Producing energy while sequestering carbon? The relationship between biochar and agricultural productivity

Kauffman, Nathan; Dumortier, Jerome; Hayes, Dermot J.; Brown, Robert C.; Laird, David A.

doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.01.049

Cited by 48 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(53 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Therefore, the estimated yield increases, as a result of biochar application, predicted by our model are long-term (5-10 years) averages, which are attributed to improvements in soil physical and chemical properties. This is where other researchers have estimated a much longer time period for the biochar effect [43]. Our modeling approach is not appropriate the address persistence of biochar as a response variable/output but should persistence should be addressed in future research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Where should we apply biochar?

Dokoohaki

Miguez

Laird

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The heating of biomass under low-oxygen conditions generates three co-products, bio-oil, biogas, and biochar. Bio-oil can be stabilized and used as fuel oil or be further refined for various applications and biogas can be used as an energy source during the low-oxygen heating process. Biochar can be used to sequester carbon in soil and has the potential to increase crop yields when it is used to improve yield-limiting soil properties. Complex bio-physical interactions have made it challenging to answer the question of where biochar should be applied for the maximum agronomic and economic benefits. We address this challenge by developing an extensive informatics workflow for processing and analyzing crop yield response data as well as a large spatial-scale modeling platform. We use a probabilistic graphical model to study the relationships between soil and biochar variables and predict the probability and magnitude of crop yield response to biochar application. Our results show an average increase in crop yields ranging from 4.7% to 6.4% depending on the biochar feedstock and application rate. Expected yield increases of at least 6.1% and 8.8% are necessary to cover 25% and 10% of US cropland with biochar. We find that biochar application to crop area with an expected yield increase of at least 5.3%-5.9% would result in carbon sequestration offsetting 0.57%-0.67% of US greenhouse gas emissions. Applying biochar to corn area is the most profitable from a revenue perspective when compared to soybeans and wheat because additional revenues accrued by farmers are not enough to cover the costs of biochar applications in many regions of the United States.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Where should we apply biochar?

Dokoohaki

Miguez

Laird

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The stable C in biochar originates from atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ); hence, the application of biochars to soil constitutes a potential agricultural management option for removing C from the atmosphere, sequestering it for extended periods of time (>100 years), thereby helping to mitigate climate change (Lehmann et al ., ; Roberts et al ., ; Woolf et al ., ; Kauffman et al ., ). Biochar amendments to soil have also been shown to increase biomass production, which provides a secondary means for increasing soil C sequestration (Laird et al ., ; Woolf et al ., ; Biederman & Harpole, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impact of six lignocellulosic biochars on C and N dynamics of two contrasting soils

2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Both soil and biochar properties are known to influence greenhouse gas emissions from biochar-amended soils, but poor understanding of underlying mechanisms challenges prediction and modeling. Here, we examine the effect of six lignocellulosic biochars produced from the pyrolysis of corn stover and wood feedstocks on CO 2 and N 2 O emissions from soils collected from two bioenergy cropping systems. Effects of biochar on total accumulated CO 2 -C emissions were minimal (<0.45 mg C g À1 soil; <10% of biochar C), consistent with mineralization and hydrolysis of small labile organic and inorganic C fractions in the studied biochars. Comparisons of soil CO 2 emissions with emissions from microbially inoculated quartz-biochar mixtures ('quartz controls') provide evidence of soil and biochar-specific negative priming. Five of six biochar amendments suppressed N 2 O emissions from at least one soil, and the magnitude of N 2 O emissions suppression varied with respect to both biochar and soil types. Biochar amendments consistently decreased final soil NO 3 À concentrations, while contrasting effects on pH, NH 4 + , and DOC highlighted the potential for formation of anaerobic microsites in biochar-amended soils and consequential shifts in the soil redox environment. Thus, results implicated both reduced substrate availability and redox shifts as potential factors contributing to N 2 O emission suppression. More research is needed to confirm these mechanisms, but overall our results suggest that soil biochar amendments commonly reduce N 2 O emissions and have little effect on CO 2 emissions beyond the mineralization and/ or hydrolysis of labile biochar C fractions. Considering the large C credit for the biochar C, we conclude that biochar amendments can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the climate change mitigation potential of bioenergy cropping systems.

show abstract

“…Biochar application to soil has been widely propagated in recent years because of its supposed ability to sequester carbon (C) (Woolf et al, 2010;Gurwick et al, 2013), while concurrently improving crop yields (Crane-Droesch et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2013;Kauffman et al, 2014). However, negative effects have also been reported including reductions in yields and increased greenhouse gas emissions (Mukherjee and Lal, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biochar application does not improve the soil hydrological function of a sandy soil

Jeffery

Meinders

Stoof³

et al. 2015

Geoderma

263

151

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tBiochar application to soil is currently being widely posited as a means to improve soil quality and thereby increase crop yield. Next to beneficial effects on soil nutrient availability and retention, biochar is assumed to improve soil water retention. However, evidence for such an effect in the primary literature remains elusive. Therefore, we studied the effect of biochar on soil hydrological characteristics in two separate field experiments on a sandy soil in The Netherlands. In Experiment I, biochar produced through slow pyrolysis of herbaceous feedstock at two temperatures (400°C and 600°C) was applied to soil at a rate of 10 t ha −1 . In Experiment II, the 400°C biochar was applied at rates of 1, 5, 20 and 50 t ha −1 . Soils were analysed for soil water retention, aggregate stability and other soil physical parameters after three growing seasons and one growing season for Experiment I and Experiment II, respectively. We characterised the pore structure of the biochar using X-ray computed micro-tomography (XRT) and hydrophobicity using contact angle measurements. We found no significant effects of biochar application on soil water retention in either experiment. Aggregate stability was also not significantly affected, nor was field saturated hydraulic conductivity. XRT analysis of the biochars showed that they were highly porous, with 48% and 57% porosity for the 400°C and 600°C biochar respectively. More than 99% of internal pores of the biochar particles were connected to the surface, suggesting a potential role for biochars in improving soil water retention. However, the biochars were highly hydrophobic. We postulate that this strong hydrophobicity prevented water from infiltrating into the biochar particles, prohibiting an effect on soil water retention. Our results suggest that, in addition to characterising pore space, biochars should be analysed for hydrophobicity when assessing their potential for improving soil physical properties.

show abstract

Producing energy while sequestering carbon? The relationship between biochar and agricultural productivity

Cited by 48 publications

References 51 publications

Where should we apply biochar?

Where should we apply biochar?

Impact of six lignocellulosic biochars on C and N dynamics of two contrasting soils

Biochar application does not improve the soil hydrological function of a sandy soil

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About