BlueLeaf And Dynamotive Announce 3rd Year Field Trial Results With Dynamotive’s CQuest Biochar

News Releases - March 10, 2011

BlueLeaf Inc. of Drummondville, Quebec, Canada and Dynamotive Energy Systems Corp. (OTCPK: DYMTF) announce results today from three years of agricultural field trials of BlueLeaf using CQuest™ biochar from Dynamotive as a soil amendment. These trials were undertaken to experiment with biochar in a commercial farming operation. Char provided by Dynamotive was applied once at the initiation of trials. They are also the first biochar field trials undertaken in northerly latitudes (45° north). Key results include:

  • Continued greater biomass growth for the third consecutive year in biochar-amended soils;
  • Nutritional quality of plants grown in biochar-amended soil is verified by near infrared spectroscopy for the first time;
  • Plant nutrient uptake efficiency and plant nutritional quality is greater in plants grown in biochar-amended soil;
  • This greater plant nutritional value leads to greater milk production from these forage plants;
  • In addition to the greater nutritional value of plants grown in biochar-amended soil as well as greater milk production, environmental advantages are anticipated through reduced leaching and reduced greenhouse gas emissions;
  • These results were achieved with a relatively low biochar application rate (3.9 t/ha), in a northerly climate (N45˚), on normal agricultural soils.

The results of these trials reinforce other research pointing to potentially important advantages for the use of biochar as an agricultural soil amendment, both for economic and environmental reasons.

Barry Husk, President, Blue Leaf Inc. commented: “These results are very promising for the use of biochar in forage crops for dairy production. Based on these results, it is anticipated that, under similar conditions, dairy farm producers could expect both increased biomass growth, as well as greater milk production, from the use of biochar as a soil amendment. These new preliminary findings point to the possibility of substantial economic advantages for the agricultural use of biochar, in dairy farming in particular. In addition, due to the higher plant nutrient uptake, it is further anticipated that the use of biochar as a soil amendment will contribute to attenuating certain environmental problems related to the inefficient use of agricultural nutrients.”