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March 18, 2010herbivore-induced volatiles (HIPVs) That is what the signaling compounds are called to attract beneficials http://tinyurl.com/y9wfjp6
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March 18, 2010http://tinyurl.com/yzltyzj Do plants send out signals to biological control agents when under distress from pests?
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March 13, 2010http://tinyurl.com/yzwj9oc If you happen to be in Toronto next week check out this production of Dr. Faustus staring Hallie Burt!
Seminar: Hugh McLaughlin, Director of Biocarbon Research, Alterna Biocarbon
Where: Wilton Women's Institute Hall, Wilton Ontario
When: 18 February 2010, 9:00-10:00.
Following the seminar will be a tour of Burt's Greenhouses heating system and char making process about 3K away from the Wilton Women's Institute Hall.
Biochars - what we know, what we think we know and what we do not know
As the saying goes "A wise man knows what he does not know". The biochar community is struggling with separating fact from hearsay about the role of biochar, especially when added to soils. Drawing from past and current observations concerning Terra Preta, biochar clearly has a role in soils. What that role is and how to control it remains an area requiring much more time and effort to sort out.
"Producing biochar by heating wood waste to 500-750C in an oxygen free kiln (pyrolysis) produces a highly stable form of carbon as well as biofuels as gas or oil. The solid, carbon rich biochar is highly stable and effective as a soil amendment. It might emerge as an adaptive energy generation opportunity that could increase the resilience of some Near North and Far North communities, at the same time as sequestering carbon and potentially increasing the fertility of local agricultural soils. Biochar production is also a field in which potential adaptation and mitigation measures co-exist." (From the Report of the Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation, Ontario, Nov. 2009)
The seminar will start with common, easy and safe observations about biochar, such as color, and proceed into the less well established and more controversial phenomena. The speaker will present his current understanding and opinion of the "state of the art" and the audience will be encouraged to augment the understanding or undermine it. This is an opportunity for the audience to become familiar with one of the hottest topics in the climate change debate, right from the top expert in the field.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. McLaughlin has over 25 years of experience with activated carbon and its applications. He has performed fundamental research on activation and regeneration of activated carbon, with particular insight into the extent of adsorption performance and impact on the activated carbon physical properties. As such, he is an “Activated Carbon Guru”.
Dr. McLaughlin has in-house capabilities to produce laboratory scale high temperature steam-activated carbon samples from a wide variety of carbon precursors, including biomass-derived and polymeric raw materials. The activated carbon samples can be characterized by various analytical techniques or generated for application testing.Specifically, he has the ability to generate entire “activation series”, based on any carbon-rich starting material, and characterize the evolution of the adsorption properties by GRPD (Gravimetric Rapid Pore Determination). He has completed this development cycle for several proprietary chemical industry clients.
Dr. McLaughlin also has consulted extensively on industrial applications of granular activated carbon, including vapor phase emission control and product recovery, storm water applications and numerous applications of treatment of aqueous wastewater and contaminated groundwater. He has several patents in the area of activated carbon use and regeneration. Dr. McLaughlin has led the efforts at Alterna Biocarbon to enhance the Native Adsorption Capacity of Alterna's Biocarbons, whereby biocarbons can be utilized in applications traditionally requiring more expensive activated carbon products.
Sponsored by:
