Viktor J. Bruckman

Opportunities and Uses of Biochar on Forest Sites in North America

Biochar may be useful for restoring or revitalizing degraded forest soils and help with carbon sequestration, nutrient leaching losses, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, biochar is not currently widely used on forested lands across North America. This chapter provides an overview of several biochar experiments conducted in North America and discusses the feasibility of using in-woods mobile pyrolysis systems to convert excess forest biomass into biochar. Biochar may be applied to forest sites in order to positively influence soil properties (nutrient leaching, water holding capacity), but its biggest benefit may be in facilitating reforestation of degraded or contaminated sites, and in sequestering carbon in soils. The majority of data on biochar applications on forest sites focus on seedling responses and short-term impacts on nutrients, soil physical properties and microbial changes. Long-term field research is necessary to determine water use, carbon sequestration, nutrient use, and greenhouse gas emissions, and the subsequent alteration of forest growth and stand dynamics.

Biochar: A Regional Supply Chain Approach in View of Climate Change Mitigation

Biochar systems are designed to meet four related primary objectives: improve soils, manage waste, generate renewable energy, and mitigate climate change. Supply chain models provide a holistic framework for examining biochar systems with an emphasis on product life cycle and end use. Drawing on concepts in supply chain management and engineering, this chapter presents biochar as a manufactured product with a wide range of feedstocks, production technologies, and end use options. Supply chain segments are discussed in detail using diverse examples from agriculture, forestry and other sectors that cut across different scales of production and socioeconomic environments. Particular attention is focused on the environmental impacts of different production and logistics functions, and the relationship between supply chain management and life cycle assessment. The connections between biochar supply chains and those of various co-products, substitute products, and final products are examined from economic and environmental perspectives. For individuals, organizations, and broad associations connected by biochar supply and demand, achieving biochar’s potential benefits efficiently will hinge on understanding, organizing, and managing information, resources and materials across the supply chain, moving biochar from a nascent to an established industry.

Overmature periurban Quercus–Carpinus coppice forests in Austria and Japan: a comparison of carbon stocks, stand characteristics and conversion to high forest

Periurban coppice forests have a long history and tradition in Austria, as well as in Japan. Although developed in a slightly different context, such forests faced nearly the same fate during the last century. While these once served biomass almost exclusively as a feedstock for thermal energy, their significance decreased with the increasing use of fossil fuels and coppice management was consequently abandoned, or these forests were converted into high forests with different management aims. This study tries to assess the status of periurban forests that were previously managed as coppice in a comparative approach between Vienna (Austria) and Tokyo (Japan) in view of rising demands for biomass. The focus is to present stand structure, biomass and C stocks, as well as a comparison with high forest in typical stands close to the urban area. In Japan, we further directly assessed the consequences of coppice to high forest conversion on soil chemistry. While lower diameter classes are dominated by Carpinus, Quercus is only found in larger diameter classes, indicating the overmature character of both stands due to the lapse from a recognized system of coppice management with occasional fuelwood harvesting in the past decades. Total C stocks are comparable, but soil organic carbon is significantly higher in Japanese Andosols. The conversion of coppice to high forest in the 1960s in Japan had a notable impact on soil chemistry in our plots. There may be multiple benefits for restoring coppice management to these periurban forests. This includes increased biomass production capabilities and carbon sequestration as well as a better habitat provision and a higher biodiversity.

The effect of roots and easily available carbon on the decomposition of soil organic matter fractions in boreal forest soil

Summary The priming effect induced by carbon (C) that is easily available to microbes has been shown to increase the mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM) that is resistant to decomposition, but the combined effects of easily available carbon and the living root system have rarely been studied. The aim of this research was to study the decomposition of SOM fractions of different solubility in water and their 13C, 14C and 15N abundance with and without the presence of a living root system and easily available carbohydrate in the form of glucose. The SOM collected from the organic horizon of a boreal forest soil in H yytiälä, southern F inland (61°51′N, 24°17′E), and exposed to laboratory incubations with and without the presence of P inus sylvestris L. seedlings and glucose, was separated into three chemical fractions with accelerated solvent (ASE) and pressurized hot water extractions (PHWE). Changes in the natural abundance of 13C, 14C and 15N, spectral properties assessed by F ourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the C and N pools of SOM fractions were studied after incubation for 6 months. The extractions separated SOM into fractions with distinctive isotopic composition. The most easily soluble SOM fraction showed the largest abundance of 15N and 14C, and the living root system induced changes in the abundance of 15N and FTIR spectra. Our research suggests that plant roots may induce SOM degradation and N uptake from soluble SOM fractions, but 13C, 14C, 15N or FTIR alone cannot be used to describe the recalcitrance of SOM and its accessibility to microorganisms. It is better to use several methods in parallel to study the decomposability of SOM. HighlightsWe studied the effects of tree roots and addition of glucose on the solubility of soil organic matter (SOM).SOM can be separated into pools with distinctive isotopic concentrations with pressurized hot water.Roots may induce organic matter degradation and N uptake from soluble SOM fractions.Larger 14C abundance in soluble SOM indicated it contained older C than the recently assimilated C.

Considerations for Sustainable Biomass Production in Quercus-Dominated Forest Ecosystems

© 2013 Bruckman et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Considerations for Sustainable Biomass Production in Quercus-Dominated Forest Ecosystems

Life Cycle Analysis of Biochar

1 All products including bioproducts have an impact on the environment by consuming resources 2 and releasing emissions during their production. Biochar has received considerable attention 3 because of its potential to sequester carbon in soil while enhancing productivity. In addition, 4 using a renewable source of feedstock to make the biochar is more likely to be sustainable. In 5 this chapter, we discuss the environmental impacts of producing biochar using a holistic method 6 called life-cycle assessment (LCA) or more generally life-cycle analysis. LCA is an internationally 7 accepted method that can calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) and other emissions for part or all of 8 a product life cycle. One huge benefit is that LCA provides metrics to compare alternative 9 substitutable products. For example, using the metrics estimated from a LCA study such as 10 impacts of climate change for a new and current product, LCA outcomes can show which 11 product has less impact on the environment and human health and is more likely to be 12 sustainable. LCA can be thought of as an approach similar to financial accounting but instead 13 focused on the environment. Generally, the following chapter will show how LCA can assess 14 impacts of the entire supply chain associated with all steps of the biochar system, from biomass 15 harvesting to soil amendment with a focus on the biomass thermochemical conversion step. 16 Specifically, a description of how the LCA method was developed and is used will be shown in 17 the context of biochar production. Conducting LCA can capture many direct and indirect effects 18 from the production of fuels and materials used in product production. We will also describe a 19 new advanced pyrolysis technology developed in the United States and used to process waste 20 woody biomass, thus exploring biochar LCA from a forestry perspective. Therefore, this chapter 21 will present LCA mostly from a forestry perspective, although agricultural activities will be 22 discussed. The new pyrolysis technology produces biochar, along with synthesis gas, and we 23 will discuss its environmental performance based on the LCA research conducted so far. 24 25