Climate is Changing… Is Biochar a Solution?
Can biochar help combat climate change? Or is it more hassle than it is worth?
I have just recently discovered a material called ‘biochar’. A friend of mine has found a new love of soil health and gardening (rare for this day and age!). While studying and researching soil health, he came across a soil amendment called biochar. He would talk for so long about this material while I still had no idea what he was talking about. He later explained to me that biochar is basically the “cooking” (not burning) of biomass to essentially make charcoal. For a more formal definition, biochar is a carbon rich solid formed by pyrolysis of biomass [vii].
My friend always talked about biochar when referring to soil fertility and health. But I learned biochar is also very stable and continues to be stable for several years which aids in carbon sequestration (a process by which carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere and is held in solid or liquid form) and plants water availability.
Not only is biochar a great ingredient to add to your soil, but it is also a large component many scientists are looking at to combat climate change. Climate change is associated with the greenhouse effect, both naturally occurring and human enhanced.
To effectively make a difference, there are two main scenario cases in which scientists are considering according to Project Drawdown [vi].
Scenario 1 would require the production of, roughly, 6500 biochar production facilities. These facilities would then produce 133 million metric tons of biochar by the year 2050. From this production, there is an estimated 2.2 gigatons of carbon that would be sequestered from the atmosphere.
But with scenario 1 there is a large upfront cost net cost of nearly US$196 billion and lifetime upkeep cost of US$734 billion.
Scenario 2 requires that around 12,000 biochar production facilities to be built. In return, they would produce around 257 metric tons of biochar. This would in turn remove 4.4 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere.
Scenario 2 also has a large upfront cost of US$ 383 billion and a lifetime operational cost of US$1.4 trillion.
To help put those large, and intimidating, numbers into perspective… here the US discretional spending budget for the year 2019.
Carbon dioxide is the largest portion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and is still increasing today [iii]. Biochar, being able to sequester large amounts of carbon, is potentially a great tool to combat carbon emissions. Advanced economic regions, in 2019, produced 11.3 gigatons of carbon while the rest of the world produced 22 gigatons [iv]. Together, roughly 33.3 gigatons were produced in 2019 alone! That is roughly the same amount in 2018 as well. Besides that, CO2 levels have been constantly increasing. For the United States, CO2 levels decreased in the year 2019. Around 140 megatons to 4.4 gigatons of carbon were thought to be removed.
Biochar has also been seen to have positive effects on crop yield [ii]. Biochar is considered an essential part of the soil amendments (anything added to improve the health/ability of soil). Biochar also has the potential to reduce biomass waste [v]. Excess biomass from crops and fields, for example, can be considered biomass waste.
A team in Oregon, through the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) decided to study biochar’s effect on contaminated or depleted sections of land. Their findings show ‘“Biochar amendments not only elevate pH but also mitigate some of the heavy metal toxicity in soil, increasing plant growth in places that couldn’t necessarily support it before”’ [viii]. Biochar, when in the soil, promotes a porous habitat location for beneficial soil microorganisms. So biochar is not only important for soil health, it is also can be important in soil remediation.
Biochar has also been seen to have positive effects on crop yield [ii]. Biochar is considered an essential part of the soil amendments (anything added to improve the health/ability of soil). Biochar also has the potential to reduce biomass waste [v]. Excess biomass from crops and fields, for example, can be considered biomass waste.
Review of Pros and Cons: Is it Worth it?
Biochar production is a pretty expensive solution, both upfront and long-term costs. The upside is that in return, large portions of carbon will be sequestered from the atmosphere (2.2–4.4 gigatons of carbon). But this is where most conflicts on this solution arise. No one wants to pay an upfront cost that is millions to billions in upfront cost with an additional billion to trillion dollars in lifetime maintenance. Who would? Those numbers seem terrify. But is it worth the cost to remove so much carbon from the atmosphere? Is the Earth worth sacrificing large amounts of money for to ensure a longer healthier future for all inhabitants?
Biochar production also has several co-benefits. Not only can it be used to mitigate climate change but it is used as a soil enrichment supplement, increase of crop yield and help reduce biomass waste. Biochar is also showing potential in the bioremediation of soils. This is great news for areas that have been chemically damaged and are struggling to have plant growth. It can be a trigger for a new and improved ecosystem. This is all great but that being said, biochar is a great material for bio-sequestration and soil health but is not going to be able to single handedly reverse climate change [i]. There are other drawdown strategies that can be implemented, the world just has to decide how important biochar should be in that equation. There are inequalities, some regions are more responsible for climate change than others. The Earth’s health relies on everyone working collectively towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But it starts with one person. For me, if I had not listened to my friend ramble on about soils and soil amendments, I would not have heard of biochar. For others it can be seeing a post on Instagram, a shared photo on Facebook, or ads on television. It takes one person to post, to share, or to push for a television ad to create a movement. A movement towards a healthier Earth.
References
[i] “Biochar Production .” Project Drawdown, 12 Feb. 2020, www.drawdown.org/solutions/biochar-production/technical-summary.
[ii] Bracmort, Kelsi. Biochar: Examination of an Emerging Concept to Mitigate Climate Change. Congressional Research Service, 2010, fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40186.pdf.
[iii] “Climate Change Indicators: Greenhouse Gases.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 9 Nov. 2020, www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/greenhouse-gases.
[iv] Iea. “Global CO2 Emissions in 2019 — Analysis.” IEA, www.iea.org/articles/global-co2-emissions-in-2019.
[v] McElligott, Kristin, et al. “Bioenergy Production Systems and Biochar Application in Forests: Potential for Renewable Energy, Soil Enhancement, and Carbon Sequestration.” Research Note, Oct. 2011, doi:10.2737/rmrs-rn-46.
[vi] Project Drawdown, 14 Apr. 2021, www.drawdown.org/.
[vii] Woolf, D., Amonette, J., Street-Perrott, F. et al. Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change . Nat Commun 1, 56 (2010). https://doi-org.proxy.uwec.edu/10.1038/ncomms1053
[viii] “Exploring the Benefits of Biochar.” USDA ARS AgResearch Magazine, tellus.ars.usda.gov/stories/articles/exploring-the-benefits-of-biochar/.
Written by: Sammy Jo Blank
