SeaChar was written up on NationalGeographic.com today: Biochar Cookstoves Boost Health for People and Crops

…

Breathing Easier

Groups like Seattle, Washington-based SeaChar, the recipient of a $72,000grant from National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge initiative, have been testing new variations on clean cookstoves. SeaChar’s Estufa Finca (“Farm Stove” in Spanish) burns biomass cleanly while turning it into biochar. It’s not a fancy apparatus: Fashioned from local materials, its components include a 5-gallon steel paint bucket, some corrugated steel roofing material, and half of a one-gallon tomato sauce can.

Gloria Torres Buitrago’s family is one of 110 households that acquired one of the stoves last year through SeaChar’s Estufa Finca program in Costa Rica’s Talamanca region. Buitrago says the stove has relieved not only the smoke problem in her home, but also the effort required to keep fires burning. “The time and money it takes to get wood has been reduced a lot,” Buitrago said in an interview with a SeaChar staff member, who then translated and emailed her responses. “This time can be used to share with family or just do other things in the garden.” (See related story: “Protecting Health and the Planet With Clean Cookstoves.”)

In addition to wood, the stove burns garden debris, dried animal dung, and food material such as dried corncobs and coconut husks. A family cooking a pot of beans will use 40 percent less wood with the Estufa Finca than with an open-fire stove, said SeaChar President Art Donnelly, who designed the stove. “Those are trees you do not have to cut down.”

Donnelly said tests conducted by SeaChar show a significant reduction in exposure to harmful smoke. “In laboratory testing, these stoves reduced particulate matter emissions by 92 percent and the carbon monoxide emissions by 87 percent as compared to an open cooking fire,” he said in an email. “These two are the big drivers of respiratory disease.”

An Introduction to Biochar Products, Markets, and Opportunities

Monday January 28th from 1:30 – 5:00

A Concurrent Session at the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference

Construction and Engineering Hall, 100 LaSells Stewart Center
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Purposes:

1.      Help participants understand biochar products, their use and value

2.      Foster an informed dialogue about advancing biochar markets in our region

Agenda

1:30-2:00 Welcome and Introduction: Marcus Kauffman—Oregon Dept. of Forestry

Biochar Market Overview: Tom Miles—TR Miles Technical Consultants

• Session overview and expectations—Marcus
• Biochar products, qualities, characteristics, specific biochar qualities for specific uses—Tom

2:00-2:30 Biochar in Retail Garden and Nursery Markets: Renel Anderson—Biochar Supreme and Tom Grissom—International Tech Corporation (ITC)

• Renel will describe Biochar Supreme’s success in using biochar to grow flowers and vegetables as well as their efforts to market biochar for the retail garden and commercial horticulture markets. She will also outline needs for marketing and support in these markets.
• Tom will describe ITC’s experience marketing biochar in the retail garden market and identify ideas for future growth in that market segment.

2:30-3:15 Biochar Integrated with Heat and Power—Jerry Whitfield—Whitfield Biochar, John Meidema—BioLogical Carbon and Dean Foor—EC Oregon, and Neil Walgren—Cool Planet Energy Systems

• Jerry will describe his proprietary technology and applications for integrated production of char, heat, and energy.
• John and Dean will review the integration of biochar production to produce sustainable carbon at the Green Lane Energy anaerobic digestion facility in Junction City, Oregon.
• Neil will summarize their business model and ongoing biochar related research.
• All speakers will address the challenges and opportunities for advancing the biochar market.

3:14—3:45 Networking and Poster Session Break

• Mingling, conversation, and poster review

3:45-4:30 Biochar Application in Stormwater, Commercial Landscaping and Erosion Control:

Robin Cook—Permamatrix, Jeff Hart—Kennedy Jenks, Tom Miles—TR Miles Technical Consultants, and Jim Archuleta—USDA Forest Service

• Robin will describe their recent experience using biochar for road bank stabilization, industrial roof and parking lot drains.
• Jeff will address the opportunities and challenges of biochar in stormwater applications.
• Tom will review the WSU Demonstration Biochar in bioretention facilities for stormwater runoff.
• Jim will provide an update on efforts to coat native seed with biochar to improve germination and plant survivability in burned areas. He will also cover the cooperative research efforts underway with USDA and multiple partners.
• All speakers will address the challenges and opportunities for advancing the biochar market.

