“Biochar, soils and sustainable agriculture”

1. Dr Bruce Tofield b.tofield@uea.ac.uk “Biochar, soils and sustainable agriculture” Cambridge Energy Forum 22 April 2010

2. Biochar in theEast of England • Potential major benefit for • soil quality • agricultural productivity • nutrient use • greenhouse gas reduction • Many uncertainties and unknowns • Pathway to commercialisation uncertain • InCrops leading activity for East of England Soil Strategy • Part of 2020 Vision for EE Food and Farming Sector?

3. Biochar Production Slow Pyrolysis (retort) CHP Gasification Slow pyrolysis (kiln) Fast Pyrolysis

4. Biochar Production Dynomotive: Bio oil via Fast Pyrolysis Eprida: Hydrogen and Char Fertiliser via Pyrolysis University of Hawaii: Flash Carboniser (Fast Pyrolysis) BEST Energies: Biochar via Slow Pyrolysis

5. Biochar does notdegrade in soils • Biochar will remain essentially unchanged for hundreds or even thousands of years – carbon sequestration really is possible • Compost and other organic material in soils is valuable but mineralises (converts to CO2) in just a few years.

6. Charcoal occursnaturally in soils (Skjemstad et al) • Up to 35 per cent of SOC in some US soils is charcoal from natural processes (Skjemstad et al, 2002) • Natural charcoal in the US midwest prairie soils, a result of ten thousand years of prairie fires, may play a role in these soils’ high and sustained fertility • Our results provide clear evidence that immediately after wildfire fresh charcoal can have important effects in Boreal forest ecosystems dominated by ericaceous dwarf shrubs, and this is likely to provide a major contribution to the rejuvenating effects of wildfire on forest ecosystems. (Wardle et al, 1998)

7. 80 per cent of Africans rely on biomassfor energy Uganda has lost half its forest cover in the last ten years; 97 per cent of the population uses charcoal and firewood for cooking; charcoal production creates 20,000 jobs Charcoal market in Khartoum, Sudan

8. ‘Slash and burn’ to‘slash and char’ Over 2 billion people rely on traditional biomass for heating and cooking using inefficient and dirty stoves or open fires. Improved stoves that are clean and can also make charcoal could improve health, reduce mortality and assist in agricultural transformation Third generation cooking stove: Low pollution, production of biochar (Flanagan and Joseph)

9. Energy from Biomass Thetford chicken litter plant 420,000 tonnes pa, 38.5MWe Proposed Thetford waste wood power station, 300,000 tonnes pa, 40MWe

10. Bioenergy 5% oftotal UK energyby 2020? • All present-day resources will be needed to meet 2020 renewable energy targets. • Current technology is combustion for electricity or heat. • CHP gives twice the carbon savings of electricity only Annex B: UK Biomass Strategy, 2007

11. Electricity only frombiomass a massiveresource waste • “Biomass plants generating only electricity, a number of which are currently in development, cannot have a long-term future in the UK’s energy mix as they are not able to produce sufficiently low carbon energy.” • “The infrastructure being developed in the UK now will form a major component of the country’s generating capacity in 2030.” Biomass: Carbon Sink or Carbon Sinner? Environment Agency, April 2009

12. UK Bioenergy StrategyRenewable EnergyBiochar not mentioned

13. CCS longer termand essential Coal is responsible for 70 per cent of 185 Mt CO2 from electricity generation, i.e. 130 Mt CO2. CCS could in principle decarbonise 85% of these emissions – about 110 Mt. Essential by 2050 – nothing possible before 2020.

14. Biochar vs CCS • CCS is essential to decarbonise the UK’s electricity supply • CCS reduces CO2 emissions from fossil fuels it does not eliminate them • Biochar removes CO2 emissions from the atmosphere • In the UK biochar might yield a few million tonnes CO2 saving with current biomass sources – CCS needs to aim for over 100 m tonnes • Using gasifier technology, biochar can be produced today – few barriers to entry – major bioenergy benefit for the Region – if heat/CHP as well as electricity • Biochar provides potential major benefits for agriculture and soils in addition to carbon sequestration

15. Biochar ingeoengineering • “Biochar has the potential to sequester almost 400 billion tonnes of carbon by 2100 and to lower atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations by 37 parts per million.” • Professor Tim Lenton, UEA

16. UEA’s biomass gasifier1.4MWe, 2MWh

17. UEA’s biomass gasifier The biomass gasifier at UEA will be typically eighty per cent efficient for the heat will be used Reduces UEA carbon footprint by 35 per cent Also 300 tonnes pa biochar

