BiocharFilters exists to address a very specific and increasingly common problem: water leaving land that carries sediment, nutrients, and organic load, often long before it reaches a ditch, drain, or watercourse.

In many settings — farms, estates, forestry, infrastructure projects, and SuDS‑style layouts — the challenge is not full wastewater treatment. Instead, it is early intervention: slowing water down, letting sediment settle, and removing the fine material that causes downstream issues and regulatory concern.

Biochar has proven to be a useful material in this space, but only when applied thoughtfully. It works best as part of a simple system: pre‑settlement first, then a compact biochar bed acting as a polishing and buffering layer. Used this way, biochar can capture fine particles, bind nutrients such as phosphorus, and support beneficial biofilms without the complexity or cost of high‑energy treatment systems.

This project was created to explore that middle ground — between doing nothing and over‑engineering a solution.

BiocharFilters focuses on:

• Understanding different runoff and water‑quality scenarios
• Explaining design choices in plain language
• Being explicit about limitations, maintenance, and trade‑offs
• Learning from case studies rather than theoretical best‑case assumptions

The site is part of the wider AC Innovations ecosystem and is stewarded by Tony Callaghan, drawing on experience from soil systems, compost engineering, and biochar development. However, BiocharFilters stands on its own as a filtration‑focused resource, not a product catalogue.

If you are trying to decide whether biochar filtration is appropriate for your situation — and what a sensible next step might look like — this project is designed to help you make that judgement with confidence.