Co-composted biochar field trial (corn harvest) Supported by the Southern SARE On-Farm Research program, this project is testing the use of biochar in local farm fields to better understand its effects on soil health and crop production. With support from the...
Turning Hurricane Debris into Biochar at Mountainwise Farm Mountainwise Farm faced significant damage from Hurricane Helene, including downed trees and the loss of several high tunnels. In response, the Nexus team brought three Oregon kilns and a Ring of Fire to the...
Dr. Jeremy Ferrell, Nexus Project Leader and Associate Professor at the Dept. of STBE, and STBE graduate student Joe Rebilas conducted a study of 2023 data that compared the environments of different types of greenhouses and analyzed the collected data. This...
Direct solar PV hot water for hydroponic system Nexus designed a direct solar PV water heating system using the existing PV array installed in the greenhouse. The original system included eight 195W panels wired into four sets in parallel and two in series, forming...
Nexus Research Explores Readily Available Resources That Enhance Results Biochar- Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste Food waste contains a variety of substrates, making it difficult to maintain optimal process conditions during anaerobic digestion (AD)1. Biochar's high...
Nexus Project Experiments Continue to Advance Agricultural Innovations 1. Biochar Preparation: Wet Biochar Crushing Biochar particle size has a great impact on its physical properties such as total porosity and BET surface area, which enhance water-holding capacity...
Last semester, Nexus served App State and the greater community as a center for education, research, and outreach. A total of 16.5 hours of field days were conducted at Nexus, including five App State classes, one tour for App State’s Renewable Energy Initiative...
The Nexus group has successfully carried out several projects to improve the energy efficiency of the high-tunnel greenhouse. The team improved insulation and ventilation systems, installed solar-thermal heating for the hydroponics, and modeled an Earth-Air Heat...
Project outcomes from the 2019 Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) On-Farm grant to the Nexus team "reinvent the heated greenhouse." Read more here.
The Nexus group launched two research projects this year at their existing facility located at the Watauga County landfill. The team is working on an energy efficiency retrofit to improve the insulation and ventilation systems and performing a feasibility study with...
The Nexus team continues its work designing and evaluating technological solutions to extend the growing season for small-scale farmers in Southern Appalachia. The team will soon complete the second year of an on-farm pilot of two systems, one at Springhouse Farm and...
The first round (2018 spring) of pilot system operations at our cooperating farms was successful. Against The Grain (ATG) farm produced more than 30 batches of biochar using various agricultural waste produced on site including sorghum, woody waste, and animal bone....
The Nexus research team at Appalachian has completed building pilot systems at two local cooperative farms: Against the Grain (ATG) farm and Springhouse farm. They are ready to run for this upcoming cold season! The pilot system at ATG includes a biochar kiln, solar...
The Nexus research team is collaborating with two cooperating farms in Watauga County to pilot greenhouse heating systems that will extend the growing season by using biomass energy produced on-farm. With funding from the NC Department of Agriculture’s Bioenergy...