News
Biochar Technologies Powering 11 of the 60 Finalists in the XPRIZE $100M Carbon Removal Competition
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Media Contact:
Wendy Lu McGill, Communications Director
International Biochar Initiative
+1-303-883-1121 | wendy.lu.mcgill@biochar-international.org
Biochar Technologies Powering 11 of the 60 Finalists in the XPRIZE
$100M Carbon Removal Competition
XPRIZE judges selected three biochar projects as Milestone Award winners,
awarding each a $1Million prize.
Washington, DC, US – 04/28/2022 – The XPRIZE $100M Carbon Removal Competition announced the selection of 11 semi-finalists companies or projects using biochar and/or Pyrogenic carbon capture and storage (PyCCS), among 60 finalists selected out of over 1300 submissions. This illustrates that Biochar/PyCCS will be a key technology for urgently needed carbon dioxide removal.
Biochar Industry 2030 Roadmap Launch
Are you confused or unsure of what you can do about Climate Change and ecosystem degradation? Would you like to help in a real and tangible way?
Biochar offers a huge range of benefits for the environment across a range of applications.
In agriculture biochar can:
- Improve soil and animal health dramatically
- Retains water and nutrients in the soil to increase productivity
- Reduces water and petrochemical-based fertiliser requirements
Biochar can also be used in water and wastewater treatment, concrete, roads, plastics, food, health and beauty products, textiles, batteries and consumer electronics, to name a few.
Biochar is a key enabler of the New Carbon Economy we are building and one of its key benefits is that biochar can reduce CO2 emissions by storing the carbon as biochar. Storing carbon in soils or other applications means it does not get back into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.
But there’s a problem
We need to urgently develop the biochar industry to scale the impact of biochar in restoring the environment and capturing and storing carbon to drive us to Net Zero carbon and beyond. The process of making biochar is well proven and this industry is growing rapidly in Europe and China. The challenge is to develop a Biochar Industry RoadMap (for Australia and New Zealand) that allows us to deliver the many benefits of biochar as quickly as we can. You can help by investing in a future that restores the Earth that works with nature.
Here’s what we’re doing about it
ANZBIG is developing a Roadmap aimed at;
- Delivering an overall strategic direction for the biochar industry
- Ensuring the scale-up of capability and capacity
- Supporting market development both here in Australia and New Zealand, as well as globally.
- Build soil carbon
The Roadmap will also;
- Highlight the products, services and benefits available within various markets
- Align biochar’s benefits to the objectives of government, industry and the community at large.
- Define and mainstream the requirements for Carbon neutrality and beyond through clear carbon accounting methodologies and robust verification
You can join us
We are seeking a total of $200K. The funds will be spent to achieve our main objectives;
- Development of a Biochar Industry Roadmap that has full industry engagement and support
- 2 Day Summit with National Awards Ceremony
- Engagement and support from the government
- Identification and promotion of market opportunities for industry and investors.o
How can you get involved?
- Become a sponsor of the roadmap – Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Gold and Bronze sponsorships are available
- Join ANZBIG as a member and your first year’s membership fee will be donated to the roadmap
- Be an anonymous donor
Learn More
- Watch our webinar launch
- Donate via our crowdfunding page or contact Don Coyne at execdirect@anzbig.org for offline donations
- Download our pitch deck for more info
Join us in our Mission: To Net Zero and Beyond!
January Drawdown Newsletter
Happy New Year & Australia Day to all our members and subscribers! It seemed as good a day as any to send out our first Drawdown for 2022, here’s to it being our best year yet! We take a moment to think of the first peoples of our nation who manage the land with respect and make biochar too!
We have an exciting quarter ahead of us including:
- A FREE Month Trial for all new members who join in February, including a FREE Upgrade for existing member referrals
- Our first webinar of the year, ‘Get paid to use bio-products’ is FREE thanks to our sponsor South Pole
Read further highlights, stories and biochar news in our January 2022 newsletter
July 2021 – Drawdown Newsletter
The latest news from the ANZ region and worldwide. Link to Mailchimp Campaign
Biochar to reduce net GHG emissions from New Zealand agriculture
A new report has been prepared for the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. This report is a detailed review of the evidence for the potential role of biochar to reduce net GHG emissions from New Zealand agriculture.
