How to Weigh Biochar in the Field

Easy 5 Step Method Directions

How do you know how much biochar you are making? Dry it weighs one thing. Wet it weighs another. How are you supposed to know what the moisture content it?

Luckily, for all intents and purposes, biochar does not change volume with moisture. This makes it possible to you to “weigh” it by volume.

What you will need

1) A standard 20-liter bucket

2) A scale

What you will do

Take a DRY pile of one type of biochar (maize/corn cob, maize/corn stalk, groundnut shells)

1. Weigh empty 20 Liter bucket
2. Fill the 20-liter bucket to the brim with DRY biochar
3. Weigh the full bucket.
4. Subtract the weight of the empty bucket from the weight of the full bucket. This will give you the “Dry Weight” of 20 liters of this particular biochar.
5. Fill the bag with biochar one 20 liter bucket at a time to calculate the weight with your “Dry weight”. (E.g., Ten bucket loads equals ten times the dry weight you recorded).

Note: No two biochars will be exactly the same, so you will need to do this for every type you wish to weigh – cocoa shells, groundnut shells, maize cobs, millet stalks, rice husks.

Please keep a record of your results for your own future reference and forward them to us (d.michael.shafer@gmail.com) to help us build a record for everyone to use.