Monday 3 April 2017

The first biochar plant of City of Stockholm up and running!

Last week some great news came in: finally the Pyreg plant of Stockholm is operational!

A first-of-its-kind project, the facility turns plant waste from parks and homes – everything from grass clippings to trees and limbs – into carbon-capturing charcoal that residents can then use in their window boxes and gardens to promote plant growth. Biochar is a powerful soil conditioner, it decreases carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere and, through its production, it will even create enough energy to provide heat and hot water for more than 80 apartments in the city.

The facility opened on March 29th is the first of five planned as part of the Stockholm Biochar Project, a Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge winning entry from 2014. Together, the five plants are expected to produce 7,000 tons of biochar over the next three years – sequestering enough carbon to take the equivalent of 3,500 cars off Stockholm’s streets.

As the biochar pioneer of Stockholm, tree officer Björn Embrén commented: "despite the extreme complications, such as choosing the location for biochar production, the benefits are so great that the process was worth the hassle. Even if you have to think twice to find solutions for your challenges – and this slows down the project – the ends make it worth it."

See more: https://www.bloomberg.org/blog/stockholm-biochar-project-mayors-challenge-winner-opens-first-plant/
http://www.stockholmvattenochavfall.se/avfall-och-atervinning/utvecklingsprojekt/biokol/
https://www.bbhub.io/dotorg/sites/2/2017/03/Replicating-in-Stockholm.pdf

The AgriChar research group congratulates Stockholm for this milestone step and hopes we soon see mushrooming of biochar projects in different municipalities! 

The below photos are from Bloomberg and City of Stockholm PR feeds. People seem quite happy to get things going, but as you see here, several  obstacles about building permits etc. challenged the team.



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