Learning Database

Biochar can benefit your soil, but only if properly prepared prior to application.

Biochar has the potential to sequester carbon and improve the properties of soils when used as an agricultural amendment.

Biochar is made by applying heat to biomass in the absence of oxygen.

One of the most effective and long-lasting ways farmers can move carbon from the atmosphere into the soil is to use biochar. But if it is so effective, why don’t we see biochar everywhere?

In this 48-minute film from NHK World Japan, learn how carbon farmers Gabe Brown in the US, Toshimichi Yoshida in Japan, and others are taking action against the climate crisis by employing regenerative agriculture or carbon farming.

Johannes Lehmann, School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, Soil and Crop Sciences, is leading a revolution.

“Green roofs” are an increasingly popular practice that can accomplish a wide variety of jobs in the urban landscape. Whether you are looking for reductions in utility costs, providing habitat for resident and migrating wildlife, or even utilizing your roof for hyper-local food production—there isn’t much a green roof can’t do. However, that is not to say establishing your aerial Eden doesn’t take a bit of preparation. This publication will talk you through the opportunities to incorporate biochar into your green roof. 

Learn how Biochar Garden Genius, David Yarrow, builds rich garden beds on poor, compacted soils using biochar, minerals and microbes.

This short video from the US Forest Service describes a prototype forest machine that spreads pelleted or bulk bio

The Umpqua Biochar Education Team developed flame cap kilns for an NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant.

Follow Kathleen Draper's biochar home building project to learn more about how she has stashed carbon in every nook and cranny of her new home!

Combined heat and biochar (CHAB) technologies are systems that optimize the combustion of wood residues.

Both compost and biochar production are methods to utilize and recycle organic wastes.

The Scott family in 2012 proposed to build a state-of-the-art manure gasification system - based on the Fischer–Tropsch  process from early 20th century Germany - and to house it in a stand-alone barn.

The Umpqua Biochar Education Team developed techniques for using biochar in composting for an NRCS Conservation Inn

Dr Brandon R Smith, National Program Coordinator for the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) National Soil Health Division, discusses biochar in relation to current NRCS policy in this presen

The Great Lakes Biochar Network aims to be a centralized hub for biochar information relevant to the Great Lakes region. This website offers articles, publications, videos, human resources and a webinar series on biochar topics.

In Brazil's Central Amazonian Basin scientists have studied how these farmers, for thousands of years, have create

This short summary from the National Pesticide Information Center reviews the effects of biochar on pesticides in soil. Biochar can bind to pesticides in soil. The effect of biochar on pesticide residues in soil varies.

This publication from the National Cooperative Extension explains results of a biochar filtration application. The effects of amending sand soil columns with hybrid poplar biochar made by a slow pyrolysis process at 450°C at va

The Biochar Atlas is an online, interactive tool from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service. The tool provides guidance to farmers, gardeners, and other end-users on the potential benefits of biochar.

This basic introductory fact sheet on biochar from the University of Tennessee covers the following topics: Potential Use of Biochar as an Amendment; Biochar Production Conditions Influence Its Properties; Initial Plant Material Affects

Digital version of the USBI Biochar In Compost Fact Sheet created in 2022

Improve compost and save money.

This 7-page fact sheet from the US Forest Service describes several methods for making and using biochar in forest soils and tree nurseries.

Biochar has many uses, including in the production of livestock. The Nebraska Forest Service and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Department of Animal Science have teamed up on two projects to investigate those uses.

Presented on August 8, 2014, by Edward Colosky - Graduate Student at the University of Minnesota in St.

Prescribed burns are a recognized method for building healthy fire resilient forests.  In this March 2021 webinar, the Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc.

This article describes a biochar learning module for students. During the fall of 2013, Cornerstone Learning Community middle school life science students produced 45 kg of biochar in a 55-gallon drum pyrolysis unit.

The Urban Sustainability Directors Network in collaboration with the cities of Boulder, Helsinki, Minneapolis, and Stockholm engaged the Ithaka Institute to develop a high-level overview on the topic of converting urban waste streams int

The top-down pile burning technique is a cleaner burning fire that produces biochar. This guideline gives step-by-step instructions for making biochar in a burn pile.

In this episode of In Search of Soil, we’ll be getting information about biochar straight from a biochar expert, Kelpie Wilson.

In this video,  we show you how to make Biochar Enhanced Compost that can be used to improve soil conditions

This ebook describes a low-cost DIY drinking water treatment system using biochar to remove chemical pollutants.

Conservation Corps putting Research into Action 

Rick Mareske and Regina Compernolle operate The Garden at Dogwood Forest, where they grow fruit and vegetables near Kansas City, Kansas.

The study aims to inform policy for Oregon and stakeholders by evaluating whether large-scale biochar production is technically feasible, logistically scalable, economically competitive, and environmentally beneficial at the landscape sc

Podcast by @DavidLeeButler | Sep 11, 2021 | Podcast | 0 comments

What: A combination of live, online and in-field presentations and demonstrations on making and using biochar on site in the forest and WUI (Wildland Urban Interface). 

Biochar may be useful for restoring or revitalizing degraded forest soils and help with carbon sequestration, nutrient leaching losses, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Follow Kathleen Draper's biochar home building project to learn more about how she has stashed carbon in every nook and cranny of her new home!

Presentation at the Restoring the West Conference, 2019: "Using fire to build soil carbon and water holding capaci

Ideally, in composting you get paid a decent fee to receive, process and create a quality product. But what happens when it doesn’t go quite right ?

In the US, lawns are the largest agricultural crop at approximately 40 million acres and growing. These acres can act as green infrastructure when biochar is used to manage urban runoff and pollution.

Combined heat and biochar (CHAB) technologies are systems that optimize the combustion of wood residues.

Senior research scientist Nick Savidov was the first researcher to suggest using carbonized agricultural by-products known as “biochar” as a soilless medium for the production of greenhouse vegetables.