Appropriate Technology

Project Ideas

Researching Land Transition

From chemically fertilized back to living soil. A closely related study would be how to stop erosion or even restore lost topsoil.

• "During the past 40 years nearly one-third of the world's cropland (1.5 billion hectares) has been abandoned because of soil erosion and degradation."
  • See: http://www.fewresources.org/soil-science-and-society-were-running-out-of-dirt.html
  • http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-11-10/growing-topsoil/
• http://www.erosionresources.us/sites/erosion-resources.dev.scmdigital.com/files/terravita___earth_essence_pdf.pdf
• Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A

If you add bio-char to the soil, is there a particular culture of microbes that you might want to inoculate it with?

Possible Projects

RT New Mexico

I believe the group leader is Gordon West, who is a friend of my friend Kurt.

They are heavily into bio-char, and have been prototyping bio-char reactors for years. They are now close to a patentable continuous feed bio-char reactor, that Kurt is developing control circuitry for. It sounded like they were working out better ways to use the excess heat produced. eg. drying the pelletized feed stock, and maybe heating a hospital with etc...

There was an earlier project that allowed less affluent families to cook their food on a barbecue, and make bio-char at the same time! Then they could either sell the bio-char or use it in their gardens. :-)

Ah, so then they take the bio-char and they mix it in a special compost pile with beneficial bacteria micro-riza etc... to inoculate it, and then it's ready to be used. :-)

They are working with some NMSU professors on these things:

• Main Site: http://rtnewmexico.com/
• David Johnson. soil scientist at NMSU:
  • http://soilnotoilcoalition.org/david-johnson/
  • https://thecarbonunderground.org/no-regrets-carbon-capture-mechanism-for-new-mexico-state-university/
  • http://carbonlink.com.au/roadshow-video-series/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18FVVYKU9gs
    • Slides: http://02f.e55.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Quivira_Johnson1.pdf
• Katie Brewer: https://chme.nmsu.edu/constituency/faculty/name/catherine-brewer/

Katie has a phd student who is trying to solve the problem of ground water polluted by NDMA which is a byproduct of making rocket fuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Nitrosodimethylamine

It's super toxic, more so than the wikipeadia article lets on, and it's hard to get rid of. However, it seems that it burns clean after it's sequestered in a carbon matrix!

Unfortunately (If I understood Kurt's brief description) the NDMA is in the ground water. Their proposed solution is to pump it out and filter it though Activated carbon filters. It's like the opposite of what fracking does.

However Granulated Activated Carbon or GAC is expensive to make and their just isn't enough of it to clean up all the NDMA in the world. So the big project for this phd student it to figure out how to convert Bio-Char to something approximating GAC. It doesn't have to be perfect just lots cheaper and a higher volume production than GAC. So this could probably be one tool used in land transition. Oh, and bio-Char also sequesters heavy metals.

Pacific Gro

• URL: http://www.pacificgro.com/
• Transitioning ground to organic practices: http://www.pacificgro.com/oceanic-hydrolysate-with-biochar
• Main contact Mike Maki: mike.maki5648@gmail.com, 360-259-3962
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-maki-025b72a/
  • What I’m most excited about as a biochar maven is the combination with biochar with chitin/chitosan. After lignocellulose, chitin is the second most common organic material on the planet, found in crab and shrimp shell, insect exoskeletons, and is the main component of fungal hyphae/mycelium. There’s where it gets interesting. Chitosan, a breakdown product of chitin, has a number of remarkable qualities, including a signaling function to plant immune systems for pest resistance. Anyway, we are looking at the combinations, application rates, and so forth. Chitosan is also being used extensively in waste water treatment and bioremediation. Creating synergistic teams of biochar, chitosan, and microbial cultures is what’s got us excited.
• They also may use Zeolite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeolite
• More info: PacificGro

Resources

• Jenny Pell: https://www.permacultureintl.com/jenny-pell
• Transition Tool Kit: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51624bdce4b058e82d8a2faf/t/536658d4e4b0a8d04d94c9b1/1399216340026/Agroecology+Toolkit.pdf

Marine Biology Related

• Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI): https://www.mbari.org/about/employment/
• Moorea Coral Reef LTER: http://mcr.lternet.edu/research

Side Projects

Structured Water

Look for metrics that distinguish structured water from "Dead" water. eg Spectra absorption, Freezing point (In a triple point cell). Partial pressure of adsorbed gases.