18. UEA’s biomass gasifier

19. Global ghgemissions Stern, Fig B, p199 Data for 2000 Land use change and agriculture emissions are over two times total transport emissions

20. Greenhouse gasesemitted byagricultural activity Carbon dioxide, the most common GHG is the reference (i.e. GWP =1) for GWP of all GHG’s Carbon Accounting included GHG’s given in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents or tCO2equivalents Care: sometimes as tCe (CO2 = C x 44/12)

21. GHG’s fromUK Agriculture • ‘Agriculture’ is responsible for ~0.7% of UK GDP. • But 7-8% of UK GHG’s • ~26m tonnes CO2e of nitrous oxide • ~18m tonnes CO2e of methane • ~5m tonnes (net) of carbon dioxide • 37% of UK methane (landfill is 40%) • 67% of UK nitrous oxide emissions • CO2 emissions from gasoil, electricity etc is about 1% of UK CO2 (of which gasoil – red diesel – is about 60%)

22. UK Nitrous oxide agricultural sources • 28% synthetic fertiliser application • 27% leaching of fertiliser nitrogen and animal manures to ground and surface water • 14% wastes from grazing animals • 14% ploughing in crop residues • 9% manure used as fertiliser • Essentially, half N2O, 2% total UK ghg emissions, arises from artificial fertiliser • The manufacture of the fertiliser will double this amount

23. Carbon in soils From Bradley et al, 2005

24. Carbon in UK soils

25. Soils provide multipleecosystem services

26. Soil degradationby agriculture “Our soils have degraded over the last 200 years due to intensive agriculture and industrial pollution.” Safeguarding our Soils: A Strategy for England, Defra, September 2009 From Guo and Gifford, 2002

27. How biochar can help? Annals of Applied Biology, 37 (1950) 159-168

28. Amazonian Dark EarthsADE Left: a nutrient poor oxisol; Right: an oxisol transformed into fertile terra preta (Glaser et al, Naturwiss., 2001)

29. Many small-scale studiesin poor soils Char added Normal soil Picture from Black is the new green, Nature, 442, 624-626, 2006

30. Charcoal use in Japan Utilization of Symbiotic Microorganisms and Charcoal for Desert Greening Makoto Ogawa, Green Age (1998) 14, 5-11 “Although the reason is not clear, it is interesting that most symbiotic microorganisms prefer to propagate in or around charcoal and most plant roots respond well to charcoal.” “Utilizing charcoals in agriculture and forestry must be meaningful not only to get high productivity or crops and timber but also to reduce the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere.”

31. AMF, promote nutrient release, promote SOC, promote plant growth? Soil aggregation and carbon sequestration are tightly correlated with the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: results from long-term field experiments Gail W. T. Wilson, Charles W. Rice, Matthias C. Rillig, Adam Springer, and David C. Hartnett Ecology Letters (2009) 12 (5) 452-461 AMF form symbiotic associations with over 80 per cent of land plants and promote beneficial soil structure and SOC formation

32. AMF symbiant with over 80% plants “The diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [AMF] is strikingly low in arable sites compared with a woodland” (Ploughing up the wood-wide web?, Nature 1998) Finlay, Mycologist, 18 (2004)

33. Benefits of biochar “Trials of agrichar - a product hailed as a saviour of Australia’s carbon-depleted soils and the environment - have doubled and, in one case, tripled crop growth when applied at the rate of 10 tonnes per hectare … For the wheat, agrichar alone was about as beneficial for yields as using nitrogen fertiliser only ... Soil biology improved, the need for added fertiliser reduced and water holding capacity was raised ... The trials also measured gases given off from the soils and found significantly loweremissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide…” http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/updates/issues/may-2007/soils-offer-new-hope

34. Biochar may • Improve soil structure • Improve water retention • Reduce nutrient requirement • Enhance impact of AMF • Reduce nitrous oxide emissions • Help restore soil organic carbon

35. But many unknowns • Effect of production method and temperature • Effect of source biomass • Effect of soil type • Lifetime in soil • Mechanism of impact on soil biota • Acceleration of microbial activity?

36. Key steps • Trials in pots and field • Study impact of production method and source material • Develop routes to commercial production (small, medium, large-scale) • Develop cost effective SOC monitoring Can we make this region a leader in both sustainable bioenergy and sustainable agriculture via biochar?