Delivering Superior Biochar
for Better Soils and a Cooler Planet
Available now for residential, commercial, and industrial applications
NextChar High-Performance Biochar repairs poor and overworked soil, and reduces water needs for farms and gardens.
What is Biochar?
Biochar is a nearly pure carbon, all-natural, and naturally-occurring material that is produced by heating (wood) biomass just above its kindling temperature in an oxygen reduced environment, removing all the volatile organic compounds, producing a stable, low ash content, and extremely porous compound with numerous high-value applications
Making a Better Life
I would love to give the world tools to make a better life, and that’s where biochar comes in. It is a mechanism to address climate concerns, to grow better food, to make cleaner water.
Agriculture
Biochar reduces plant mortality by improving moisture dynamics, creating a buffering effect that protects fragile root structures in drought conditions
When combined with organic matter and mineralization, biochar improves plant-microbe synergy and restores depleted soils
Biochar improves nutrient retention by capturing and storing organic matter and other plant nutrients, releasing them slowly, while binding metals, in-organic contaminants, and toxins
Biochar reduces compaction and remains in the soil for generations, providing a long-term solution to underperforming soils
Agriculture
Biochar reduces plant mortality by improving moisture dynamics, creating a buffering effect that protects fragile root structures in drought conditions
When combined with organic matter and mineralization, biochar improves plant-microbe synergy and restores depleted soils
Biochar improves nutrient retention by capturing and storing organic matter and other plant nutrients, releasing them slowly, while binding metals, in-organic contaminants, and toxins
Biochar reduces compaction and remains in the soil for generations, providing a long-term solution to underperforming soils
Enviromental
Remediation
Biochar is effective in adsorbing and sequestering heavy metals and trace elements such as: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, zinc, lead, mercury and nickel
Biochar is effective in adsorbing and sequestering organic compounds such as phosphates and nitrates in runoff from dairy farms and other livestock industries
Once ‘charged’ with compost or compost tea full of helpful microbes, biochar can be field applied, improving soil productivity while degrading the organic and inorganic compounds, bringing damaged soils ‘back-to-life’
Biochar reduces odor by adsorbing organic compounds, such as volatile fatty acids in animal manure, and reducing methane and airborne compounds associated with feed-lots, land-fills, and other down-wind sources
Blue Sky
Biochar is widely used as a dietary supplement in the livestock industry in Europe and Japan, improving animal health by assisting in digestion, reducing feed requirements and methane production
Biochar possesses many of the qualities of activated carbon, and can replace activated carbon in numerous water-filtration and bio-remediation applications
Biochar is increasingly specified for specific remediation projects, including petroleum spills, roadway catchment, orchard (copper) contamination, and brownfields
Significant quantities of ‘high-ash-agricultural carbon’ (wood ash+biochar) are produced on older biomass-energy boilers. This high ash material can be used to increase the PH in acidic soils and improve soil performance
Biochar has been demonstrated to capture mercury (Hg) in smokestack scrubbers and replaces more costly approaches widely in use
Blue Sky
Biochar is widely used as a dietary supplement in the livestock industry in Europe and Japan, improving animal health by assisting in digestion, reducing feed requirements and methane production
Biochar possesses many of the qualities of activated carbon, and can replace activated carbon in numerous water-filtration and bio-remediation applications
Biochar is increasingly specified for specific remediation projects, including petroleum spills, roadway catchment, orchard (copper) contamination, and brownfields
Significant quantities of ‘high-ash-agricultural carbon’ (wood ash+biochar) are produced on older biomass-energy boilers. This high ash material can be used to increase the PH in acidic soils and improve soil performance
Biochar has been demonstrated to capture mercury (Hg) in smokestack scrubbers and replaces more costly approaches widely in use
Carbon
Sequestration
When a ton of biochar is produced and used in a soils application, it permanently sequesters 3 tons of CO2
There is a rapid acceleration of renewable energy sources that will ultimately slow the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere, but not in -time to repair the damage that has already been done
Most climate scientists believe new strategies for sequestering carbon must be developed to avoid catastrophic consequences from climate change
Biochar is broadly viewed by climate scientists as one of the few viable approaches to carbon sequestration, having the benefit if no downstream impacts, and large scale deployment will be driven by the marketplace.
History
Humans have observed the benefits of biochar for tens-of thousands of years, from the pre-Columbian (450 BC) farmers in South America who produced ‘terra preta’, transforming marginal soils to what was one of the most productive food systems in human history.
Native Americans, who transformed their landscape, burning underbrush to create fertile grazing lands for buffalo, their main source of protein
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One of the most exciting new strategies for restoring carbon to depleted soils, and sequestering significant amounts of CO2 for 1,000 years and more
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We haven't watered our spinach, which is grown with a NextChar biochar in the soil, for five months, yet the soil is still moist two inches down.
Astarte Farms, Hadley MA
THE TIME IS NOW!
We supply high-grade biochar at any scale, from a 1/2 cu. ft. mailer to a full 80 cu. yd. truckload.