Project Number: 6657-12000-005-03
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Nov 18, 2008
End Date: Dec 31, 2011

Objective:
To develop and optimize biochar chemical manufacturing processes that deliver biochars with designed chemical properties useful to remediate specific characteristics of degraded southeastern USA Coastal Plain soils.

Approach:
Cooperators from North Carolina A&T State University will use developed processing methods to make biochars with specific chemical and structural properties. This study will address if biochars can be manufactured to leach to subsoil depth and reduce hard layer formation. Agricultural soils in the southeastern USA are chemically and physically degraded due to loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and formation of hard subsoil layers that limit root penetration. On-going studies by ARS-Florence scientists have shown that biochar added to a degraded sandy soil can improve SOC content and rectify its chemical and physical properties. The biochar was relatively immobile, remaining largely in the surface soil, thus limiting its usefulness as an amendment for subsoil problems.