Mobile biochar production by flame carbonization: Reducing wildfire risk and improving forest resilience

Abstract

Forest managers are searching for better approaches to manage low-value material resulting from fuels management and timber harvest. The conventional practice of slash pile burning emits pollutants and greenhouse gases, and leaves behind burn scars that degrade forest soils and inhibit regeneration of native plants. While sometimes this low-value material can be chipped and removed for beneficial uses elsewhere, such options are costly and logistically difficult on many remote forest sites.Biochar production presents a promising alternative, reducing the need for costly material transport, mitigating the environmental drawbacks of slash pile burning, and providing numerous benefits when applied to forest soils. Like slash pile burns, making biochar in place involves combustion, but the methods described in this paper are much cleaner and safer than unmanaged burn piles, emitting fewer embers, particulates, and greenhouse gases. Biochar also sequesters carbon because it is not easily degradable and can hold water and dissolved nutrients in soils - a significant benefit for forest health as the climate continues to warm and dry forest soils. This report examines several alternatives for making biochar in place using newly designed equipment as well as modifications of existing methods.

Citation

Wilson, Kelpie; Bekker, Wihan; Archuleta, James; McAvoy, Darren; Page-Dumroese, Deborah. 2024. Mobile biochar production by flame carbonization: Reducing wildfire risk and improving forest resilience. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-439. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 91 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/RMRS-GTR-439.