Key topics included in the review are:
- Feedstock guidelines
- Influence of manufacture and distribution on biochar GHG emissions budgets
- Biochar characteristics, certification, and use
- A life cycle assessment of biochar case studies appropriate to New Zealand
- Economic feasibility of biochar case study examples
- Methodologies for accounting for biochar carbon in National GHG inventories
Bloomberg Philanthropies seek EOI’s from City Biochar Projects
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND MATCH FUNDING FOR CITIES TO DEVELOP THEIR
CITY-WIDE BIOCHAR PROJECT
We are pleased to bring to your attention a formal invitation from Bloomberg Philanthropies for cities to apply for support: recognizing that the fight against climate change is more urgent than ever, Bloomberg Philanthropies is inviting proposals from cities to develop city-wide biochar projects. The key points of the attached invitation are below. If your City plan to submit an application, we would recommend you get in touch with Louise Ellaway at Bloomberg Philanthropies at lellaway@bloomberg.org in advance to notify them of your intent to apply. You can also reach out to Louise should you have any questions.
Key points for cities:
- Bloomberg Philanthropies is inviting applications from cities for support to develop their city-wide biochar projects
- Selected cities will receive world-class implementation and delivery support to help develop ideas into realistic plans; technical support to help cities understand how cities can benefit from biochar; and selected cities will be eligible in late 2021 to bid for a range of grants to match their city’s funding up to a maximum of $400,000
- Participating cities will benefit from peer-to-peer support to accelerate their efforts and learn from the success of the Stockholm Biochar Project
- Cities might have been investigating the uses of biochar for a while, or may be making plans as part of a green response to build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic
- Cities are asked to respond to the questions in the attached invitation. In selecting cities, Bloomberg Philanthropies will consider a city’s rationale for developing a biochar project, existing political support for the project, and plans to ensure maximum positive impact for both the climate and residents
To apply on behalf of your city, please submit a completed response via e-mail to Louise Ellaway at lellaway@bloomberg.org no later than 12pm GMT on Wednesday 31 March 2021.
New Biochar technology a game changer for carbon capture market
New England beef producer and process engineer John Winter has built a gasification plant that produces carbon negative fuel and a CO2 sequester called biochar.
As a chemical and process engineer he spent 20 years specialising in chemical looping principles, fluid bed technology and mineral sand applications. Click on Image to read full article.
PRESS RELEASE: Microsoft include ANZ Biochar in mixed portfolio.
Ian Stanley, Director at Rainbow Bee Eater explains how the Echo2 pyrolysis technology works on location at Holla Fresh Herbs in Tantanoola, S.A.
Corporate Tech giant Microsoft have hopped on the steering wheel of the global economy ship by understanding and repairing the effect their business activities have had in the past and are still having on the carbon cycle. We are proud to announce that ANZ Biochar made it into the mix after careful reflection.
The nascent carbon removal industry just had a big pebble dropped into it’s pond that will cause ripple effects right to the edge as they lead the way along with other Fortune 500 Companies such as Stripe, Shopify & Swiss Re to focus on methods and technologies that suck CO2 out of the atmosphere in the short, medium and long term. Biochar was the only medium term solution they chose.
Our colleagues in Europe (Germany & Finland) joined Australia’s ECHO2 pyrolysis technology developed by Rainbow Bee Eater (RBE) and specifically the Holla Fresh Bioenergy & Biochar Project in Tantanoola, South Australia. In any given year from here on in this project is estimated to produce approximately 1000 -1500 tonnes of biochar which equates to 2880 – 4320 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per annum. In this it’s inaugural year, Microsoft purchased 400 mtCO2 from the project.
The Echo2 was originally funded by Alcoa, the Australian Aluminium company as a way of de-carbonising their processes but it didn’t progress to the commercial phase as the company could not produce a clean syngas from it. Former Alcoa Senior Executive Peter Burgess who was also a Director of Rainbow Bee Eater at the time wrote into the contract that they would take over the technology and develop it if Alcoa were not interested. That’s exactly what they did.
Peter travelled to world to see if he could find a pyrolysis technology that could produce a clean syngas suitable to use as a form of bioenergy in commercial enterprises but to his demise was unsuccessful. RBE have spent a now 12 year journey to develop the technology to what it is today.
