eGen's Carbon Capturing TM, soil amendment is a biological source of beneficial soil microorganisms, enriched substrates and foods inoculated into the biochar. Research has shown that this formulation allows the microbes to survive harsh soil environments, increase nutrient cycling and improve plant health. eGen's biochar is currently under testing at the USDA for carbon capturing capabilities, and increasing microbiology in the soil. Our soil amendment is available for private testing on crops, with any serious potential purchasers of the machine. If you are seeking to determine the value of our biochar prior to purchase, please contact us for testing by filling out email form on home page.





BIOCHAR:

The process of biochar is based on the synergy among three key insights:

First, recent discoveries have revealed an ancient soil management technique from the Amazon basin. For thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived, civilizations there had buried charcoal in tropical soils to make them productive. Those terra preta, or "black earth," soils still remain bountiful five hundred years later. The charcoal acts like a coral reef forsoil organisms and fungi, creating a rich micro ecosystem where organic carbon is bound to minerals to form rich soil.

To make charcoal, wood is heated with limited oxygen, traditionally in a slow burning heap. With modern technology low temperature charcoal can instead be made by a hybrid pyrolysis process whereby biomass such as wood chips or agricultural waste is heated in a sealed vessel. Once started, this process actually gives off heat while it drives off steam and hydrogen, which can be captured, purified and used for energy. Hydrogen can be used to make transitional fuels such as GTL biodiesel today, or used directly in a fuel cell to make electricity or power vehicles in the future.

Just burying charcoal in the soil is beneficial. Japanese studies have found that adding up to 10% charcoal increases fertility in most soils, but adding even more charcoal won't hurt and if nitrogen is added to the charcoal it produces an even more effective fertilizer. Most fertilizer is currently produced by using natural gas to extract nitrogen from the air to make ammonia, but this releases one molecule of CO2 for each molecule of ammonia produced. Conventional urea based fertilizers, made from this ammonia, also tend to leach out and wash off into waterways, where they become a serious pollutant causing algae bloom and ultimately dangerously acidifying the oceans.

The third breakthrough in creating the process came with the discovery that if ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O), are all combined in the presence of charcoal they will form a solid, ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3) fertilizer inside the pores of the charcoal. About 30% of the hydrogen derived from the biomass will make enough ammonia to combine with all of the charcoal from the same biomass to scrub CO2 flue gases from a power plant, converting all of the ingredients into a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer on charcoal.

The overall process can put almost all of the carbon that was removed from the air by the biomass back into the soil in a stable form, effectively removing net CO2 from the air. When used with biomass and coal, the process will scrub about 60% of the CO2 out of the flue gases from the coal, as well as all of the SOX and NOX, turning these compounds, which would otherwise contribute to acid rain if released into the air, into valuable constituents in the high-carbon fertilizer.

Once buried in the ground, the key to biochar carbon sequestration is the action of Arbuscular Mychoryzal Fungi. AM Fungi are found on the roots of almost all plants where they bring moisture and nutrients through tiny hair-like tubes called hyphae. The hyphae extend out from the root and can reach into tiny pores in the charcoal where dissolved nutrients and moisture are drawn by a static electric charge. The fragile hyphae exude a glue called glomalin to form a protective sheath around them. This binds together tiny particles of minerals with bits of dead organic matter that would otherwise quickly decompose and return to the air as CO2. The hyphae only live for a few weeks, but the glomalin lasts for 40 years, while aggregates made of many layers of glomalin and particles can last for hundreds of years. Aggregates give soil its tilth and account for 80% of the carbon found in soils. Increasing aggregate formation is the key to long-term carbon sequestration in soils.

Any crop grown with our biochar transforms it into a carbon capturing environmentally friendly consumer product. Carbon Capturing bird seed is grown using Egen biochar soil amendment. With proper applications of biochar on crops, a significant reduction in pesticide and nitrogen usage also occurs. This effectively reduces chemical runoff from farmland, which has created enormous environmental problems for terrestrial and marine life globally. By reducing runoff and creating a healthier ecosystem, we increase wildlife habitat especially for birds living adjacent to or on farmland. The migratory patterns and food supplies of birds have already been seriously affected by the climate change. In order to assist birds survive we are creating additional food supplies and creating new wildlife habitat areas suitable in wetland and farmlands alike. As a wholesale provider, Egen will grow and distribute our bird seed through environmental organizations committed to wildlife habitat conservation. In this way environmental organizations can help increase revenues, wildlife habitat, education and membership. Finally 1% of proceeds generated from sales of bird seed will fund additional wildlife habitat conservation. Interested NGO's please email request to: John.Gelwicks@eGenIndustries.com