Global soil organic carbon changes and economic revenues with biochar application

Abstract

Biochar has been proposed as a promising negative CO2 emission technology to mitigate future climate change with the additional benefit of increasing agricultural production. However, the spatial responses of soil organic carbon (SOC) to biochar addition in cropland are still uncertain, and the economic feasibility of large‐scale biochar implementation remains unclear. Here, we analyzed the response of SOC to biochar addition using 389 paired field measurements. The results show that biochar addition significantly increased SOC by 45.8% on average with large regional variations. Using a random forest model trained with soil, climate, biotic, biochar, and management factors, we found that the response of SOC to biochar addition was mainly dependent on biochar application rates, initial SOC, edaphic (e.g., pH), and climatic (e.g., mean annual precipitation) variables. Combined with the predicted SOC changes to biochar addition on the global cropland, we assessed the revenue of the biochar system based on the current and potential pyrolysis plants in the world using the life‐cycle analysis. Net revenue of the currently existing 144 pyrolysis plants increases with larger plant capacity and higher carbon price. Potential revenue of building new plants is high in regions like America and Europe but low in regions with infertile soil, low crop residues availability, and inconvenient transportation. The global CO2 removal of biochar application is 6.6 Tg CO2e (CO2 equivalent) year−1 with a net revenue of $ 177 million dollars at a carbon price of $ 50 t−1 CO2 for current pyrolysis plants with a biomass‐processing capacity of 20,000 t year−1. Our study provides a full economic assessment of idealized biochar addition scenarios and identifies the locations with maximal potential revenues with new pyrolysis plants.

Biochar application ameliorated the nutrient content and fungal community structure in different yellow soil depths in the karst area of Southwest China

“…There may be two main reasons for the increase in soil organic carbon after biochar application. On the one hand, the carbon in biochar exists mainly in an inert aromatic ring structure and has a high carbon content, so biochar application to the soil can directly increase the content of soil organic carbon ( Han et al., 2021 ). On the other hand, biochar has strong adsorption properties, which can adsorb small organic molecules in the soil and promote the formation of soil organic matter from these molecules ( Grunwald et al., 2017 ).…”

Synthesis optimization and adsorption modeling of biochar for pollutant removal via machine learning

“…Pyrolysis sludge at low temperature corresponded to the best MPSP, while pyrolysis lignocellulose at high temperature covered the best overall energy and environmental performance. The potential income of biochar from existing pyrolysis plants in the world was evaluated through life cycle analysis (Han et al 2021). The results exhibited that the net income of the existing 144 pyrolysis plants increases with the increase of plant capacity and biochar price.…”

Effect of bagasse biochar on soil organic carbon fixation in manganese pollution sugarcane fields

“…The reason why biochar can increase SOC content is partly because biochar has rich carbon content, which is equivalent to applying exogenous organic carbon to soil. Another part of the reason is that biochar itself has porosity and promotes the formation of aggregates, enhances the protection of SOC, and weakens the ability of microorganisms to decompose SOC, thereby increasing SOC content [35]. SOC stability coe cient can be used to measure the stability of SOC, which can re ect the proportion of soil inert organic carbon in total carbon [36].…”