<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/netzero-coffee-husks-biochar-climate-reduce-emissions/>
"The waste coffee husks that come out of Synergie Nord Sud (SNS), Cameroon’s
largest coffee-processing plant, are no longer left to gradually decompose in a
landfill.
Instead, these tons of biomass are now transported to a nearby facility where
they are turned into a wonder material that could be key to mitigating climate
change. It’s called biochar, and its multitude of climate benefits — improving
soil fertility, producing green energy, reducing waste, and, most
significantly, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere — have many scientists
describing it as the most advanced, mature method of CO₂ removal we have today.
“It has all these co-benefits,” says Axel Reinaud, founder and CEO of NetZero,
which runs the facility. “They are really complementary and it’s
interdependent… When it comes to carbon removal, it will be the first solution
to reach scale.”
The production of biochar is an ancient farming practice dating back thousands
of years to the fertile Terra Preta soils in Brazil. A kind of black powder, it
is made by heating up organic matter such as wood chips, manure, leaves, or
indeed coffee husks, in the absence of oxygen (to prevent its combustion, which
would emit CO₂) in a process known as pyrolysis. The creation of biochar
removes CO₂ from the atmosphere, and in doing so, turns the natural decay of
organic matter into a carbon-negative process.
For that reason, in 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
classified biochar as a “negative emissions” technology – the type of process
it considers essential if humanity is to limit global warming to 1.5°C above
pre-industrial levels, which would help avoid the worst climate disasters. Of
the estimated 10 gigatons of CO₂ that we need to remove from the atmosphere
each year, biochar could take up 1.36 to 3 gigatons."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
