Our USDA Climate Smart Commodities project is to establish that biochar production from low-value forest biomass has sufficient financial value to cover the costs of Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) for thousands of acres of the Seneca and Maidu tribal lands in Northern (Allegany) and Pacific (Sierra Cascade) forests, respectively. The primary financial benefit to the forest owners (including governments) is the essentially free TSI for improved climate-smart forest growth for increased later forestry income, plus non-monetary benefits for habitat, biodiversity and fire hazard reduction.

           Biochar is a new 21st Century Climate Smart Commodity. The biochar produced in the project is used 1) to conduct demonstration projects and 2) to help establish market values of biochar as a physical soil-amendment commodity and as a CO2 removal (CDR) commodity.

           Our project is uniquely innovative in eight (8) ways:

           1) use of patented RoCC kilns, with on-site biochar production in the forests,

           2) use of CERCS CharTrac app with blockchain for quality MMRV for CO2 removal (CDR),

           3) use of Baseline Biochar Metrics (BBM) for improved product-quality analyses,

           4) use of pyrolysis safely within burn scars to reduce fire hazards even during fire bans,

           5) use of “standing firewood” in TSI for lower cost and improved drying and storage,

           6) establishing a new forestry business focused on TSI and biochar,

           7) showing how 50% of the short-term CDR of forest growth can be made into long-term CDR via biochar, and

           8) accomplishing this as a profitable and beneficial forestry business that can scale.

Keywords: Timber Stand Improvement RoCC kiln CharTrac Burn Scar Tribal forests In-forest pyrolysis forest fire prevention
References: https://woodgas.com/resources

Woodgas Pyrolytics, Inc, Normal, Illinois, United States
Forester -- Retired, Normal, United States