During the month of May 2025, the City of Asheville conducted a successful biochar pilot project with the help of the US Forest Service (USFS) at the Southern Research Station.
The USFS loaned the City a biochar-producing machine called a Charboss and trained City staff to use the equipment. The Charboss is a mobile unit that uses air curtain technology to create a low-oxygen, low smoke/emissions process to convert waste wood into biochar.
Over a total of 10 days using the Charboss, a three-person crew made up of Public Works and Parks and Recreation staff processed 16 truckloads of woody waste material (~420 cubic yards) generated from typical City operations. Processing the material in the Charboss produced approximately 6.25 cubic yards of biochar, which filled most of a small dump truck and was a reduction of greater than 95% in the volume of waste…