Springtime Planting: Biochar as a Soil Additive 🌱

With the warmer weather upon us, spring offers the opportunity to explore how biochar as a soil conditioner can enrich soil health and support more resilient harvests.

Processing your agricultural waste (such as crop waste and poultry litter) via pyrolysis into biochar can not only solve waste removal issues, but when applied to soil, the biochar can reap benefits for your soil’s health and nutrient content.

Using biochar as a soil additive can:

1. Boost nutrient content and health of soil

2. Absorb harmful PFAS

3. Act like a sponge, retaining water in the soil

4. Increase crop yield

5. Sequester carbon from soil

Additionally, new research reports that adding biochar to soil can affect soil chemistry over time. Over a 75-day period, mixing biochar with soil increased its pH, nutrient availability and organic matter. The extent and timings of the improvements depended on the source of the biomass (poultry manure, sawdust, pig dung), and the effects on the soil evolved throughout the time frame.

This points to biochar as a soil conditioner positively affecting soil fertility in the long term - potentially being a combatant to soil degradation.

CFE is partnered with PYREG to design, install and maintain PYREG pyrolysis systems in the UK. To learn more about how pyrolysis can benefit your farm, please visit our Pyrolysis page: https://www.cfeng.co.uk/pyrolysis-carbonisation