03.23: Biochar

Climate News 03.2023: Biochar

In February, the Colorado Legislature agreed to move forward with a study to determine whether biochar could effectively help to cap orphaned oil and gas wells. There are estimated to be over three million abandoned oil wells nationwide, many of which leak climate warming gasses into the atmosphere. The gasses can also have negative effects on the health of people and animals living near the wells. 

Biochar is made through a process called pyrolysis in which wood and other organic materials are burned at very high temperatures while oxygen is removed from the chamber. Biochar can sequester and keep carbon inert for millenia. If successful, the biochar will not only cap the wells but sequester the carbon dioxide and methane, removing it from the carbon cycle. This is an important approach that goes hand in hand with efforts to release fewer harmful gasses into the atmosphere. Additionally, the trees that are being used to make biochar come from beetle kill and forest fires across Colorado. Using them to make this material prevents them from being burned and releasing more carbon dioxide. 

Lawmakers hope that this new process will not only help Colorado, but could become a model for other states. If oil wells nationwide were largely capped experts estimate that it could keep millions to billions of tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. I am excited about this approach because it is doubly good for the environment by both sequestering and limiting the release of carbon dioxide, and it has the potential to have a huge impact.