With their work on biochar and carbon credits, Sonnenerde has been nominated as Austrian Champion for the European Business Award. If we they win, it's a great international platform for biochar. Please consider voting for Sonnenerde in this competition at http://www.businessawardseurope.com/vote/detail-new/the-award-for-environmental-corporate-sustainability-1/15785
With their work on biochar and carbon credits, Sonnenerde has been nominated as Austrian Champion for the European Business Award. If we they win, it's a great international platform for biochar. Please consider voting for Sonnenerde in this competition at http://www.businessawardseurope.com/vote/detail-new/the-award-for-environmental-corporate-sustainability-1/15785
Sonnenerde (or "sun-earth" in German) is an Austrian company which produces high quality soil from compost; selling about 30,000 tons annually. The company is looking to raise the carbon content of soils and is thus building a pyrolysis plant to use Terra Preta for this purpose and have been working with researchers at the University of Halle in Germany with 3 acres of test plots. They are looking to convert 4000 tons of wet paper fiber sludge into to 300 tons biochar per year. In 2013, Sonnenerde started marketing this carbon-rich product in Austria. Since 2014, Sonnenerde has sold a Terra Preta-like soil (called Riedlingsdorfer Black Soil) and second: a biochar based product: the "soil-activator". This soil activator is a nitrogen, trace elements, and microorganisms enriched biochar; it works like a fertilizer in the first year and start the humus building process in the soil at the same time. This two products are sold to a big garden center in Austria and Slovenia. Sonnenerde was the winner of the climate saving award 2012 in Austria.
On the webpage (www.sonnenerde.at) there is a movie about the company, the new biochar plant, and recent experiments. For more information please see: www.sonnenerde.at.