More Related Content Similar to Arable soil for future generations - Bionic µsoil, an organic fertilizer and soil enhancer that resembles Terra Preta (20) More from Bionic Laboratories BLG GmbH (11) Arable soil for future generations - Bionic µsoil, an organic fertilizer and soil enhancer that resembles Terra Preta1. Arable Soil for Future Generations
bionic µsoil is a powerful organic soil enhancement
and fertilizer system to
combat land degradation and desertification,
which at the same time helps to
suppress epidemic diseases deriving from
biological waste streams
recycle scarce plant nutrients in a sustainable
way
reduce GHG through carbon sequestration
and reduced emissions
conserve water resources and quality
µsoil
2. The widely neglected importance of healthy soil
Topsoil facts
• it takes nature approximately 500 years
to create one inch
• 6-10 inches are desirable, that’s where
all annual crops grow
• Losses from erosion alone due to
inappropriate agricultural practices: up
to 150 tons/acre/year (NRCS-USDA)
• At current loss rates only 60 yrs of
topsoil are left
Topsoil functions
• Water storage and management
• Nutrient and Carbon balancing
• Source of micronutrients and
microorganisms
• Carbon sink
• Environmental pollution control
• Plays a fundamental role in climate
change and water preservation
“Soil health is the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains
plants, animals and humans.” (NRCS-USDA)
Topsoil is the upper layer of soil usually extending between 5 and 25 cm. It has the highest concentration of organic
matter and microorganisms and hosts most of the Earth’s biological soil activity.
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3. A key interface for mankind’s ecosystem
Soil is the primary interface between vital resource domains defining
the Earth’s carrying capacity for mankind. To perform that function it
has to be kept healthy.
Atmosphere
Food
Soil
Water
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4. Arable land is another global resource in short supply
• Limited public awareness for a most critical problem
• Carrying capacity of planet earth requires continuous expansion of food production
• Resources like air, water, soil formerly considered indefinite are now limited
• Inorganic nutrient sources
• The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Signed 1994, 193 parties
• Is a 10-year strategy framework until 2018 adequate to the problems?
• Scarcity of arable land is on the rise since the mid-1990ties with farm productivity levelling
Land availability balance:
Soil reclamation is inevitable to counter pressure on food and non-food farm production.
Increasing Losses Diminishing Gains
Infrastructure, urbanization Clearing of virgin forests
Extractive industries Grasslands and Savannahs
Desertification
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5. What the UN says (also see original text next slide)
• Land is a finite resource. Only 1/32 of planet Earth represents arable land.
• 52% of agriculture land is at least moderately affected by soil degradation.
• 12 million ha are lost per year due to drought and desertification.
• Arable land losses estimated at 30-35 times of historical rates.
• Land degradation undermines water availability and quality.
• Losses in food production due to land degradation may combine with those from
depressed yields from effects of climate change reaching up to 50% by 2050 in
some countries.
• Agriculture is currently responsible for 13% of GHG emissions.
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7. A negative balance: losses increasingly exceed gains
Historic drivers of farmland losses
• Unsustainable agronomic practices
• Highly intensive commercial farming
• Indigenous small migrating farmers primarily
in Africa
• Extractive industries
• Urbanization and infrastructure
• Effects of Climate change
• Drought & flooding
• Erosion
Historic drivers of farmland gains
• Clearing of pristine rainforests
• Damaging to the environment
• Destroying biodiversity
• Harming further the CO2 balance
• Farming of grasslands and Savannahs
• Low fertility soils
• Deplete rapidly
• Desertification after being abandoned
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8. Bold measures are urgently required to reverse losses
• Protection of still functional soils
• Conservation of good farm land
• Recovery of already depleted farm land
• End top soil losses to erosion (25 billion tons worldwide every year!)
