Can charred coconut keep Maldives from submerging?

(Credit: Invest Maldives/Republic of Maldives)

The Republic of Maldives has signed a partnership with a tech company to develop biochar for its soils, both parties announced this week.

Biochar, a method of carbon capture and storage, is typically produced by heating biomass in a kiln until it turns into a manmade charcoal. That biochar can then be buried to enrich soil for agriculture. In some cases, biochar can be used as fuel.

The deal with U.K.-based Carbon Gold is part of the Maldives' plans to be carbon-neutral by 2020.

With the help of Carbon Gold, the Maldives will manufacture biochar from woody biomass, including coconut shells, for use in its own soil. As part of the deal, Carbon Gold will also launch an informational campaign directed at Maldivians on the benefits of using biochar rather than imported fertilizers to enhance soil quality for agriculture.

"The Maldives is already adversely affected by climate change so I warmly welcome this relationship with Carbon Gold. Biochar has a crucial role in helping us achieve carbon neutral status as well as providing an economic and environmental boost to our people," Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said in a statement.

Though not a very powerful player on the global carbon stage, the Republic of Maldives is significant for being at the front line of climate change. If the Earth warms and seas rise as predicted, scientists believe the Indian Ocean archipelago country will be the first to go under water.

[sanenazok]

So it's not about capsizing but rather being submerged. I thought it would be weird if an island capsized, since it would have to be floating to begin with.

[Jon Skillings]

We've fixed that. Funny - all these years I'd thought "capsize" meant "to take on water," as in a flooded, but not overturned boat. Guess I was too captivated by the alliteration to bother checking Webster's.

Thanks for the catch.

[dcinmn]

Why isn't the woody mass just buried underground? Seems to me that wasting heat energy (which most likey released carbon to begin with) to turn it into charcoal is a wasted step.

[crazynexus]

Most likely since they're using it as fertilizer, the 'coal will release nutrients much much faster than allowing natural decomposition to occur, which releases nutrients much more slowly when it's woody mass. Think of hjow long it takes a log to decompose, or roots after a tree dies (some root masses are still found from when the tree was cut 150 years ago in the White pine stump praries in Michigan).

[Joe Real]

Some designs of biochar production allows to recapture the heat and use it for powerr generation. Some designs also allow for cleaning the gaseous emissions and then using those gasses to power electric generators while producing biochar. It is how one will design the gasifier that creates heat, electricity and biochar. A friend of mine has various designs in collaboration with others at Texas A & M U.

[MrZook]

I commend them for trying to reuse their own resources. Now if they just bought some kilns and did it themselves rather than making some company rich.
Does anyone know how quick the sea level is rising in the Maldives? I looked up a BBC article that said it was rising at 0.9cm/year. And another that said studies show it has dropped 30cm in the last 40 years.
???

[HeavyJim]

Why do you want to muddy up stuff with facts and figures, the only figures that matter is the ones that add up to profits.

[tech_crazy]

I am not sure if it just me, but how exactly is this doing carbon capture except that the biomass came from trees/plants that captured CO2?

[tech_crazy]

From the linked article "The United Nations has proposed classifying biochar as a carbon credit for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. When forestry or agricultural waste are converted into biochar and put into the soil, the carbon that would have been released through decomposition is held in the soil for hundreds or potentially thousands of years, say proponents."

That seems to be the logic fortreating biochar as a carbon capture method. This actually seems preposterous as one could argue for example that storing gasoline underground is carbon capture/sequestration since the gasoline is not consumed (and would have release CO2) !!

[Joe Real]

Gasoline would leak and consumed by other specialized microorganisms and will ultimately breakdown into water and carbon dioxide or methane.

Biochar would be permanent sequestration of carbon. The Amazonian Dark Earth is more than 5,000 years old and the carbon hasn't released back into the atmosphere. There is therefore net carbon entrapment by not letting the carbon cycle back into the atmosphere. Besides, biochar tremendously improve soil properties such as minimizing leaching of minerals and improve water retention and water use efficiency. This helps a lot by reducing fertilizer and water inputs and minimizing fertilizer pollution. Most fertilizers are produced using fossil fuels and minimizing the amount you use has dramatic reduction in using fossil fuels. But the biochar carbon sequestered into the soil is a negative carbon entrapment in a form that will not decay or cycled back into the atmosphere.

[Ron_PE]

The article title has it correct that the islands are submerging or sub-ducting. However, the article insinuates that the seas are rising up to swallow the fixed altitude islands via evil AGW. The 'one' unified sea level is tracked at: http://sealevel.colorado.edu/ Statistics people will note the mm scale on the left and that the latest sea level data points are falling below the trend line. This indicates that the 'sea level' rise rate is in the early stages of topping out.

[galeso]

I have read that the Maldives are rising faster than the ocean.

Joe Real said "Biochar would be permanent sequestration of carbon." This is not true, it has a long half life (about 0.1% per year is released) so we would dump the problem on future generations. It is also very acid so we would have to store it in the coal sludge ponds in Appalachia. Oh wait, that did not work out so well last time we tried it.