A few years ago, on another series of hot summer days, Aprovecho hosted a seminar on biochar. About twenty enthusiasts from all over the US joined us for a biochar summer camp, lighting a lot of stoves and scaring the safety advisors.

We needed more spark screens.

At the closing event, we created a list of three goals for biochar production:

1. The biomass should be renewable
2. The generated heat should be used for a purpose
3. The total package of emissions, including buried biochar, should be carbon negative (-CO2e). By weight, smoke is ~ 700 times worse for climate than CO2. Methane is ~ 25 times worse than CO2, etc. 

Since most of the biochar production at the seminar resulted in a lot of smoke and the heat was lost into the sky, it was appreciated that R&D was needed to perfect our efforts. 

Having goals is a first step.