Bokashi and Biochar

It's been a little while since the last blog. I've had a chance to research bokashi for anaerobic fermentation of organic waste and it occurred to me it would work great with biochar, which can soak up liquids, reduce odour and provide microbial habitat. I also get emails from Kelpie Wilson's substack and it looks like she beat me to it.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-148238556

Bokashi, Biochar eg.wood, bamboo etc. and humanure (off-grid: unpowered eg. no seat warmer or pop up lid with motion sensor; no plumbing/use of potable water; no extra chemicals; no digging)
One of the applications that interested me in Kelpie's article was off-grid emergency humanitarian relief, in this case due to a wildfire/bushfire. 'Unnatural' climate disasters are becoming the norm around the world.

Bring on the eco-friendly off-grid dunnies!

The biochar could be sourced from biochar produced from TLUDs, such as the Navigator 'Backup' TLUD (see page and photos below) or Bush Survival System (which will soon be tested - see earlier blog), possibly after using it in a gravity fed water filtration system, such as the Permafilter 20L (see photos below).

This is definitely an area that warrants more research as it could help billions of people with lack of access to safe sanitation. According to WHO (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation):

• In 2022, 57% of the global population (4.6 billion people) used a safely managed sanitation service.
• Over 1.5 billion people still do not have basic sanitation services, such as private toilets or latrines.
• Of these, 419 million still defecate in the open, for example in street gutters, behind bushes or into open bodies of water.

Pretty shocking stuff. Bokashi, biochar, bioplastic toilet seat and 20L bioplastic bucket manufacturing and logistics can improve public health! Not enough eco-friendly toilets...

I would also suggest that the humanure can be added to larger compost systems for growing systems, also using bokashi and Biochar, possibly using biochar from the Flame Cap 'Algorithm' Panel kiln (see page for design), Ring of Fire (available in the US), Kon-Tiki 'Essential' (see page - CADs available for sale) possibly with additional animal manure eg. Poultry or Cow, plus some biomass waste, such as kitchen scraps and chipped prunings eg. Olive, fruit trees; straw etc.

I don't normally use AI software for blogs but I've been experimenting with perplexity.ai deep research, which has it's limits but usually references things OK (with a lot of inference). Results can read like spaghetti.

I did a search for 'bokashi biochar and humanure'. This is the conclusion;

The integration of bokashi fermentation, biochar application, and humanure composting represents a holistic approach to waste management that transforms potential pollutants into valuable resources. By mimicking natural cycles and drawing from traditional practices like Terra Preta, these techniques offer solutions to contemporary challenges in waste management, soil degradation, and climate change.

For those interested in implementing these systems, starting with bokashi and biochar for food waste presents a low-barrier entry point, with humanure systems requiring more careful consideration of local regulations and proper management protocols. As these practices continue to gain recognition, they offer promising pathways toward more sustainable and regenerative waste and soil management systems.

Whether applied at household scale or community level, these integrated approaches demonstrate how "waste" can become a valuable resource in creating resilient, productive, and environmentally responsible systems.

You can tap or click on the photos for a description.

?Green (H2) steel is essential. I can't imagine any alternative at this point in time that can compete with steel for biochar stoves and kilns plus some durable cookware.

I should mention too that ideally the plastic containers would be made from recycled plastic, eg. co-pyrolysis of biomass and hydrocarbon-based plastic->monomers->new plastic or a biological/plant based plastic such as hemp bioplastic, that Paul Benhaim is moving on. It would be great if Paul could expand to Australia which maybe he already is...https://hempplastic.com/

As an aside, bamboo socks and jocks are great too. Very durable, soft, breathable, great odor control and sustainable if the boo is harvested sustainably, which is also the fastest growing plant for Carbon sequestration. Some bamboos can grow up to 1m per day! Makes great biochar too.

Although this toilet looks ridiculous, the conversion of humanure to biochar isn't. In fact, it's the safest option to kill pathogens and can be added to compost systems. What got me thinking about turds again was my research in Continuous Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (CMAP), used by Resynergi, when I was doing some plastic recycling consulting work. Potentially, for grid based sewage systems this could work very well. There's also another option using a fast pyrolysis biochar kiln, built for the Logan City Council in Queensland, Australia. In Japan, in the 1980s, a rotary kiln was used via pyrolysis, to turn sewage into biochar energy bricks but was shut down after lack of interest.

Back to the smaller scale, I had the idea of using a Batch Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (BMAP) system integrated into a loo which I call 'The Crap Carboniser'. In other words, the punter would be crapping into a VERY energy efficient microwave oven (with an internal retort, which can easily be removed to empty the biochar and place back into the oven) which could then zap the turds (with a bit of poo biochar added along the way before a zap, from a previous zap/batch, for increased dielectric heating important for MAP plus water adsorption and odour control) and turn them into biochar (for a cautionary crap while not sitting on the toilet during a zap). But, it would be powered, but not necessarily grid powered aka could be off-grid renewables, but maybe without a trailer and parabolic dishes. I'd be interested to get some feedback on this idea from poo researchers. What do u think?

What's the point of carbonising crap? Trace mineral and some nutrient reclamation, Carbon removal for growing systems eg.microgreens and killing of fecal pathogens that can infect the water supply.

What's the bigger picture? A 'just green transition', with fossil phase out, to a mostly soil, plant, ocean, atmosphere and renewables based circular bioeconomy Civilisation that doesn't waste/pollute, doesn't warm the climate and doesn't make us or the Planet sick.