The difference between biochar and wood ash

Making Biochar is sort of on my too doist.   But questions

1) What is the difference betwee biochar and woodash.   For example when i make a fire for cooking.  At the end of it I have  what looks like charcol.  

2)  Now im also told you need to charge biochar,  so how do you do that.  Is that taking compost and adding it into the biochar, or do you need to make liquid compost
and add that into the biochar.  

I answered question #2 in another thread, because it is yet another different topic.

If it looks like charcoal, it's not wood ash. Wood ash is grey, alkaline, and powdery.  Char is when you heat biomass in limited oxygen until it burns off all of the tannins and oils and only the carbon is left.  It still has the structure of the original material, such as wood. It has the same shape.  Charcoal you buy in the store still has wood in it, as well as tannins and oils.  Char becomes biochar when you charge it with nutritious materials.

John s
PDX OR

John Suavecito wrote:I answered question #2 in another thread, because it is yet another different topic.

If it looks like charcoal, it's not wood ash. Wood ash is grey, alkaline, and powdery.  Char is when you heat biomass in limited oxygen until it burns off all of the tannins and oils and only the carbon is left.  It still has the structure of the original material, such as wood. It has the same shape.  Charcoal you buy in the store still has wood in it, as well as tannins and oils.  Char becomes biochar when you charge it with nutritious materials.

John s
PDX OR

The big difference is that ash is highly alkaline. AKA you will change the PH of the environment that you apply it to. It can also cake or bridge, creating a waterproof layer preventing infiltration. Charcoal brickettes have harmful chemicals in them and even after being burned should never be used in the garden upon edible plants. Petro-chemicals are heavy in most to help with lighting and burning. Hard wood lump can be quite useful though. It is almost ready to go. Biochar is not always 'Activated' (this is the addition of beneficial micro organisms). You can activate you char many ways. The easiest is using fermented urine. Biochar is like a Hotel for beneficial micro organisms. They occupy the voids and spaces left by the charring process. A piece of biochar is like a block of millions of tiny holes, the organisms fill those holes and live there for hundreds of years to come. Biochar takes many hundreds of years to break down.
You will find differing opinions on this. Some will tell you only 10% or less in your soils, some will tell you the more the better.
I am in the first camp. If you have too much, then there will be a lack of OM (organic matter) in your soils. This limits moisture holding capacity, and availability of nutrient cycling to take place (the natural breakdown of elements, silts, and other things that sustain plants). If you have too many apartments, then no one owns homes. You need the guys that live in the soil to complete the picture, so to speak. Otherwise you will be dependent on outside ferts and nutes.
Hope that sheds some light on things for you all.