Membership Flamin-Go Green with Biochar
As the Greenest Zoo in America, innovation is a key ingredient in constantly raising the bar for the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden when it comes to sustainability and animal welfare. Sharing our love for animals with the Cincinnati Zoo community is our passion, but along with that comes a responsibility to protect the land and resources necessary for human and animal populations to thrive. The Cincinnati Zoo is dedicated to finding new ways to conserve and reuse resources and developing innovative solutions towards a more sustainable future for the Zoo and its surrounding community.
At the flamingo pond habitat, this innovation is well under way, this time involving a material called Biochar that is typically recognized for its carbon-rich structure and porous, sponge-like nature. Recently, the water quality in the flamingo habitat pond and its impact on bird health have been raising concern for Cincinnati Zoo staff; due to animal waste, high levels of ammonia were recorded in the water, requiring constant dilution and using high water. With animal welfare and sustainability as two keystone priorities of the Zoo, the team was determined to find a new filtration option that could confront both issues.
That’s where Sam Dunlap and his company, Carbon Harvest, come into play. Carbon Harvest is driven by a motivation to return health to soil, with their star material, Biochar, working alongside other organic matter to deliver proven results. Created via a process called pyrolysis, where wood is burned in an environment lacking oxygen, Biochar is essentially a carbon-rich, porous charcoal that permanently locks carbon into soil. Because of the absence of oxygen, the wood is baked into this useful material rather than turning to ash. Carbon Harvest works with municipalities that are positioned to develop and benefit from Biochar programs, like the Cincinnati Parks Department, and now the Cincinnati Zoo.
Biochar at the Flamingo Pond
At the Zoo’s flamingo habitat, environmental engineer, Dan Divelbliss is working with Sam from Carbon Harvest to build out two separate tanks of biofiltration. These tanks will take turns flooding and draining the habitat pond, expecting to turn over the entire volume of the pond once an hour. Because high levels of contaminants like ammonia can negatively impact bird health, filtering them out was a high-priority item for the Cincinnati Zoo. With an intermittent flooding system in place, 95% or greater removal of ammonia levels is expected within only a few weeks! Water testing will be conducted frequently to measure the true effectiveness of the filtration system, though indicators of success also include some very happy flamingos!
After Biochar material in the filtration system has run its course and its pores have been totally filled with contaminants, it will serve a second purpose with the horticulture team as fertilizer. After Biochar has been used for filtration, it plays an important role in soil nutrient recovery, absorbing essential plant nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Biochar is already helping to improve land health here in Cincinnati, with Carbon Harvest’s project Green Cincinnati. Cincinnati aims to lead the country in the battle against climate change by becoming one of the first US Cities to produce biochar, an exciting technology for removing carbon from the atmosphere and improving the environment. As we are seeing locally in Cincinnati, and now even at the Zoo, Biochar has the potential to serve as a powerful tool in improving the quality of our land, water, and life for people, animals, and plants.