4:30-5:00 The Pathway Forward—Facilitated Discussion: Marcus Kauffman—ODF

• Status of current market development efforts
• Feedback on the day’s presentations
• Market development pathway
• Key demonstration projects
• Ideas for moving forward

To register:

Please email contact information to: nwbiocharwg@gmail.com

Admission is FREE

Location and map:

Construction and Engineering Hall, LaSells Stewart Center

oregonstate.edu/conferences/sites/default/files/floor-plans/lasells.html

oregonstate.edu/conferences/lasells-stewart-center

Directions and map: oregonstate.edu/lasells/directions

Parking:

Park across the street in the Reser Stadium parking lot. The campus parking lots are pay lots from 7 am to 5 pm. Parking permits are available from automated kiosks in the lots and from the Parking Services office in Adams Hall, located at 15th & Washington. The full-day (five-hours or more) price is $7, with the parking lot kiosks offering hourly parking passes at $1 per hourly increment for up to four hours.

For more information about the PNW Biochar Working Group or this event please contact:

Marcus Kauffman

Biomass Resource Specialist

Oregon Department of Forestry

541-580-7480

mkauffman@odf.state.or.us

Tom Miles

T.R. Miles Technical Consultants

503-292-0107

tmiles@trmiles.com

The communities of the alta-Talmanca are served by fleets of 6-10 meter dug-out cargo canoes plying a network of rivers.

  2012 has been an amazing year for SeaChar.Org on both the local and international fronts. The Estufa Finca-Talamanca Project in Costa Rica has built and distributed a total of 146 biochar producing stoves since we began stove promotion and training in January of 2012: 110 have been sold to families participating in the Estufa Finca-Talamanca program, 25 stoves sold retail to the local Costa Rica market, 3 stoves are placed for use at community centers (including one in Panama)

6 stoves are being used by Estufa Finca staff/employees for training or demonstrations and we have provided 2 replacement stoves. We have a waiting list for both participation in the Estufa Finca Project and for simply buying a stove.

New cooks in the Estufa Finca Program receive two days of training on their new stoves.

SeaChar employs two local indigenous Bribri women, Viviana Salazar and Sobeida Morales, to handle stove promotion, training and follow-up with their communities, as well as Laura Roldan; a talented, young Costa Rican, as our Field Coordinator. Our innovative community based training program was designed and initiated by former SeaChar Board member Kate Selting and we have been blessed with illustrated training materials drawn by Seattle artist Sara Porter.

The Biochar “Buy-back” program has now completed it’s 7th month. We now have 22 regularly participating households. We have collected 273 feed-sacks of biochar, paying families approx. $5 per sack. This is a total of 2162.5 kilograms = 4767.5 lbs.or  2.4 Tons. This biochar is going in the ground in research and demonstration projects, on cacao farms, in large organic plant nurseries, in two school garden projects, local organic truck gardens and we are pleased to announce we are selling biochar at a dollar per kilogram. We could increase the number of households we are buying biochar from , but as with the unmet demand for stoves we are constrained by a lack of funding.

This finca in Suretka is one of four paticipating in a multi-year study of biochar and cacao led by grad. students from CATIE and supported by SeaChar.Org

The first year of  plot-testing and nursery pot-testing with biochar and organic cacoa was led by Juliano Hojah da Silva. Juliano was a second year graduate student at C.A.T.I.E. (The Center for Tropical Agricultural Investigation and Education) http://globalmdp.org/network/catie  Soil testing and analysis show across the board gains in terms of physical, chemical and biological soil indicators. The same applies to incidence of  fungal disease and harvest-able weight, We will be sharing these results on SeaChar’s web-site in early 2013. In the coming year this line of research will be continued and enlarged in scope to include the interaction between biochar and bananas. We are pleased to announce that C.A.T.I.E. graduate student Jorge Orlando Acosta Buitrago.will be the lead researcher in 2013.

  

All the cooks in the Estufa Finca Program must have their own stove settings built. Families design their own to our safety standards. Our promoters were the 1st to pick up hammer and saw.

Working with a lot of support from the Biochar Company’s Jeff Whallin; SeaChar has helped to form the Char Alliance or CAFT: http://biochar.us.com/244/biochar-bob-and-char-alliance   We will be working together with Carbon Roots International (Haiti) and Eco-Fuel Africa (Uganda), sharing ideas on technology, implementation, marketing and fundraising.

Although much of the attention SeaChar has received in 2012 has focused on the Estufa Finca Project. There have been equally exciting developments in the Seattle area.
I am very pleased to announce that SeaChar is now working with Pacific Bamboo Resources http://pacificbamboo.com/about-the-farm/  and Antioch University to develop six beautiful acres of farmland east of Seattle into Morethana Farm, a permaculture and biochar teaching farm project, This activity has been funded initially with a generous grant from Green Mountain Coffee. SeaChar has worked with these partners to design and teach the first two of three biochar workshops held at Morethana Farm. These have been two-day workshops. We are planning the third for sometime in April, and will focus on inoculation and application of the biochar we are producing at the farm, details will be released soon.  Of course. SeaChar’s educational outreach has continued through the year with multiple biochar/ stove building workshops and community initiatives. My proudest moment was when SeaChar volunteers Larry James and Steve Anderson led an effort to bring Estufa Finca cook-stoves to the inhabitants of Seattle’s Nickelsville, a semi-permanent homeless encampment of over one hundred individuals. Steve and Larry hosted fund raising events that payed for a stove building workshop for cooks at the camp, who are living in conditions as rough as any of the poorest people we have been working with in rural Costa Rica.

