Biochar Workshop & Demonstration – with Francesco Tortorici of Olympic Biochar

February 23, 2020 Global Earth Repair

Introduction to Biochar Production & Use

Time:
March 7, Saturday
1-4pm
Location:
Global Earth Repair Office
10644 Rhody Drive, Port Hadlock, WA

Attendees will be presented with an overview of biochar history, production and uses, including local examples (Jefferson and Clallam counties). Biochar is produced in simple micro-gasifier stoves, kilns and industrial processes. Examples of these different processes will be discussed.

Biochar can be used as a soil amendment and water filter media for the removal of heavy metals. Experiments are being done in Washington using biochar to grow organic crops, regenerate garden/farm soils and sequester carbon for hundreds of years. Trials at several Olympic Peninsula farms that both produce and incorporate biochar will be highlighted. Recent research of biochar being co-composted with animal manure will be presented.

Details of an ongoing project at the Port of Port Townsend where biochar filters are removing heavy metals from stormwater runoff will be shared.

Demonstrations of various biochar making stoves and kilns will be conducted.

Attendees will receive a sample of biochar.

About the instructor-
Francesco is an engineer and long-time appropriate technology advocate. He was the co-founder and Director of the Norwegian Center for Appropriate Technology in the 1970s. His interest in those technologies led him to attend the ETHOS (Engineers in Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities of Service) Conference in 2011. Through that experience, he worked with several NGOs which promote clean cook stoves that also produce biochar.

In 2014 Francesco collaborated with the Port of Port Townsend, designing and building biochar filters to remove heavy metals form stormwater runoff. He teamed with several Jefferson County farms in the production and incorporation of biochar. In Sequim he collaborated with a mushroom farmer to develop a commercial gasifer stove used to pasteurize straw and make biochar.

Francesco and his wife, Joan, created Olympic BioChar (OB) in 2015 to promote biochar’s uses and benefits and provide a locally made biochar. OB donates biochar to area school gardens for co-composting and other garden/orchard applications which introduce biochar to students. OB is currently being used in WSU compost trials on Lopez Island. Most recently, Francesco’s focus is on regenerating soils to produce nutrient dense food by using biochar, mineral balancing, etc.

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