A NEW research project has been launched to produce sustainable, cost-effective biochar in the Denmark region.
Biochar has been researched and trialled from various organic feedstock materials over the past few years, and now the Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee (WICC) has launched a feasibility study into the by product from green waste.
The study has been green lit as a 'Future Carbon' project, and is co-funded by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and Denmark Shire, with the final contracts currently being finalised.
The Shire of Denmark currently produces 800 tonnes of green waste per year through its transfer waste station.
With limited ways of dealing with this waste, it has been trying to find alternative cost-effective solutions.
Currently the three options include shipping it to Albany, composting, or burning it.
With the options raised, it was put to WICC board member Mark McHenry, a sheep farmer with a PhD in physics to see if he could come up with another solution.
For Dr McHenry, biochar seemed like a great option worth investigating.
"Personally, as a farmer, I'd love to get a hold of really good quality, cost-effective biochar for horticulture and animals on my farm, but it's just not really available here," Dr McHenry said.
"If I could buy it just like I get fertiliser in a bulk bag, that would be brilliant, knowing that it meets standards with no contamination issues."
With no reliable local source of biochar at the moment, he floated the idea of a feasibility study which would ideally eventually lead to selling biochar through the South West.
Dr McHenry's previous connections at Murdoch University allowed all three organisations to establish a partnership looking into the waste solution.
The WICC was also driven by the need to address long-term environmental impacts that farming can have on the water ways.
"The Wilson Inlet is one of those borderline estuaries where if it gets too much nutrient, say we have a lot of rain and we lose fertiliser off the paddocks, it ends up in the inlet resulting in really nasty nutrient issue," he said.
"Quality biochar however, can bind some of the nutrients or fertiliser to the soil, instead of it washing out.
"There has been some great research from Western Australia and elsewhere showing if you have biochar in the soil it also improves soil fungi levels, helping crops to grow by improving their nutrient use efficiency."
The first step will be to chip different varieties of the green waste, classify it and send it up to Murdoch University.
"The samples then go through the lab to determine the optimum conversion conditions for different types of green waste, working out the best way to make quality biochar that farmers can afford," Dr McHenry said.
WICC's executive officer Shaun Ossinger said they would be working with the standards that are currently in development by the Australian and New Zealand Biochar Industry Group.
"The use of biochar is more advanced in the European Union (EU) so we are borrowing their standards and adopting them for the trial, even though we haven't officially adopted standards here in Australia yet," he said.
"They set the trigger points for what can actually be in the biochar, if it can be fed to stock or if it can be manually incorporated into the pasture."
Both Mr Ossinger and Dr McHenry are excited by the vast uses and benefits of biochar and how it can help with carbon sequestration, soil and animal health.
"You don't have to just feed it to your livestock, you can put it in the pasture and sequester it through tillage and that gets the carbon in the ground," Mr Ossinger said.
"It also has been shown to increase the microbial activity in the soil and also the water retention-ability of the soil, improving pasture even if you just manually incorporate it into your system.
"If you have it in the soil it improves the levels of soil fungi, causing crops to grow better because they have improved their nutrient use efficiency," he said.
Mr Ossinger also mentioned that studies had been done looking at when it is applied in a wheat crop to improve the phosphorus response, and looking at the effects on dairy cattle.
"There is really interesting research coming through now, one from dairy milkers - they put out a few extra per cent of milk per day if they add a little ration and the methane emitted from animals slightly improves as well," he said.
"Ultimately however it comes back to, is it cost effective and can you get a reliable supply," he said.
"It's going to be interesting to be able to run through some numbers to see if it is going to be a cost effective option, and then look how much we can produce it for and is it going to be a good supply for dairies, cropping and horticulture."
Want weekly news highlights delivered to your inbox? Sign up to the Farm Weekly newsletter.
