Biochar - a novel way to remove carbon

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Biochar - a novel way to remove carbon

HAMBURG: Cocoa bean shells go in one end and out the other comes an amazing black powder that has the potential to counter climate change.

Biochar, dubbed biochar, is produced by heating the cocoa husks to 600 degrees Celsius in an oxygen-free room.

The process locks in greenhouse gases, and the final product can be used as fertiliser or an ingredient in the production of green concrete.

While the biochar industry is still developing, experts say that the technology offers a novel way to remove carbon from the Earth's atmosphere.

The UN's IPCC biochar could be used to collect 2.6 billion of the 40 billion tons of CO 2 currently produced by humanity each year, said the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

But scaling up its use remains a challenge.

We are reversing the carbon cycle, said Peik Stenlund, CEO of Circular Carbon, in a biochar factory in Hamburg.

The plant, one of the biggest in Europe, receives the cocoa shells from a neighbouring chocolate factory via a network of grey pipes.

The biochar traps CO 2 contained in the husks - a process that could be used for any other plant.

If the cocoa shells were disposed as normal, the carbon inside the unused byproduct would be released into the atmosphere as it decomposes.