Protected Cropping is the first industry that has benefited from the Echo2 in ANZ, powering a 1 hectare glasshouse growing herbs for Woolworths, Coles and other produce retail outlets. Holla Fresh Herbs are ideally located halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, servicing both markets.
The carbon removal certificates produced by the Echo2 @ Holla Fresh Herbs were made possible by the world’s first voluntary carbon removal marketplace, Puro.Earth of which the Echo2 is listed as a supplier. This early adopter underwent a rigorous verification process including a life cycle assessment (LCA) to ensure they have removed the carbon from the atmosphere and stored it in soil in the medium to long term for between 100 years up to a millennia. The LCA was carried out by Energy Link Services.
99% of the short term natural solutions Microsoft chose were sustainable tree planting and verified soil carbon projects which highlight three important points. (i) Tree planting & soil carbon are the current cheapest, at scale carbon removal method (ii) TP & SC are short term because there are so many variables to consider when it comes to their permanency such as decay and combustion. (iii) sustainable land management a.k.a. Pyrogenic Carbon Capture & Storage (PyCCS) combined with bioenergy and biochar production is now a solid & secure business activity to be involved in.
Impact investors therefore take note of the safe bet that biochar provides when it comes to carbon removal and carbon accounting. Microsoft have put their money where their mouth is, watch others follow.
Microsoft carbon removal Lessons from an early corporate purchase
For More Information contact:
Don Coyne
CEO @ ANZBIG
execdirect@anzbig.org
+61459175729
Field Workshop Mid North Coast N.S.W.
Last week, ANZBIG delivered a Biochar Workshop by our Foundational Member and Education & Training Co-ordinator, Professor Stephen Joseph PhD AM. The following report was submitted. In this instance, a Pizza Cob Oven was used so that it was fire safe and steel drum retorts were placed inside. ANZBIG aims to purchase a mobile kiln in 2021 for a series of regional workshops or provide a pizza oven. Please send your expressions of interest to hold a workshop to execdirect@anzbig.org
Wherrol Flat & Caparra Landcare Group
11th & 12th December, 2020 at Tinonee, NSW with Professor Stephen Joseph, from ANZBIG
Thanks to Stephen for the presentation of the workshop, his skills to deliver, passion and knowledge of biochar was amazing. We completed an evaluation form at the end of the workshop and every participant gave him the highest assessment. Stephen was able to deliver the information on a farmer level which is important. There was lots of information to take in but combining the theory with the practical aspect kept the participants enthusiastic. Making the biochar was fun, we were put into groups and had to discuss the recipes and make biochar. Different ratios of ingredients were used depending on what use the biochar was intended for. The ingredients varied we had straw, wood chip, chicken manure, crusher dust and red clay. Biochar has many uses could have been, for animal nutrition, growing vegetables, fruit trees/orchards or pastures. We made pizzas in the oven after the biochar and then we got to eat them which everyone enjoyed. Incorporating biochar into your garden/farming system has many health/environmental benefits. It can increase the water holding capacity of soil, stores carbon, increases your yield in production and profit. Biochar is able to lock up heavy metals in the soil so they aren’t plant available, added to water soluble nutrients buffers them, can be mixed with molasses and fed to livestock this enhances their nutrition and when they produce manure dung beetles bury the biochar into the soil. Various designs of retorts were discussed which gave participants food for thought depending on what scale of biochar production they intend to do. I can’t forget to mention Stephen had lots of stories to tell from his experiences throughout the world. Early on in his journey included working with Australian aboriginal people in Arnhem land who taught him a lot about making biochar. We had an educational two days and we would like to have Stephen back again, to encourage others to attend to learn about the various uses/benefits of biochar.
Alison Allan
Biochar In The Vineyard: Building A Foundation For Sustainability
A new article written by Simone Madden-Grey explores the potential benefits for winegrape producers, showcased in the October 2020 edition of Grapegrower & Winemaker.
A piece from the article:
“The growing body of systematic research complements existing anecdotal evidence to create a compelling case for using biochar in the vineyard. Reduced carbon emissions, carbon sequestration, reduction in costs associated with water and fertiliser management, as well as a process that can engage consumers by way of increased environmental credentials all create a strong foundation upon which sustainable practice and policy could be built.”