Chris Whalley

The process of hydrothermal carbonization (htc) is very similar to the natural oil making process. Heat and pressurize biomass and you get biocoal that can be applied as agricultural biochar or further processed into fuels. Here's a thread on HTC, https://permies.com/t/6949/alternative-energy/hydrothermal-carbonization

There's more and more information being available about biochar from pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC).

In 2011 the USDA commissioned a really comprehensive report on the current state of pyrolysis and HTC research. http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/47781/1/IND44489931.pdf

Youtube has some good videos I threw together into a biochar playlist, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL854DE82D788D5E2E