• Maintain natural soil fertility by establishing sustainable nutrient cycles
• Reclamation of lost farmland
• Former mining and extractive industry use
• Former urban, infrastructure and industrial uses
• Former farmland lost to desertification
• Erosion
• Salination
• Agro-ecosystems demand active human interference for stability
• We have to recognize and accept our duty
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9. Why we need abundant, healthy topsoil
• Food production
• Balanced Sustainability
• Continuous yield under adverse climate conditions
• Carbon sink (CO2) and sequestration (C)
• Avoidance and Mitigation of GHG emissions
• Water availability and quality
• Storage and release of irrigation water
• Supply of drinking water
• Cleanup of toxic pollution by soil microbes
• chemical: leached fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides
• biological: hormones, microbes, germs
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10. Bionic µsoil makes a huge difference
• µsoil can play a major role reversing the current trend
• µsoil is a one-step soil enhancer and 100% organic NPK fertilizer
• puts carbon (organic matter) back into the soil
• rebuilds a sustainable nutrient and humidity storage capacity
• makes nutrients available long term for plant-root uptake as needed
• No damaging leaching of surplus mineral fertilizers
• µsoil builds on Bionic’s unique µchar product
• µchar activated with a selected mixture of beneficial micro organisms
• further processed with the patented Bio-Elite organic NPK fertilizer production method*
• adding animal manure and 100% organic biomass waste
• mixing the combination with additional micro organisms and fungi
• fermenting the product for 30-40 days until fully sanitized
• µsoil is a modern, high-tech successor of the ancient Terra Preta
found in the Amazonian forest by archeologists
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*licensed by Bionic from Mr. Wolfgang Wondrak
13. The Bionic µfuel conversion process*
The µfuel process is contained
in a high-tech reactor system
with a capacity of up to
80 TPD of bonedry feedstock.
13
Lignin
Cellulose
Bionic µcrude
Bionic µchar
modulated pulsed microwave
zeolite catalyst
Biomass
Lignocellulosic Biomass is converted at low
temperature via the application of advanced
microwave radiation combined with catalysts into
bio-crude and bio-char in a specific reactor phase.
Hydrogen
Bionic‘s proprietary µfuel system has been under
development since 2001 and is the benchmark for
catalytic microwave depolymerization of
carbonaceous feedstock worldwide. (patents pending)
µfuel
* for details a special MWDP presentation is available
4/8/2014 © 2014 Bionic Fuel Knowledge Partners Inc., Oswego, NY
14. Food production in field tests
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15. How µsoil carbon sequestration
reduces CO2…
Source: Lehmann, “A handful of carbon”, 2007 Nature, 447
…and how sequestered carbon
improves soil fertility
Lettuce seedlings as one example out of many:
left side biochar media, right side control with peat media
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16. Biomass Production
Food
Feed
Lumber
Micro
organisms
µchar
• Bio-char
Organic Waste
• Animal manure
• Food waste
• Agric waste
char
activation
Farms Plantations
Forests
Atmospheric
Carbon (CO2), Nutrients (NOx)
Energy
µsoil Fertilizer and Soil Enhancer
Water
rainfall & irrigation
The Bionic µsoil Nutrient & Carbon Cycle
A carbon
negative
biofuel
Long term
carbon
sequestration
Reduced CO2
emissions
from waste
Biomass Production
Formation of
healthy
topsoil
fermentation
Micro
organisms
Mixing and treatment
of activated char with
organic waste
Catalytic Microwave
Depolymerization in
a µfuel mf60 plant
Cellulosic
Biomass
Feedstock
catalysts
µfuel
• High quality bio-crude
• Diesel blendstock
• Generator fuel
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17. Reclamation of fully depleted land with µsoil:
5 times faster growth of biomass
up to 4 crop seasons under irrigation
Eroded
soil
Stabilization of the soil
with µsoil and changed
agronomic practices
No additional synthetic
fertilizer required
Even the most eroded soils can be transferred back to arable land and then continuously
improved to high value farmland thus reactivating land resources, preserving the environment
reduce carbon footprint and create value and sustainable farm revenues.
