With that new whiz-kid wunderkind heading here to helm DNREC, the Beast Who Slumbers has become intrigued at possible ways to turn the First State into Green Acres.
Today, he’s fixated on biochar, a ‘highly-porous charcoal made from organic waste’. When not listening to REM, research scientists at the University of Georgia in Athens are cooking up batches of the stuff:
Biben’s specialty is “Biochar,” a highly porous charcoal made from organic waste. The raw material can be any forest, agricultural or animal waste. Some examples are woodchips, corn husks, peanut shells, even chicken manure.
Biben feeds the waste — called “biomass” — into an octagonally shaped metal barrel where it is cooked under intense heat, sometimes above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the organic matter is cooked through a thermochemical process called “pyrolysis”.
In a few hours, organic trash is transformed into charcoal-like pellets farmers can turn into fertilizer. Gasses given off during the process can be harnesed to fuel vehicles or power electric generators.
To prove that there is nothing new under the sol, South American natives have used charred animal waste and wood to produce what the Portuguese call ‘terra preta’ -or black earth-for centuries.
Delaware’s scientific and economic development communities would do well to explore both the potential uses and commercial opportunities biochar offers. They should do it quickly, lest they suffer from “pyrolysis through ynolysis”.
Which would be ‘the end of the world as we know it.’