biochar - bruce tofield (uea - incrops project)
TRANSCRIPT
• A not-for-profit, spin-out company from the University of East Anglia
• Aim: to stimulate the development and adoption of products and processes from alternative and non-food crops and agri-food residues
InCrops Ltd
• A technology transfer project stimulating innovation in
alternative and non-food crops in the East of England
• Working with businesses to accelerate the development,
uptake and introduction of new bio-renewable products
and processes
• Funded by the East of England Development Agency and
European Regional Development Fund
InCrops Enterprise Hub
• Bioenergy and biofuels
Bianca Forte
• Biopolymers and biocomposites
Dr Liliya Serazetdinova
• Biorefineries and algal technologies
Dr Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley
InCrops Ltd
• Nutraceuticals anf functional foods
Dr Mark Coleman
• Green built environment
Bennedict Binns
• Sustainable agricultural practices
Dr Carlos Gonzalez-Esquivel
Key areas of expertise:
The hub draws upon the complementary expertise of 13 partners
InCrops Enterprise Hub
Key questions
How can we manage agriculture in a more sustainable manner?
Does biochar offer a shorter-term route to a more sustainable agriculture?
Are there also major markets in waste treatment?
How can we develop a viable and sustainable biochar economy in the UK and more widely?
Biochar
Potential major benefit for
• soil quality
• agricultural productivity
• nutrient use
• water retention
• promoting biological health of soils
• ghg reduction from soils
• carbon sequestration
But many uncertainties and unknowns
Pathway to commercialisation uncertain
Right: a nutrient poor oxisol; Left: an oxisol transformed into fertile terra preta (Glaser et al, Naturwiss., 2001)
AmazonianDark Earths (ADE)
The ADE have remarkable fertility
compared to the nutrient poor soils
from which they were created some hundreds of years
ago.
They are rich in charcoal as well as in other nutrients laid down by early
agriculturalists.
Awareness of the ADE has been very
significant in stimulating interest
in biochar
Biochar does notdegrade in soils
Compost and other organic material in soils is valuable but mineralises
(converts to CO2) in just a few years.
Biochar will remain essentially unchanged for hundreds or even
thousands of years – carbon sequestration really is possible
Up to 35 per cent of SOC in some US soils is charcoal from natural
processes (Skjemstad et al, 2002)Compost must be applied annuallyBiochar only once or very infrequently
But market failure
• Insufficient evidence to support purchase for agriculture
• No commercial pull to support manufacturing capability
• Almost no commercial biochar plants worldwide
• Trials world-wide mostly small-scale
• Depending on lab-scale or pilot-plant production
• Insufficient knowledge of behaviour in temperate soils
• These knowledge gaps create market failure
• No flexible production facility in the UK
• Capability does not exist to advance understanding
Overcomingmarket failure
InCrops investigative work on the potential of biochar in the UK:
• Identify applications and niche markets in which it is commercially
attractive to produce/use biochar
• Explore the potential for establishing flexible, low-cost production
capability to support and stimulate scientific study and identify and
engage with innovators to stimulate innovation in this field
• Trial a range of chars from a range of feedstocks in a range of
temperate soils on a range of crops using a range of biochar
treatments and inoculations
Biochar Process
Percentage of raw biomass converted to biochar
Raw biomass needed to yield 11.3 Mt of biochar (10t ha-1)
Raw biomass needed to yield 45.2 Mt of biochar (40t ha-1)
Gasification 10% 113 million tonnes 452 million tonnes
Fast Pyrolysis 15% 75 million tonnes 301 million tonnes
Slow Pyrolysis 35% 32 million tonnes 129 million tonnes
Table 12: Quantities of biomass required for treatment of all arable land# in the East of England (Collison et al, 2009*)
Potential biomassRequirements
* The LCIC report for EEDA, “Biochar and Carbon Sequestration: A Regional Perspective”
# 1.13m ha including rotational grassland and set aside; for grassland also add 20 per cent
Biomass CHP power plant being commissionedInnovative low-carbon renewable energy source
First of its kind in Europe
Biochar production at UEA
10,000 tonnes wood chip input pa200-300 tonnes biochar by-product pa
Low yield, good for trials, but no flexibility in input biomass
Biomass is potentiallyavailable
Perhaps 2m tonnes available biomass and biowaste per year in East of England
Vegetables and salads occupy only 2 per cent of arable agricultural area
There is sufficient biomass available, in principle, to produce biochar for application to the most appropriate soils such as sandy soils used for
vegetables and salads
And current market failure means no biochar while UK renewable energy strategy might appropriate all available biomass for combustion in power plants
But we need a high-conversion biochar production technology
Potential conflictwith RE strategy
UK Bioenergy Strategy does not include biochar – potential competition for resources - urgency
Even at 2 per cent application in E England, approx 200,000 tonnes biochar at 10t ha-1, application will take 1000 years from one UEA gasifier
But all present-day biomass resources will be needed to meet 2020 UK renewable energy targets
Biochar cannot be produced in quantity from biomass gasifiers used for energy generation – 2-3% yield, excellent for trials, not viable for large-scale
application
More productive, economic, possibly smaller-scale technologies will be required with 20-30% conversion
InCrops BiocharSteering Group
• Academic and private sector engagement aimed at further developing the
scientific knowledge required to accelerate industry uptake and encourage
innovation in this field
• The Steering Group will work to overcome market failure by e.g. helping to
develop R&D programmes, including for the development of associated
technologies, and identifying partners for applied projects
• First meeting held at Rothamsted Research in September 2010
• Will investigate low-cost, portable technology that offers the flexibility to
produce a range of biochars