SeaChar's Art Donnelly leading the 1st of three 2-day biochar workshops @ Sammamish's Morethana Farm

SeaChar’s work would not have been possible this year without the financial support of National Geographic, the Environ Foundation and countless private individuals. Despite the fact that this support has been significant we are currently facing a $20,000 funding gap from the end of January 2013 through early June.  We need your help to bridge this gap. Help me keep the char going into the ground. SeaChar is a 501c3.  You can donate via PayPal @ http://seachar.org/donate or by check to: SeaChar 4705 Memory Lane West, University Place,  WA. 98466

Reinvent Fire with Us

BioChar BBQ

Two day BioChar Stove Building Workshop
on Sat & Sun November 17th & 18th from 10am to 4pm.
at the new BioChar outdoor education center at Morethana Farm
Sammamish Valley Farm
16215 140th Pl NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Morethanna Farm is a collaborative effort between Antioch University Seattle, Pacific Bamboo Resources, and SeaChar.org to support community education in sustainable growing practices.

We invite you to participate on either or both days by signing up on the Moerthana Farm EventBrite Page http://biocharfall2012workshop.eventbrite.com/.

Satuday we will be building the basic Estufa Finca Five Gallon BioChar Farm Stoves pyroneered by Art Donnelly at Seachar.org

Sunday is for building the CookTop and Air Base add-on that convert the basic ESTUFA FINCA Farm Stove into a freestanding backyard BBQ(makes BioChar rather than consume charcoal). Also building a derivative design of the smaller Dome School Soup Can Emergency / Camping / Tea Light Stove.  and cooking up chilli or whatever is brought to share on our creations.

The Estufa Finca Stove is great for use as an outdoor fire pit or BBQing in your backyard WHILE creating BioChar for your garden (if you choose to include the cooktop and air base add-ons to your stove to make it a Carbon Negative BBQ).

The Dome School stove is fairly kid friendly, is great for understanding the principles of gasification, biochar creation while replacing traditional expensive proprietary camping equip.

Either stove is good to have around and know how to use in personal / community emergency preparedness as well as building sustainable solutions for our soil, environment, and future.

If you wish to participate in the workshop by building a stove, and/or add-on please sign up on the Moerthana Farm EventBrite Page http://biocharfall2012workshop.eventbrite.com/.

If you wish to help out by volunteering your time, tools, and/or expertise please contact the event organizer on the same page.

If you are planning on taking the Estufa Finca stove design and introducing it to other parts of the world we invite you to participate by showing up early, help setup the workshop, and possibly help other stove builders with the more tricky parts of the stove build. Please contact the event organizer if you wish to help out in that capacity.

Regards,

Larry James
on behalf of SeaChar.org, Pacific Bamboo Resources, Antioch U Seattle, and MoreThanA Farm
SeaChar.org – Volunteer / Stove Builder / Instructor / BioChar Stove Project

additional details below…

Join us on Saturday anor/or Sunday Nov 17th and 18th from 10am to 4pm, at Morethanna Farm
Sammamish Valley Farm, 16215 140th Pl NE, Woodinville, WA 98072. for an BioChar Stove Building Workshop. Learn a little about biochar and build a TLUD ( top lit updraft) clean burning, fuel efficient, biochar producing cook stove.

* Saturday – $25 donation (usually $75!) – build and take home a five gallon “GARDEN MASTER Stove”. This gardener’s version of our “ESTUFA FINCA” project stove, makes clean heat and soil building biochar from your garden and yard wastes.

Dome School Stove Tea Light

* Sunday – $25 donation – build and take home a “Dome School Stove”. This mini-TLUD is the perfect camping/hand warming/ tea light version of the big stove technology.
* There elegant micro-gasifiers are, affordable, easy to build and safe to use. You will NEED to bring (4) tin cans for this stove: (1) 46oz. can [tomato juice], (1) approx. 32 oz. [crushed or diced tomatoes], (1) 18.5oz. Progresso soup, (1) 15oz. can [black or red beans]. [some can be Pre-emptied and washed]

This will be the base for the Chilli on Sunday so bring appropriate ingredients.
If you are planning on building the small stove it would be great if you could also bring a church key can opener, a hammer, pliers, box knife, and a hacksaw. a few more of these tools on hand will help your builds go faster.

