Bio-char... I would say without hesitation that this technology is the best news for anyone concerned about longterm survival on earth.  It suppose it began (as do so many things) with the discovery of "Terra Prita," or Dark earth, in the amazon.  Large tracts of land have soil that has retains it's fertility, even after slash and burn.  These soils were created more than two thousand years ago, and are still fertile.  They are created by chrushing charcoal into a powder and mixing it with soil.  Once again it seems that the old way may be the only way to save us.

One of the biggest bumbers about global warming is that it kind of takes the fun out of fire (at least for people like me who have a hard time enjoying anything that is hurting others.)  But what if I told you that you can have a carbon neutral, and even a carbon negative fire?  Yes the magic of fire is back.  All you have to do is scoop out thoes coals and bury them, presto you just permanently sequestered carbon (and you got to roast your marshmallow too.)  If a correctly designed stove is used, heat can be produced without emiting any CO2.  Its all about pyrolosys, the chemical reaction that takes place when bio-mass is heated under low oxygen conditions.  Its not new, it's just making charcoal.  All we have to do is bury instead of burn.  

The tricky thing about carbon sequestration is that if you don't burn a stick, it's still going to decompose and release most of it's carbon into the air as CO2.  But if you take that stick and char it, the carbon is stabalized.  Then you can add it to soil, increasing fertility and supporting growth which further sequesters carbon.  

There are many types of bio-char producing stoves, but this is the basic idea.  The reaction is often started with a small fire (oxadization, releasing a small initial ammount of CO2.)  The bio mass is heated by this initial fire, and begins to release wood gas (largley hydrogen), the wood gass is re-directed to the air intake where it burns, further depriving the bio-mass of oxygen and heating it to continue the caring reaction.  The emmisions from the burning of the wood gass are re-burned as they pass through the coals, reducing the emmissions to mostly hydrogen and water vapor.  The reaction could be continued until the char breaks down, releasing more heat and CO2, or it can be stopped and the char saved, making it a truly carbon negative fire.

Wood gas has many other uses: running engines,  creating bio-degradable plastic, solvents, and liquid fuels.

There is currently a major push to for bio mass heating, power generation, and material production (away from fossil fuels.)  This is certainly better, and theoretically carbon neutral because the bio mass crops are re-planted.  But in order to be truly carbon neutral the soil must not be depleted (releasing carbon) and carbon has to be stored in plants on the land (best done in large trees.)  Without bio-char sequestration bio energy will most likely continue to deplete soil, and push out old growth.  It is imperative that these new technologies incorporate bio char production into their designs.

 I want to advocate on the macro level for the production of bio-char producing carbon negative power plants and wood gas industries. 

On the micro level I want to develop or find plans for a residential sized bio-char producing clean burning stove for heating and ideally cooking.  These stoves would probably run off of wood chips (cheap and available to all), and would provide business opportunities in stove and chip production, bio-char collection enhancment and sale, and stove installation.  If this excites you get in touch.  I need help with research, fabrication, and startup investment.  

 Here are some links to find out more:

this is a good site, Flannagan's stove is pretty much what I want to make, it would be a good start. 

http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/terrabiocharstove

this is an experimenters kit that i would like to build/buy (capital?)

http://www.gekgasifier.com/

this is a company that may be able to build a carbond negatve power palnt for us in syracuse

 http://www.bestenergies.com/

this blog shows a bunch of cool stoves,

http://improvedstoves.blogspot.com/

david yarrows site (right here in CNY)

 http://www.carbon-negative.us/burners/

cornell is doing bio-char research focusing on grasses:

http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/index.html

other stuff

 http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/Gasifiers

 http://www.knowledgepublications.com/

and yahoo groups:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/carbon-negative/

 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gas_to_fuels/

this one has the most info on stoves:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/WoodGas/

i am going to upload some of the docs that i have collected onto alchemical too, some stove plans and stuff that i thought was worth saving so look there too.