About Fairtiliser

Fairtiliser is the vision of fairness towards the environment and future generations through sustainable fertiliser use and preservation of our planetary resources. The most important plant nutrients needed for food and feed production are either nonrenewable resources (phosphorus and potassium) or need a lot of energy to convert into fertilisers (nitrogen). Therefore, more sustainable and long-term practises need to be adapted based on reduced nutrient input and nutrient recycling.

Climate change has a profound impact on our planet, affecting a delicate system that had been stable for thousands of years. Most of the effects it will have are yet unknown, though we do know that we have tipped a global balance and the changes are likely to feedback and accelerate.

Biochar is a strategy predestined to help tackle climate change and boost sustainable fertiliser use, supplying nutrient directly to soils, improving the soil functions which increases the nutrient use efficiency and sequestering carbon in the soil.

 

The use of biochar on agricultural land makes particular sense in an Australian context. Australia has an enormous land area and many of it consists of degraded and acidic soils. Furthermore, low precipitation limits the productivity in many areas. Being a great food producing nation, biochar can have a big impact on the Australian food production systems.

 

Pyrolysis and biochar production could be the solution. Biochar can also be used in growing media to replace conventional substrates. Biochar has many different benefits and applications and its benefits needs to be evaluated case-by-case.

If you want to know more about biochar, get in touch.

People

Dr Wolfram Buss is a biologist with an interest in sustainable food systems and sustainable environmental management. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Justus Liebig University (2010), a Master’s degree in Environmental Protection and Agricultural Food Production from Hohenheim University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (2012) and a PhD in Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences from the University of Edinburgh (2016).

Wolfram has been researching on and working with biochar since 2010. His PhD thesis at the UK Biochar research centre presents his investigations of contaminants in biochar production, as well as the fate and potential effects of contaminants and nutrients after biochar application. During his post-doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, Wolfram explored methods to optimise biochar for nutrient provision and carbon sequestration. All of his projects were developed side-by-side with industry. He has worked at CSIRO in crop adaptations for climate resilience. Wolfram is currently a Postdoc at the Australian National University, working towards optimising agricultural systems to support regenerative food production and large-scale carbon sequestration.