C6 Biochar
2020-2022
With the mission to reduce the risk of extreme wildfire by improving forest health, the non-profit C6 set out to establish a commercial scale Biochar facility in the Methow Valley, Wa. I joined C6 in 2020 as a board member and technical contributor, pushing to make this project a reality.
About Biochar and this project.
Biochar is a porous carbon solid that results from superheating forest material in the absence of oxygen.
This process of superheating material without oxygen is called Pyrolysis.
Our forests in the NW are heavily overgrown, and pyrolysis is a method that can be used to process forest materials that need to be removed, while preventing this excess carbon from contributing to climate change.
The result of this effort is low density, healthy forests. Additionally, the biochar produced in this process can be applied to agricultural soils to greatly improve soil health.
Research Biochar Reactor.
Siting and setup of Research pyrolysis reactor in the methow valley
Pyrolysis trials to evaluate processing and output from local feedstock materials
Biochar facility feasibility study.
LCA analysis of possible components of a Biochar facility including site location impact, freight methods, harvesting, applying product in the field.
Organization financial accounting including management of 250k state funding grant
Biochar technology research
Feedstock source and customer exploration
