CCC S1E17 with Trevor Richards

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Char Chit Chat

17 episodes

2 days ago

Char Chit Chat is created by Dylan Graves and explores char in New Zealand and beyond. The podcast aims to interview a range of people involved in biochar, activated charcoal, carbon anodes, and so on. The main subject will tend to be biochar as that is most accessible and scales from individuals making char in their woodstove over the winter to large industrial pyrolysis units outputting several tonnes per day. Biochar is also a great soil conditioner and improver and so is relevant to gardeners and famers alike. An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biochar

Education

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Education

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CCC S1E17 with Trevor Richards

Char Chit Chat

48 minutes 41 seconds

4 days ago

CCC S1E17 with Trevor Richards

Trevor is one of the founding members of Biochar Network New Zealand (BNNZ) and the secretary since its inception in 2019. He joined me for a chat and talked about his journey with biochar and many insights into its prevalence in SouthEast Asia and New Zealand.

Another flame cap method using Warm Heart kilns, that I hadn't heard of before, was described in detail and the Warm Heart organisation is doing superb work in promoting biochar in Thailand and in some countries in Africa. Their resource bank is superb. They have provided a way for small holders to earn carbon credits as well through their http://biochar.life/ program which offers a way for individuals or businesses anywhere in the world to offset their carbon emissions by supporting these people on the land to make biochar from ag wastes instead of open burning it.

Trevor also talked about the history of research into biochar in New Zealand and how the The New Zealand Biochar Research Centre came about - it lasted around 10 years. He reflected on 'kicking the tyres' of the pyrolysis machine built at Massey Uni:

Here is the thesis about the machine above: https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/5864/02_whole.pdf and more biochar related dissertations from Massey: https://mro.massey.ac.nz/browse/subject?value=Biochar&bbm.return=1 - there is not much left online about the The New Zealand Biochar Research Centre. Auckland and Lincoln universities also do biochar research, but it is difficult to find info on their websites.

Trevor outlines many areas of society where biochar could complement - a long list - and where BNNZ could engage if it had more resources (both people and funds).

I enjoyed Trevor's obvious passion, dedication, and simple tips such as matching the char method to the biomass resource at hand...