Nghe An farmers operate biochar furnace for the first time to improve soil
(Baonghean.vn) - The People's Committee and Farmers' Association of Do Luong district have just piloted the biochar furnace model with 20 participating households. Each household is sponsored a biochar furnace to turn agricultural waste and by-products into soil improvers, increasing crop yields.
Sharing about the "brand new" model that has just been deployed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the District Farmers' Association, households in Thinh Son commune said they were very excited and surprised about the positive effects of the biochar furnace on life and agricultural production.
Mr. Le Van Dung - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Thinh Son commune is one of the first 20 households in Do Luong district to start operating a biochar burner. Mr. Dung said that using this type of burner is quite simple, anyone can do it. In addition to the structure of a furnace shell with 2 iron and steel parts joined together by locks, in the middle there is only 1 funnel-shaped iron core used to create an anaerobic combustion chamber (limited oxygen) to help the raw materials after burning become biochar instead of turning into ash.
The raw materials for this bio-incinerator are agricultural waste, organic household waste such as rice husks, straw, wood chips, tree branches, leaves, vegetable leaves, grass... dried about 70%. The burning process of this type of furnace does not create smoke and does not emit unpleasant odors into the surrounding environment.
After burning agricultural waste for about 5 hours, biochar will be harvested. This type of charcoal has many applications in life thanks to its environmental friendliness and the benefits it brings, especially for agricultural production.
Biochar helps improve soil porosity, high water retention capacity, prevents evaporation or seepage into deep layers after watering in the dry season; prevents soil erosion, creates favorable conditions for beneficial bacteria to live in the soil, attracts and retains nutrients to gradually release to plants... That is why biochar helps increase crop yields, especially when combined with other organic fertilizers.
In addition to soil improvement, this biochar furnace can also be used to dry agricultural products, deeply process agricultural products for more effective preservation, and increase the value of agricultural products.
Therefore, this is a very useful model for utilizing large sources of biomass and agricultural waste in localities that are using outdated burning technologies, emitting a lot of smoke, dust and toxic emissions into the environment.
Mr. Nguyen Ba Chau - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Do Luong district said that the first 20 biochar burners deployed for the people were from the source connected by the leaders of the district People's Committee, calling for support from the people. It is expected that the sponsor will support farmers in the district with 200 biochar burners.
Through practice and application of products from 20 incinerators, it shows that people are very responsive and clearly see the effect of reducing household waste, taking advantage of agricultural waste and by-products; at the same time, creating a high-quality organic fertilizer for agricultural production.
Mr. Le Van Dung said that the active application of green production models by farmers in Thinh Son commune such as bio-charcoal furnaces, raising calcium worms, composting organic fertilizer from straw, etc. are activities responding to the movement of farmers competing in production, good business, solidarity to help each other get rich, reduce poverty sustainably and the contents that the People's Committee and Farmers' Association of Do Luong district have proposed in implementing the goals of building a new rural district and advanced new rural communes.
For Thinh Son commune, every year, farmers aim to participate in building 1-2 economic models; support with breeds, knowledge, and help at least 1 poor household to contribute to sustainable poverty reduction; 100% of the branches perform well in collecting pesticide packaging in the fields. Build at least 10 models of farmer households raising chickens on thick biological bedding and a model of farmer members classifying and treating waste at source, composting organic fertilizer from agricultural waste and by-products.
The leader of the Farmers' Association of Do Luong district also said that the association always attaches importance to connecting, disseminating knowledge and mobilizing members and farmers to effectively implement economic development projects, clean agricultural production, and promote the application of scientific and technical advances in production to bring high economic value.
Operation process of biochar burner: The structure of the burner helps to strictly control the amount of oxygen and heat generated during the burning process, which directly affects the biomass (here it will be agricultural waste) and causes the pyrolysis effect. When agricultural waste is heated from 8500C will produce gas (a form of gasification) and the gas will be fed back into the combustion chamber to create a continuous combustion cycle.
Due to the combustion of gas, there is no smoke, the gas is completely burned, so the emissions of NOx and CO are extremely low. Pyrolysis effect and no oxygen supply to the combustion chamber (anaerobic), so no CO gas is produced.2 (Carbon) is released into the environment in gas form, but is retained in the form of biochar (biochar is a form of Carbon).