
Executive Summary
Biomass to Biochar Executive Summary (Draft)
Final Report
Coming soon. Anticipated release in early 2021.
Forty biochar producers, practitioners, scientists, and engineers held a virtual workshop in April 2020 to chart a roadmap for future development of the biochar industry in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
The report resulting from this workshop will be published in early 2021. Please email Karen Hills (karen.hills@wsu.edu) to be notified when the report is published.


This project was made possible by funding from the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Forest Service.
Dr. James Amonette: Major Funding Priorities Identified by the Biomass to Biochar: Maximizing the Carbon Value Workshop.
In addition to the workshop overview, five presentations were given at the Forum that summarize the key sector-focused recommendations made by the workshop working groups. These are:
- Gloria Flora: Environmentally Friendly, Ecosystem-Informed Biochar Kiln Design for Sustainable Practices
- Jim Dooley: Maximizing the Net Carbon Content of Biochar at Distributed and Community-Scale Production Sites.
- Tom Miles: Large Scale Biochar Production.
- Mark Fuchs: Integrating the Biochar/Compost Industries—Carbon Drawdown for Profit
- Dr. Kristin Trippe: Developing a Nationwide Framework for Evaluation and Predicting Agronomic Responses to Biochar-Based Amendments.
Other participants in the workshop also gave presentations at the Forum.
- Josiah Hunt: Keynote: Dark Earth for a Bright Future: The Big Picture View on Biochar
- Kelpie Wilson: A Carbon Conservation Corps to Restore Forests With Biochar
- Jim Archuleta: Toward Sustainable Forest, Farm and Urban Management: Biochar’s Place Within Landscape Reallocation of Organic Matter
- Debbie Dumroese & Carlos Rodriguez-Franco: Using Biochar for Abandoned Mine Lands and Forest Restoration
- Gloria Flora: Building a Sustainable Biochar Industry
- Josiah Hunt: Leveraging Existing Infrastructure in California to Sustainably Produce 250,000 Tons of Biochar Per Year within 5 Years.
- Brennan Pecha: NREL Perspective: High Temperature Conversion of Wood and Waste to Fuels and Biochar at the National Renewable Energy Lab
- Tom Miles: Building Capacity in Biochar Advocacy and Educational Organizations: IBI, USBI, CBA, SBI, Etc.
A parallel effort involving some of the workshop participants led to this perspectives article in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation:
- Integrated Biochar Research: A Roadmap – Open access article