DIY Biochar Water Filtration Course

February 28th & March 1, 2026
One time offering!  We are very excited to offer this rare opportunity to learn from the amazing Josh Kearns, decentalized water filtration specialist.  Don’t miss this opportunity, we will sell out of spots.

Organic Farm Fresh Meals (Saturday & Sunday) Farm Camping (BYO gear) 

Class time 9am-5pm Saturday (Feb 28) & Sunday (March 1).

Family Friendly

Partial Scholarships Available 

 Workshop Overview

This two-day workshop blends classroom instruction with hands-on construction of decentralized water treatment systems. Participants will collaboratively build a 300 L/day “Blue Barrel” system, featuring a gravel roughing filter, a biologically active slow sand filter, and a biochar adsorption unit. This system serves as the foundation for both conceptual learning and practical application.

1. The “Pleasant, Safe, and Healthy” Approach to Water Quality

Participants will learn a practical framework for evaluating water sources, identifying contamination risks, and selecting appropriate treatment strategies.

• Pleasant: taste, odor, and appearance
• Safe: protection from microbial pathogens causing acute illness
• Healthy: removal of trace toxicants affecting long-term health (e.g., pesticides, endocrine disruptors)

This section builds a comprehensive understanding of water quality dimensions and how to align treatment processes with specific water quality goals.

2. Science and Engineering of Decentralized Water Treatment

This section focuses on core treatment objectives and design principles:

a. Turbidity Control – Gravel Roughing Filtration

• Design concepts and theory
• Contactor orientations: pros and cons
• Operation and maintenance

b. Pathogen Control – Biological Slow Sand Filtration

• Design principles
• Operation and maintenance
• Supplemental pathogen control options

c. Chemical Contaminant Control – Sorption Processes

Organic contaminants (pesticides, pharmaceuticals, fluorochemicals):

• Adsorption fundamentals in microporous materials
• Biochar production and adsorption performance
• Mass transfer and the role of dissolved organic matter
• Overview of biochar water treatment research
• Design and operation of biochar contactors

Inorganic contaminants (fluoride, arsenic, heavy metals):

• Sorption mechanisms and sorbent selection
• Practical examples:
   
  • Bone char for fluoride
  • Iron oxides for arsenic

3. System Integration, Design Tools, and Advanced Topics

Participants will learn how to adapt treatment systems to diverse local contexts:

• Siting and sizing treatment units
   
  • Gravity-fed vs. pumped systems
  • Centralized vs. household-scale designs
  • Treat-to-end-use (tiered treatment) approaches
• Integration of alternative technologies (UV, disinfectants, membranes, reverse osmosis)
• Introduction to design tools: modeling, spreadsheets, nomograms, and chemical prioritization aids
• Field and lab methods for evaluating water sources and sorbent performance
  
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Josh has a BS in Chemistry with a minor in Environmental Engineering from Clemson University (2000), an MS in Environmental Biogeochemistry from UC-Berkeley (2005), and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder (2016). He was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University from 2017-2020. 

Josh is the founder and Director of Science of Aqueous Solutions, a nonprofit environmental and water-sanitation-hygiene (WASH) consulting firm based in Thailand and the US. He also serves as Chief Technical Advisor for Caminos de Agua(Mexico) and Amisacho Restauracion (Ecuador). 

Through field and laboratory research Josh pioneered the development and application of biochar in water treatment applications and is widely recognized as a global leader in thefield. He has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications on sorption process in low-cost water/wastewater treatment and environmental remediation, and is currently writing a book for practitioners entitled A Field Guide to Biochar Water Treatment.Josh is also responsible for raising critical awareness of chemical pollutants in the overall provision of safe drinking water in the professional sector of WASH development.

Josh has a passion for translating scholarly research into actionable approaches and best practices for implementing low-cost water treatment in challenging, remote, and resource-constrained settings. His open-access instructional manuals have been translated into several languages, and treatment systems based on his designs have been implemented all over the world. He is an enthusiastic proponent of “citizen science” for empowering communities through data collection and analysis as well as participatory treatment system design, operation, and monitoring.

Josh lives with his wife and son and their many critters on a small regenerative agroecology farm in the mountains of western North Carolina.