* Sunday – $25 donation – build the CookTop and Air Base add-on if you are already using a ESTUFA FINCA Farm Stove and just want a convert your basic stove into a freestanding backyard BBQ that creates BioChar rather than consume charcoal.

* On both days along with building stoves, we will be learning a little about biochar and how to use it in the your garden and/or replace your backyard BBQ.

* Bring a snack, a pair of gloves and if possible a pair of safety glasses, and ear plugs. We are low on duplicates of a few basic tools so if you could bring your own it will help workflow. Farm Stove builders should bring a hammer and a fully charged battery operated drill. Dome School Stove builders should bring a church key can opener, a hammer, pliers, box knife, and a hacksaw. all other tools will be provided. (extras will help keep wait time for tools down)

If you are planning on trying your stove after the build, bring a cup and/or a pot to heat your food up in and something to eat off of (bowl and spoon at the very least for the chilli)..

* Everyone will have a lot of fun, most people will go home with a tested stove, and an expanded understanding of biochar. On Sunday we can test out our new creations by cooking up whatever is brought to share.

If you wish you may make an additional donation that will go directly to SeaChar.org. We are recommending $25-$50 donation for the workshop to help with their continuing efforts in reducing carbon emissions while improving lives (in Costa Rica and other locations). Normal workshop pricing for both days would be $125 for Stove, Add-on, and Camp Stove. Generous grants from local sustainable businesses have reduced that to $25 a day for this particular workshop. You can use the PayPal button on SeaChar.Org website at: http://seachar.org/wordpress/?page_id=96 or checks to SeaChar.Org new mailing address @ Seattle Biochar Working Group, C/o David McInturff, 4705 Memory Lane West University Place WA.  98467

Space is limited to 20 stove bodies and 20 Cooktop/AirBase add-ons so sign up ASAP!

Reinvent fire with us and build a Sustainable Future.

Larry James
SeaChar.org – Volunteer / Stove Builder / Instructor / BioChar Stove Project

P.S.
SeaChar.org recently had a temporary setback down in Costa Rica with a loss of tooling, computers, ect. Please see the SeaChar.org website for details and let Art know if you can help out with replacemts.

If you are a Estufa Finca alumni there is still the  Estufa Finca BioChar Farm Stove Users Group to help bring users together and share their stove use and building experiences.

MoreThanA Farm  - Growing Health Soils Fall 2012 Workshop pdf announcement link
https://docs.google.com/open?id=1VbwnIv81SP4BQ__pt3A1p87lin7HD1QldpK_67ZyZ0WiV7ePR-l-KJwfSbHz

PDF of this doc - https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8bHsdJxt4vzTjRNSHVDSzR5bnc

A special thanks to Dusty Strings in Fremont for their generous material donation that makes these workshops possible.

Join SeaChar's Art Donnelly for this biochar kiln building work shop

           Join us on Saturday July 14th at
        Village Green Nursery in West Seattle

Build an Estufa Finca cook-stove just like the ones we are using in Costa Rica. Make you own biochar.

Greetings Gardeners,
After 7-months working with Bribri cacao growers in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica. SeaChar.Org founder Art Donnelly is back in Seattle.

Join Art and the staff at West Seattle’s Village Green Perennial Nursery for a very special event.  Sat. July 14th 9am – 5:30pm  @ 10223 26th Ave.SW. Seattle, WA. 98146

Biochar is charcoal created from dry organic waste materials. Used as a soil amendment;  it gives all of us a way to combat climate change by storing long lasting fixed carbon in our gardens or yards. Learn how to make your garden carbon negative and climate friendly, while building healthy soil.

* For a $75 donation build and take home a five gallon “Estufa Finca” biochar producing cook-stove. This is the same stove we are using in SeaChar’s Estufa Finca-Talamanca Project in rural Costa Rica. These easy to use stoves make clean heat and soil building biochar from your garden and yard wastes. All tools and materials for building this stove will be provided.

* Along with building stoves, we will be learning about how biochar works and how to use biochar in the garden.

* This will also be fund-raiser for the Estufa Finca Project (Farm Stove Project) . Learn how this clean burning, biochar-making technology can build opportunities for woman, fight climate change and save lives and trees in the developing world.

* Bring a sack lunch, a pair of gloves and if possible a pair of safety glasses

* This will be a full day workshop. 9am-5:30pm  Everyone will have fun and everyone will be going home with a tested stove and an expanded understanding of biochar. We will end the day by testing our new creations.

The cost for this workshop is $75 dollars.We are requesting a $25 deposit to reserve your space. Please use our the PayPal button at our SeaChar.Org website: http://seachar.org/wordpress/?page_id=96

Please RSVP! To: art.donnelly@seachar.org

Come reinvent fire with us,

Art Donnelly
206-612-3018
President SeaChar.Org
Project Director, The Estufa Finca (Farm Stove) Project