Research tracer application

1 Control2 Litter3 Burned litter

4 Mineral fertilizer (MF)5 Chicken manure

6 Compost (CO)7 Charcoal powder

8 CO + MF9 Charcoal powder (CC) + MF10 ½ Charcoal powder + ½ OS

11 ½ Charcoal powder + ½ CO + MF12 Charcoal powder 25% + OS 12,5%

13 Charcoal powder + ½ CO + MF14&15 Charcoal pieces 25% + OS 12,5%

Research setup

Research results, total carbon

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, total nitrogen

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, C/N ratio

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, increased N recovery

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, increased N recovery15

N R

ecov

ery

%

MF

+CO

+CC+½CO + ½CC

+½CO+CC

CO= CompostCC= Charcoal

Sieving

Charcoal Use in Agriculture (Biochar)

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Carbon negative EnergyBio-energy with charcoal carbon capture and storage (BECCCS)

www.biopact.com

Clean and efficient cooking biomass

Robert Flanagan, SAFFE

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Corn cobs biomass/biochar

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Robert Flanagan, SAFFE

200 Mg per day

60-75% BioOil

15 – 20% Charcoal

10-20% Non-condensable gases

Dynamotive fast pyrolysis

3R Agrocarbon European Zero Emission Carbonization Plant - EU FP6 RTD programme

Field demonstration plant in Hungary, Full scale is of 30,000 m3/yr throughput design

UGA Biorefining and Carbon Cycling Program

www.biorefinery.uga.eduwww.biochar.org