Carbon Sequestration

There was recent Ted talk about carbon sequestration by Tim Kruger. He is mostly into Geoengineering, but says he has explored many ways of doing this. Though I didn't see any mention of agricultural solutions. His Ted talk mentions a process that is carbon negative that works best when you dump vast quantities of lime into the ocean. Here are some of his links:

• http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/people/114
• http://www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/people/who-are-we/tim-kruger/
• https://www.ted.com/speakers/tim_kruger

Bio-Char

• Intro to Bio-char: https://youtu.be/AUh1vwDjaVo
• Marin Carbon Project: http://www.marincarbonproject.org/

Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing

• Soil Carbon Cowboys - 12 minutes; https://vimeo.com/80518559
• One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts - 15 minutes: https://vimeo.com/170413226
• A Fence and an Owner - 9 1/2 minutes: https://vimeo.com/201215707
• 22 1/4 minutes: https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change
• Using Mammoths! - 30 1/2 minutes: https://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_and_chris_anderson_mammoths_resurrected_geoengineering_and_other_thoughts_from_a_futurist

Microryza

• http://eatlikelisa.com/phosphorus-in-farming/
• https://www.ted.com/talks/mohamed_hijri_a_simple_solution_to_the_coming_phosphorus_crisis

Open source Ecology

Here is a guy who is creating open source plans for farm machinery.

• http://opensourceecology.org/
• https://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski

Robotics in Agriculture

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-11/this-army-of-ai-robots-will-feed-the-world

Scientific Grant Sources

• https://experiment.com/
• https://priceonomics.com/how-microryza-acquired-the-domain-experimentcom/

Empowerment Culture

Branding

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7qiqfFcI40

Letting Employees get Creative

• https://www.engadget.com/2013/09/04/the-atypical-story-of-kerbal-space-programs-indie-flight-to-suc/
• Diana Dosik: Why we need to treat our employees as thoughtfully as our customers:
  • https://www.ted.com/watch/ted-institute/ted-bcg/diana-dosik-why-we-need-to-treat-our-employees-thoughtfully
• https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_goldman_the_search_for_aha_moments

General

• https://www.ted.com/talks/per_espen_stoknes_how_to_transform_apocalypse_fatigue_into_action_on_global_warming?language=en

Papers

Shellfish waste stream management

• Nov 2017: Aquatic-Derived Biomaterials for a Sustainable Future: A European Opportunity
  • http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/6/4/65/pdf
• 2016 Industrial applications of crustacean by-products chitin chitosan and chitooligosaccharides A review
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287973315_Industrial_applications_of_crustacean_by-products_chitin_chitosan_and_chitooligosaccharides_A_review
• 2015 Sustainability don't waste seafood waste
  • http://www.nature.com/news/sustainability-don-t-waste-seafood-waste-1.18149
• May 2004: Shellfish waste disposal and opportunities for by-products
  • Power point type slides with some useful info.
  • http://www.shellfish.org.uk/files/Conferences/Pre-2010/shellfish_waste_disposal_and_opportunities_for_by-products_sagb_annual_conference_2004.pdf
• 2002: Utilization of shrimp shellfish waste as a substrate for solid-state cultivation of Aspergillu
  • sp. S1-13: Evaluation of a culture based on chitinase formation which is necessary for chitin-assimilation
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389172302802365
• June 94: Bioconversion of marine crustacean shell waste
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/092134499490085X

Composting

• Fish/Shellfish Waste: http://compost.css.cornell.edu/fishwaste.html
• Weird and Unusual Composting! http://compost.css.cornell.edu/weird.html

-- ClifCox - 19 Dec 2017