I wonder if carbon credits are a part of their business model. From their website:
MISSION STATEMENT
To restore the Earth for Humanity
Coolplanet was selling inoculated biochar, but they sold off that division to National Biocarbon Technologies a few years ago.
It is probably viable but the margins are thin.
Small batch sales to suburban gardeners with more money than sense; thatās where I think the profit would be. About 30-40 miles out from major cities you get these day visit āfarmsā with hay rides, pumpkins, apple picking and the like. Sell inoculated biochar by the half gallon in their farm shop. Iād make a little tag explaining what it is and how it worksā¦ long lasting fertilizationā¦ terra preta reference maybe? Eh - worth a shot.
At a commercial scale, I think the margins are too thin. Carbon credits go for about $100 a ton and thatās about 3 cubic yard of charcoal? I see charcoal quoted at around $900 a ton at scale and I imagine the intended use at that scale and price includes burning so no credits.
I have kicked this around, I can envision a continuous charring tube with paddles to move the material through the roughly 3 foot tube. All driven by hydraulics that are run by either charcoal or a wood gas generator and an old toyota engineā¦ Make bio char, using wood to generate both heat and hydraulics to provide the rotory energy for both the paddles that move the wood chips and saw dust throuth the retort and hydraulics to drive rotory valves to bring the wood in and the char out without too much oxigen into the retort. I too have wondered about carbon credits. personally, I would love to incorporate this into large scale composting. Any thoughts or advice?
Kent
Basically theyāre making specialized activated carbon. Interesting process: low pressure, long cook time.
Itās good to explore alternative income streams Kent. It will be a necessity for old dudes like me that exist on social security and pensions because most if not all pension funds are invested in the stock market which will go down the tubes along with the Social Security payments as our fiat currencies go into hyper inflation. Alternative incomes must be found now. No arguments required. Folks need to do some research and then Accept or reject the idea.
The problems with manufacturing bio-char are that a large and constant supply of wood is required and the EPA has all kinds of regulations. Not a lot of people are aware of the benefits and would expect a fully charged product. Another significant expense. If you found a retailer that wanted to sell it, you would be lucky to recieve 50 per cent of the end price. Farm market sales would give full profit but usually only run one day a week. Still it would be some kind of income stream, especially if you included other products, like worms and worm castings as part of your product line.
I would not have believed it if I was told beforehand but at least here, when the Covid lock downs came, within a week there was no seeds, gardening tools or supplies to be had at any of the big box stores. Panic buying because it came at the start of gardening season. We are going into another plandemic in the coming months. The same hysteria will be forth coming. Food and food production will be the most important thing. Maybe toilet paper because we never get our priorities straight 
I have not considered selling through places like E bay or Amazon. That could be a way to move bio-char if they stay in business and probably the first place people would look to find a source for the stuff.
cool planet was running trials with vegetables. They demonstrated a 12,3% yield increase of marketable produce in 100 different trials claiming there is a 3:1 return on investment. I am wondering about the residual effect and what they inoculated it with.
I am not sure how special it is. What did you think of their kiln design?
I need to make some biochar, dropping it in the pond like that is a good idea.
Would these be too fine of mesh?
https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Strainer-Brewing-Drawstring-Straining/dp/B0881KM54Q/ref=asc_df_B0881KM54Q/
Around here in western Pa we have several hardwood pallet mills very close to us, plus several smaller portable mills that just leave the sawdust to rot. Clean chips and sawdust are $20 a ton and any that have dirt, is wet, or has been spilled on the ground is free.
I have also heard that biochar has been used as a feed additive for cattle-fed grain. Helps with digestion and increased feed efficiency.
Kent
Apparently in PA, they are also using biochar to clear up reservoirs. Which has a nice example of the size of the biochar, but I canāt figure out what to use for the bag, it is a lot finer mesh then I had anticipated.
While not the same material. I think they are using the material the use for āsilt socksā. The Dollar Store had a 24"x 36" laundry bag. i think I am just going to dump my char in the bag smash it a bit, tie a rope to it and throw it in. It is already damp so it shouldnāt float for very long.
So, youāre cleaning up a pond? Cool!
James Gaspard seems to suspend āsocksā between the surface and the bottom by using a float and an anchor. I think a laundry bag would work.
Rindert
It is either this or copper sulfate, and the char gets the nutrients out of the system and reduces the issue. I am trying to figure out how much I need, but I think I will just add bags as I make more char throughout the summer.
I thought this little video had some good info. Apparently the algae was caused by phosphates.
Rindert
Iāve been fighting these God awful lily pad looking weeds. They only stay in the water of the pond. Weāve tried Sulfate, cutting them with special tools and raking them up, spraying chemicals on the pads to temporarily kill them. The fish are fine, we got a couple sterile grass eating carp to try and eat it up but I think the growth rate is too fast for them to do any good. That or the large mouth bass ate the carp. Apparently my grandpa used to pour copious amounts of 10/10/10 into the pond for weed control.
I wonder if some biochar soakers would help. At least Iād get some free nutrients for gardening out of it. I think it arrived on the foot of a Canadian Goose.
This is kind of a slippery slope, but growing duckweed in your pond will absorb most of the nitrates and it provides a highly nutritious food source for animals and even humans, so an excellent prep, however unless it it constantly harvested it will deplete the oxygen supply in the water. Iām have no information about whether it would do anything about your lily pad problem. Iād research it if you havenāt already. It is invasive.
I would put money on it helping. It will help remove a whole bunch of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphates. Phosphates are what they blame for the blooms, but I recall the nitrogen also contributes, which the char will also pull out.
It will help certainly for duckweed, mealweed and algae. Lilypads ācleanā the water, similar to cattails. And their bulbs donāt need to be in the bottom, it just anchors them in place. They get nutrients from the water.
Make sure to screen the ash out of it, since it contains some phosphorous. I watched a video, where a guy was going to try it but his char looked more white then black, I am guessing he didnāt screen it and just left the ash in. I broke mine up and rinsed it with the hose because it was the bottom of the bucket, and there was ash but not much sense in getting screening stuff out if the bag has holes in it. 
āBeneficial Bacteria products and enzymes such as PZ-900 feed on nutrients in the water making them unavailable for plant growth. Reducing nutrients can help prevent invasion.ā
PZ-900 appears to be a water clarifying bacteria that eat the dead plants and locks up those nutrients which might reduce the amount of oxygen in the water as well. I am not sure because it also sounds a lot like an anaerobic bacteria.
The real question is how much do you need to be effective, which might just be one of those āit dependsā types of answers based on pond contents, and water movement. I am guessing it has no upper limit of too much.
Any effect is better than no effect. Right now itās taken over half of the pond. I call them lily pads but they donāt make any flowers that Iāve seen. They have stems that anchor to the floor but they donāt have the iconic split that a true lily pad has.
Right, and how do you know when the biochar has adsorbed everything it can?
Rindert
P.S. Do phosphates come from laundry detergent?