An Efficient Method for Electrical Earth Resistance Reduction Using Biochar

Abstract

This paper presents a method that treats the soil by replacing a volume of the earthing portion with biochar instead of chemicals. The method contributes to reduce the earth resistance over long periods of time in order to avoid the expensive cost of these elements and their secondary effects. In the proposed method, a volume of soil from an earthing portion of 20 cm in diameter and 1 m deep is replaced with dry biochar. The earthing electrode is driven into this earthing portion. The use of this method significantly reduced the earth resistance with one electrode from 242.0Ω to an average of 26.27 Ω with the Clay sandy soils of the Sahelian zone of Cameroon during the dry season and 2.1 Ω during the rainy season. Furthermore, smaller reductions were achieved when connecting the two such earths in parallel reducing the resistance of clay-sandy soils from 242.0 Ω to 15.2 Ω in the dry season and 1.1 Ω during the raining season.