On July 18th Open Fields hosted the ICHAR (Biochar Italian Association) annual conference called “Biochar an opportunity for agriculture and energy sectors”.
Biochar is the by-product of the pyrolysis with interesting soil amendment properties, increasing the crop production and saving the agro-inputs. The meeting gathered many people from the business, the agriculture and scientific sector.
Chairman of the conference was Roberto Ranieri, who underlined the importance of such meetings in order to turn the biochar into a real business. Among the speakers, Franco Miglietta, ICHAR president and Ibimet-CNR scientific chief, Alessandro Pozzi from AGT (Advanced Gasification Technology) who explained how the pyro-gasification plant works, Alessandro Peressotti (University of Udine ) who presented the new pyrolysis stoves designed by Blucomb for the production of heat and domestic biochar, and finally Massimo Valagussa from the Minoprio Foundation who took stock of the European regulation and of the steps needed to register charcoal as a legal amendment.
Later in the morning the ICHAR group moved to the “Azienda Agraria Sperimentale Stuard” (San Pancrazio-PR) where there is an ongoing field trial with biochar and processing tomato. The participants had the opportunity to visit the field and observe the results of biochar on the tomato which is strategic for Emilia-Romagna giving more than a third of the Italian production.