Biochar

2022

MSc Dissertation Project - Where my journey with Biochar began:

I was aware of biochar’s rising popularity and usage in the late 2010s, but didn’t have much understanding of what it really was, as well as its potential regarding landscape recovery and agriculture.

My M.Sc. dissertation was on applying biochar to soil (as an amendment) to test its ability to ameliorate the individual and combined effects of drought and salinity on wheat production. For me, the research integrated three main interests of mine which are; soil remediation, regenerating semi-arid/arid landscapes and agroecology.

The research topic really opened a lot of doors for me and allowed me to get lost into the beautiful complexities of soil science. It also gave me a lot of perspectives, such as; (1) some of the practical limitations of research but also the potential of it, (2) the devastating reality of how much land we’re losing to the salinization of soils around the world (mostly through agriculture) and how difficult it is to reverse these kinds of problems, and (3) the importance of integrating a variety of solutions to these landscape problems to create more resiliency and long-term solutions.

What’s happening now…

In the last few years, Biochar has been a hot topic in many industries because of its ability to store carbon for long periods. At the beginning of starting with Arup and throughout my time there, I was a part of different projects involving biochar application in habitat creation.