Ages of charcoal launches public lecture series

massey-university

Mon Aug 02 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Ages of charcoal launches public lecture series

Monday, 2 August 2010, 10:32 am
Press Release: Massey University

Ages of charcoal launches public lecture series

Charcoal’s changing use over time is the subject of the first talk in a series of public lectures being held at the Wellington campus in 2010.

Professor Jim Jones, a chemical engineer, will on Thursday August 5, examine humankind’s association with charcoal and the process that creates it from the dawn of human time to the industrial revolution and the chemicals industry, to the activated carbons of the twentieth century.

“By then, charcoal had receded into the economic backwaters of developed nations, lighting barbecues and finding speciality niches where there was a need for high purity carbon,” Professor Jones says.

“However, while the millennia sped by, charcoal was finding a place in subsistence agriculture as a soil amendment. The significance of this has been realised only recently.”

As Professor of Biochar and Bioenergy Pyrolysis Engineering, Jim Jones is part of a team examining the production of biochar from New Zealand biomass, or organic matter, setting it apart, then adding it to soil.

“Turning biomass to biochar captures and locks away carbon that was extracted from the atmosphere during growth,” he says, which has implications for climate change.

“Global warming is on the international agenda and in order to meet global emission targets there is a projected need to ‘go negative.’ Carbonising plant material and adding it to soil can get us there. As you will see, charcoal has a history and a future.”

Professor Jones’ lecture ‘Man-made charcoal - From Prehistory to the Biochar Future’ is at the Museum Building theatrette, Buckle St, Wellington, at 6pm on Thursday August 5.

Limited seating, RSVP (acceptance only) are required by Tuesday August 3.

ENDS

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