You may also look to the guidelines of the European Biochar Certificate to found here: www.european-biochar.org

Hi Vijay,

If you want to do some quality research for soil or biochar, spectroscopy technique would be one of the best option. According to all the work has done so far, I suggest you to use IR spectroscopy, you will find most of the information you need from IR spectra. This work could be a long shoot if you dont have any spctroscoopy and chemometrics background. So it's all your call!

Good luck!

The quality of biochar can be assessed like any other organic materials in the lab. However, the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) has already developed the Standardized Product Definition and Product Testing Guidelines for Biochar which can be used in soil. If you visit the IBI website you can find more information about biochar testing and quality standards.

Efectivamente IBI ha desarrollado todos los protocolos para el BIOCHAR. Consultelos

You may also look to the guidelines of the European Biochar Certificate to found here: www.european-biochar.org

http://www.plusgroup.co.nz/cost.html

Hi Vijay,

Visit the above website. My associate Allister Holmes has done some great research.

I hope this is of help.

Best wishes

Philip Barlow

Rightly said by Getachew Agegnehu that the quality of biochar can be assessed in the lab by analyzing its physico-chemical properties. Moreover The it can also be assessed by evaluating its effect on crop performance and soil quality over a some period of time with specific emphasis on soil C and N cycling.

I am also enclosing an article which may be of some help to you.

Attached article

There is no one good test for biochar quality, but rather, many - and the best tests to use depend on what you intend to use the biochar for. In general, I agree that the IBI guidelines are adequate in most cases.

Although there are some methodological guidelines to evaluate biochar quality, I believe the first thing to keep in mind is: what is the main function you are looking for when using biochar-to-soil? Store carbon, increase water retention, purify the soil? All these at the same time? This is the idea of the British group of biochar research when they propose the concept of bespoke biochar.

It depends on what you plan to use biochars for. Say, for soil acidity correction, you should know pH and CaCO3 equivalent of biochars, also surface functional groups, such as COOH or phenolic OH, using Boehm tritration or FTIR. For plant nutrient retention or microbial stimulation, you should look for surface area and pore size of biochars, using scanning electron microscopy, for example.

I read all the answers, thank you so much everyone. I learned a lot.

Bruno Marangoni University of Bologna Italy

IBI standarized analysis are fine. Biochard is not a fertilizer so on field trial wiill be fondamental the interaction with soil caractericts expecilly the ph and clay level.

There are a number of quality standards of biochar. One is the Biochar Qulaity mandate (BQM) by the British Biochar Foundation (BBF) which is closely linked to the International Biochar Institute (IBI) standards. You can find the BQM on the BBF website. Hope this helps.

The quality of biochar can be determined in the laboratory.  For further details, one may consult the quality standard for biochar drafted by the International Biochar Initiative.

Once you know what exactly your interests are with reference to biochar application, the best way to determine the quality of biochar and its characterization is to conduct a laboratory analysis.

Hi

Excellent points made by the scientists here, that the first thing is to consider is what is the intended use of biochar.

However, I believe, at lease biochar moisture content and ash content should be determined. if they are at low levels, then consider further laboratory evaluations. Also, measure its salinity (EC). In our researches with wood biochars, it was often high.