Deployed at a global scale, biochar could potentially restore the carbon balance in the atmosphere. BEC's ultimate vision is to provide the fuel and fertilizer necessary to make closed-loop agriculture possible. This will promote food security—improving soil structure, water-holding capacity and drought resistance, along with soil fertility—while also removing net carbon from the atmosphere.
BEC currently offers clean, low-cost technology to make biochar from waste biomass without energy co-products. These units are suitable for converting forest waste into biochar for university and government research; mine tailings reclamation; pine beetle kill remediation; forest fire fuel management; agricultural soil fertility; and within a few years, carbon credits.
The US alone generates 368M tons a year of forest product waste, with another 60M tons/year of wood from the Rocky Mountain pine beetle epidemic thus far; along with almost 1B tons of agricultural waste. BEC's ultimate goal is to provide cost effective solutions to transform waste biomass into biochar for soil fertility and atmospheric carbon remediation.
The global carbon market increased 84% to $118B in 2008 & is expected to reach $2T by 2020 if the US instates a cap-and-trade program. Biochar will be on the agenda for discussion at the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen this December, which will lead to its potential inclusion as a key source of high quality carbon-credits in the Post-Kyoto carbon-trading framework in 2012. BEC is working closely with the International Biochar Initiative to ensure biochar's recognition in new carbon trading mechanisms. Until that process has been completed, biochar is eligible for voluntary carbon-credits. The carbon in one metric tonne of biochar is equal to about 3 metric tonnes of CO2.