LA Times:  “When the Forest Service announced its calculation last November that the Sierra Nevada contained 102 million dead trees, it conveyed the immensity of a tragedy that is unprecedented in California’s history. It also challenged planners and innovators to find a beneficial use for at least some of the dead trees. As it turns out, there is one.”  . . . .

“One of the most promising technologies, deployed by Berkeley-based All Power Labs, produces electricity through gasification, which is more efficient and environmentally benign than combustion. Equally compelling, the company’s “power plant” units are small enough to fit inside a shipping container, which can be towed by truck to the hazard zones, reducing transport costs and greenhouse gas emissions.”

“Aside from their main output, electricity (which can be fed into the grid), the units generate a key byproduct, biochar, a charcoal-like substance that is almost pure carbon. When applied to soil, biochar stimulates plant growth and reduces water consumption, which makes it a valuable commodity in water-stressed California fields. In essence, biochar is carbon that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere, which makes All Power’s gasification process not just carbon neutral but carbon negative.”