Use of µsoil for 3 years
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18. Soil remediation at Welzow, Germany, an open pit coal mine
Starting from no vegetation at all
the reclamation process started by
deep plowing the organic fertilizer
product into the ground
Only 18 months later very strong vegetation
has developed. Soil testing reveals the
development of a new topsoil layer of at
least 25 cm.
A new field is ready for a first crop season.
Welzow, 2007
Welzow, 2009
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~ 2 years
19. Recovery of degrading soil with bionic µsoil:
• 5 times faster growth of biomass
• up to 4 crop seasons under irrigation
Eroded
soil
Continuous improvement of land from partially eroded soil back to valuable farmland saves
resources, preserves the environment, supports a small carbon footprint and increases value
and long term returns.
End continuous degradation
from conventional farming
methods
Stabilization of soil conditions
with µsoil and agronomic practices
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20. Bionic µsoil tests show amazing results – but why?
Organic fertilizer plus microorganisms
(Bio-Elite)
• Normalized organic NPK replacement
• Sufficient micro-nutrient supply
• No leaching of mineral nutrients
• Increase of organic matter
• Healthy soil biology through added
microbes
• Storage capacity for nutrients and water
• Natural aeration and loosening of soil
Activated biochar
(bionic µchar)
• Increased carbon supply
• Increased levels of soil microbes
• Electrically charged carbon boosts soil
activity
• Even more storage capacity
• Carbon is a nutrient for soil microbes
• Counters compaction from heavy
equipment
• Humic acid release
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21. Sustaining nutrient balance (comparison)
The Terra Preta effect
• Balanced self-augmentation of soil
nutrients and microorganisms
• Sustainable higher yields at low input cost
• Top soil increase instead of losses
• Soil quality grows beyond that found
even in the best virgin land
Commercial farming with synthetic
NPK
• Increasing amounts of synthetic fertilizer
required to maintain productivity
• Diminishing top soil and soil organic
matter (carbon)
• Leaching of mineral fertilizers in surface
and ground water destroys drinking water
• No protection against erosion remains
• Loss of soil storage capabilities
• Fast dropping yields at rising input cost
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22. Bionic µsoil is closing the soil-resource cycles
• The carbon cycle
• More carbon in the soil = less carbon in the atmosphere
• Nutrient uptake regulated again by the plants themselves
• Organic nutrient supply = the plant decides how much and when
• All plant pathways remain activated
• Easy availability of nutrients from synthetic fertilizers leave important pathways inactive
• Little training for stress conditions like drought or water logging
• Micronutrient
• Controlled availability
• Soil microbes
• Higher activity and availability than in most virgin soils
• Water management
• Storage capacity increase by 30-50% without any water logging effects
• Gradual release when needed by plants
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23. Bionic converts “waste” with exploding treatment cost into a profitable resource
Animal manure disposal
• Recycling is a must to recover
nutrients
• Avoid health risks borne from manure
and rotting biomass
• Strict sanitation requirements in most
developed countries (current and
coming) add cost pressure to animal
husbandry
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Biomass waste disposal
• Health risks from food and agriculture
waste, biogas plants, sewer systems
• GHG emissions from uncontrolled
organic waste decomposition
bionic µsoil answers waste management issues
24. Make bionic µsoil your win-win choice
• Because consumers want organic products
• Because farmers stabilize cost while increasing land value and income
• Because yields are not dropping with µsoil while revenues rise
• Because we need to maintain a healthy environment
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…for a sustainable future
25. Partner with Bionic to participate in µsoil success
• Bionic has started to build a network for the global roll-out of µsoil
highly flexible in finding the best fit cooperation terms
Joint Ventures
Sales Partnerships
Franchising Systems
Licensing Models
Technology Partnerships
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26. We look forward
to hear from you
Bionic Group of Companies
Bionic Laboratories BLG GmbH
Helwigstr. 41
64521 Groß-Gerau, Germany
www.bionic-world.net
+49 1525 33 40 500
info@bionic-lab.de
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4/8/2014 © 2014 Bionic Fuel Knowledge Partners Inc., Oswego, NY