Developing standards is one of our key focus areas at American Biochar Institute. Standards underpin trust and increased use of biochar in end use markets, especially those that operate at the largest volumes like soil amendment, fertilizer products, and concrete.
To date, standards for biochar have been developed by private organizations in closed development processes. While these standards helped grow the use of biochar, they are limiting. They lack the cross-industry recognition that formal, open standards development processes provide. At American Biochar Institute, we are leading the development of ANSI biochar standards through these formal processes.
Over the next two months, ABI will launch formal technical committees to develop a biochar safe use standard and a biochar production standard. Suzanne Allaire of GECA Environment will lead both committees on behalf of ABI, which will be developed in collaboration with the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), an ANSI accredited standards development organization.
The safe use standard will establish minimum quality standards for biochar use in applications across agriculture, consumer products, water filtration, concrete and other materials, as well as animal feed and bedding. This standard will focus on safety over performance, supporting product-market fit work already underway, led by companies, farmers, and researchers.
The production standard, developed in collaboration with the United States Biochar Coalition, will establish minimum monitoring and compliance requirements for biochar production. It will also help evaluate batch to batch material consistency that is critical to large volume market development.
Combined with the standard published late last year, ANSI/ASABE/USBI S668: Methods for the Analysis and Testing of Biochar, the completion of these two new standards will further support the scaling biochar industry.
Myles Gray, P.E.
Executive Director
American Biochar Institute
