Biochar is good for sandy Florida soils

UF researchers find renewable energy leftovers could fertilize, cut carbon emissions

For hundreds of years, farmers in Brazil’s Amazon Basin have hunted through dense jungles for what is called “terra preta” — mysterious plots of super-fertile black soil amid otherwise nutrient-stripped earth. Now, University of Florida researchers have found we can make our own version of the soil’s potent component, a form of charcoal dubbed biochar, from the remnants of renewable fuel production. Whereas the leftovers from the biofuel production would normally need to be treated and disposed of as waste material, biochar can instead be used to augment infertile soil by absorbing pollutants, leveling acidity, improving water retention and reducing the leaching of nutrients. Biochar has another important property — it can be used to sequester carbon and thus reduce emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect. “When you add biochar to the soil, it’s likely that as much as 90 percent of that carbon is still going to be in that soil a hundred years from now if left undisturbed.”

http://news.ufl.edu/2010/09/30/bio-char-bonus/