At a red-brick factory in the German port city of Hamburg, cocoa bean shells go in one end, and out the other comes an amazing black powder with the potential to counter climate change. The substance has been dubbed biochar. Here's more.
Biochar is produced by heating cocoa bean husks in an oxygen-free room to 600 degrees Celsius
The process locks in greenhouse gases and the final product can be used as a fertiliser, or as an ingredient in the production of "green" concrete. The plant, one of the largest in Europe, takes delivery of the used cocoa shells via a network of grey pipes from a neighbouring chocolate factory. Instead, the carbon is sequestered in the biochar "for centuries", according to David Houben, an environmental scientist at the UniLaSalle institute in France.
The surprising substance's sponge-like structure boosts crops by increasing the absorption of water and nutrients by the soil.In Hamburg, the factory is wrapped in the faint smell of chocolate and warmed by the heat given off by the installation's pipework.One of those farmers is Silvio Schmidt, 45, who grows potatoes near Bremen, west of Hamburg. Schmidt hopes the biochar will help "give more nutrients and water" to his sandy soils.
To make better use of the powerful black powder, Houben said other applications would need to be found. The construction sector, for example, could use biochar in the production of "green" concrete.
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