Olivier Husson opened with his lecture on redox potential a whole new perspective about biochar function, biochar-soil-plant interaction and potential applications to biochar research and application.

Heike Knicker gives a fundamental and understandable introduction into the chemical constitution of biochar, it`s reactivity, aging and characterization.

One of the most important advances of biochar research in the last years are the combination of biochar with organic nutrients for the developement of new growing media and organic fertilizers. Claudia Kammann is one of the leading figures on this field and gave a very inspiring talk about biochar functions in regard to it's combination with organics and especialy compost.

The head engineer of Pyreg and inventor of Europe’s first industrial scale pyrolysis system gives an introduction into the key issues of industrial biochar production and the process technology of biomass pyrolysis.

As biochar is extremely heterogeneous, to use an adapted technique of sampling especially of industrial quantities of biochar is primordial. Thomas Bucheli introduced at the European Biochar Summer School into sampling theory and comes up with a highly performing sampling technique for biochar. Rarely such a dry matter of study was presented more entertaining.

Gerald Dunst is without any doubt the most prominent biochar producer in Europe and probably the only one who really created a business out of it. Based on his experience and expertise in increasing soil organic mater in agricultural soils, he lays the focus of his talk on the integrated use of biochar for the improvement of soil function.  

Greet Ruysschaert was coordinator of the seven large scale Interreg biochar field trials in the last 4 years. She is sharing her experience in a very interactive session with the students.

Gerard Cornelissen is not only one of the worlds leading scientist in the field of organic contaminants but also a widely experienced technical expert for the agronomic use of biochar in countries like Nepal, Zambia, Indonesia and Malaysia. His most dynamic conference gave a strong insight into the function of the ad-, ab and desorption dynamic of biochar strongly linked to its practical use for decontamination.   

Producing Terra Preta like soil substrates with up to 75% biochar may not only help to improve plant growth performance but could also be used to decontaminate urban effluents in so called biobeds. Pascal Boivin introduces into the field of soil substrate characterisation and shows how biological activated biochar could improve its growth and decontamination potential.   

One of the most promising uses of biochar lays probably in its capacity to remediate decontaminated soils. However, the devil is in the details and several primordial side effects have to be considered. Luke Beesely gives a highly dramaturgical introduction into integrated biochar technologies in regard to biochar function.