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July 15, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked reputable news agency proofread by Susan Du, Star Tribune Minneapolis is on track to become one of the first U.S.

cities to invest in biochar, a multifunctional, charcoal-like material said to help grow bigger plants, reduce storm water runoff and remove carbon from the atmosphere. The city has committed $700,000 to develop an industrial yard and buy a BluSky Carbon pyrolyzer, a spinning drum about the size of a 40-foot shipping container that heats organic material with minimal oxygen. According to the manufacturer, the wood doesn't burn in this low-oxygen environment, but is converted into a multi-use char that can lock away carbon that otherwise would have been released through natural decomposition.



Natural gas starts the machine, but then the wood gas created as a byproduct of the process sustains it. "It's almost obnoxious how many applications there are for biochar," said William Hessert, CEO of BluSky Carbon, as he named a few: improving nutrient and water retention, increasing crop yield and improving the strength of concrete, plastics and steel. "As long as you're not using the char to burn it like a briquette, the carbon in there can be stable, depending on how you do this, for hundreds or thousands or millions of years.

" Jim Doten, the city's carbon sequestrati.

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