NEWS BRIEFS

When biochar is created, it locks up carbon from the organic material for thousands of years.

Dan Sanchez, a biochar expert with Carbon Direct, says he sees a lot of experimentation around biochar in the U.S. Most companies incorporate fast pyrolysis, which flashes biomass with high heat (500-800 °C) to create biochar in seconds.

Rather than hot and fast, Biochar Now heats organic material at a high temperature over 10 hours. Gaspard says that process makes “unique carbon with unique properties.”

“My mistake was calling [my product] biochar, because it’s something different,” he says, claiming his company’s biochar is the only one approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for unrestricted use under the Toxic Substance Control Act. “It’s higher quality.”

Gaspard calls the developing industry the “wild, wild West” because of limited standardization of biochar.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says “biochar does not refer to a singular product.” Rather, it is “physically unique” due to things like feedstock, pyrolysis processes and storage conditions. Most definitions of biochar don’t specifically say how hot or how long to put biomass through pyrolysis for it to become biochar.

Sanchez says Biochar Now is one of the only “slow pyrolysis” companies he is aware of, and that some evidence suggests this process can store more carbon from the input organic material than fast pyrolysis.

Gaspard says Biochar Now’s product has been used at oil spills and superfund sites to clean up salts and toxins as well as heavy metals like mercury and PFAS chemicals that never break down. With biochar’s sponge-like quality, Gaspard says his largest market is for industrial-level water treatment.

While there are lots of potential applications for biochar, Sanchez says the biochar market is mostly focused on soil application. The other applications, he says, “still need to prove out.”

Biochar In Boulder County

There are numerous efforts in Boulder County to use and develop biochar.

Nick DiDomenico, co-founder of

Drylands Agroecology Research (DAR), a nonprofit that works to increase biodiversity and soil carbon sequestration in degraded landscapes, uses biochar in some of his regenerative designs as a soil amendment. He’s heard people in the regenerative agriculture space talk about biochar “like it’s a hotel for biology.”

“The potential for collecting and storing water in the soil, thus being able to regenerate landscapes quickly, is really an effective potential use of biochar,” he says.

Studies show biochar improves soil fertility and quality by increasing the ability to retain moisture, attract microbes and preserve nutrients in the soil.

One of DAR’s partner farms, The Yellow Barn Farm, will produce a small amount of biochar this spring with a mobile kiln from Takachar, a biochar production company that received support through the County’s innovation fund to work with Boulder-area farms to produce decentralized biochar.

DiDomenico says from a sustainability and regenerative systems standpoint, it’s important to avoid shipping products a long way to “create miracle solutions in the soil.” The more local, the better.

“Where there’s a lot of wood, there’s a lot of potential to make biochar,” he says.

More woody biomass will be coming out of forests around Boulder County, in part because of the 1A Wildfire Mitigation ballot measure passed by voters in November 2022 that established a 0.1% tax (a penny on $10) for wildfire mitigation efforts.

Currently, Biochar Now mostly makes biochar at its centralized location in Berthoud. But the County’s innovation fund is helping cover costs to mobilize Biochar Now’s equipment to process biomass at the source — like at Nederland’s Community Forestry Sort Yards.

Tim Broderick, senior sustainability strategist in the County’s Office of Sustainability, Climate Action & Resilience, says the County wants to see how biochar could fit into its fire mitigation tool box.

“If we can utilize [biochar] in either forest lands or agriculture lands to increase soil health, that’s a beautiful circular economy,” he says. “We view [these projects] as peering into what is possible.”

Regenerative Earth Panel

Farmers, public officials and water experts will gather for a panel on regenerative land use on March 8 to discuss practices to reduce carbon dioxide levels and save water. The event, organized by CU Boulder, is free and open to the public.

“Industrial agricultural practices have reduced the carbon-holding capacity of our soils, but we can regenerate them, and farmers are doing this right here in Boulder County and along the Front Range,” says Rebecca Dickson, a professor at CU Boulder. “This is inspiring because any piece of land can help us reverse climate change by taking in carbon dioxide — including our own backyards.”

Guests on the panel include Nick DiDomenico, co-founder of Drylands Agroecology Research, Brett KenCairn, senior policy advisor for climate and resilience with the City of Boulder, Jennifer RileyChetwynd, director of marketing and social responsibility at Denver Botanic Gardens, Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann, and Damien Thompson, professor of anthropology, sociology and criminal justice at Regis University.

EVENT INFORMATION:

1:30-3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, Kittredge Central Hall, 2480 Kittredge Loop Drive, Boulder. Free

State Legislature Passes Bill To Increase Access To Mental Health Treatment

Colorado is ranked as one of the worst states nationally in its prevalence of mental health and access to treatment. A new bill headed to Gov. Polis’ desk aims to change that.

The Licensed Psychologist Prescriptive Authority Bill (HB 23-1071) would allow psychologists to prescribe mental health medications. Currently, a patient must meet with a doctor or psychiatrist to have a prescription issued. Because of this, some patients must “choose between large outof-pocket costs or waiting months for the medication they need,” according to the Colorado House Democrats in a press release.

“Allowing specially-trained psychologists to prescribe medication that best fits their patient’s needs will improve treatment options, reduce costs, and increase access to life-saving care for Coloradans with mental illness,” says Rep. Judy Amabile, one of the bill’s sponsors.

If signed into law, licensed psychologists must obtain an additional master’s degree in psychopharmacology, pass a national board exam, and complete 750 hours of practicum work in order to prescribe medications.

Changing Compost Policy

A1 Organics, the only large-scale compost facility serving the Front Range, will only accept food scraps, yard and plant trimmings, and three gallon CMA approved compostable bags starting April 1. The organics recycling company will no longer accept “non-traditional compostables” like paper towels, shredded paper and napkins, or packaging and service ware like cups, utensils and plates labeled as compostable.

In a Feb. 27 press release, the company said the policy change was motivated by “certified” compostable items not composting fully or quickly enough, contamination impacting resale quality, and how accepting packaging materials makes them unable to sell compost to organic farmers.

This policy change comes after A1 started turning loads away from its facility and implemented a contamination fee on waste haulers due to contamination last fall (News, “Black gold: shifting to quality compost,” Sept. 22, 2022).