Biochar, which is sort of like charcoal,- is one of those products that seems too good to be true. Basically you burn low-grade wood in an enclosed space (pyrolysis) to create a substance that is praised as a soil amendment and eyed as a way to take carbon from the atmosphere and bury it in the ground.
A few places are experimenting with biochar production for agriculture, pollution control and carbon sequestration. One of them is Green State Biochar in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, which has a trio of founders who look like they were chosen for a Vermont Old-Timers photo calendar, but who, judging from this story at VermontBiz, are doing an interesting job turning biochar into a company.
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