World CharDay 2016

Over the past year we have seen and heard from many farmers, foresters and others that have embraced Kon-Tiki kilns to make their own high quality biochar. This low cost, and in the case of the soil version, no-cost, technology has now been deployed in well over 50 countries and has spawned open-source collaboration amongst many individuals to further develop methods for heat harvesting, optimal quenching liquids, trial designs and more. There are other new biochar technologies – both high end and small scale – that have recently joined the market and are helping to create the momentum that will put biochar on the international agenda.

We tend to believe that the increased interest for biochar can partly be attributed to last year’s first World CharDay event, which helped raise the awareness of a global movement. Although last year’s event was not highly publicized, we were thrilled to have participants from many different countries using many different technologies.  We would like to expand on last year’s success by inviting charmakers, be they individuals or companies from around the world to join in the effort to carbonize all manner of underutilized biomass! 

The official World CharDay will take place on 21^st June, the day of summer solstice for those in the northern hemisphere; and the winter solstice for those in the southern.  Since we know that charmaking can be weather dependent and some of you charmakers may have other obligations during the week, participants are welcome to start on the weekend before or participate on the weekend after (from 18^th June till 26^th June).

As with last year, we would like to get a rough tally of the amount the biochar community is able to carbonize.  Participants are asked to send pictures and details not only on how much biochar they made (by weight or volume) but also what they carbonized, where, and with what technology (please email details to the Ithaka Institute; or use #WorldCharDays2016 on Twitter).  We encourage you all to make this a biochar education opportunity.  Perhaps there is a yard or a park nearby overrun with invasive species that could use a little thinning and soil amendment at the same time.  Perhaps you have a local group of Landscapers that might be interested in learning how to utilize biochar in rain gardens? Or perhaps your biochar business is ready to host a visitor’s day to show people how your pyrolysis or gasification equipment works.  Whatever the biomass, or event or production technology, we hope you will join us for World CharDay 2016 and pass along the invitation to others in the biochar community. 

Biochar making is not just child's play, it is a fantastic opportunity for children to discover principles of nature.