Use of Biochar to Combat Climate Change

Biochar is a climate saving soil that holds carbon, boost security of food, discourage deforestation and increase soil biodiversity. The procedure makes a highly porous, fine-grained charcoal that helps soils retain water and nutrients. Biochar can be found in all types of soils in the world as a product ofhistoric soil management practices and vegetation fires. Detailed study of dark earths enriched with biochar in the Amazon (terra chatrpreta)leads to a wider awareness of unique properties of biochar as a good soil enhancer. Biochar is a simple tool to enhance food security and diversity of cropland in areas with poorly depleted soils, less organic resources and inadequate supplies of water and chemical fertilizer. Biochar ensures water quality and quantity by enhancing soil retention of nutrients for plant utilization. There are more nutrients present in the soil instead of leaching down groundwater and causing soil pollution.

Biochar production for Climate Change:

Biochar and bioenergy co-production helps combat global climate change. This can be done by substituting use of fossil fuel by sequestration of carbon in stable carbon pools of soil. It can also reduce emissions of N2O. The carbon which is present in biochar can hold carbon in soils and resist degradation for 100-1000 years. It is made by pyrolysis or gassification, a procession which biomass is heated up in the absence of O2. Sustainable biochar practices can manufacture oil and gas byproducts which can be utilized as fueland renewable energy, in addition to producing a soil enhancer. When the biochar is buried into the ground the system becomes "carbon negative."

Agricultural Benefits of Biochar:

Agricultural Benefits of Biochar: Heat produced during biochar manufactureis used to substitute carbon positive energy from the fossils fuel. Itminimizes the requirement of chemical fertilizers, those results in low emissions of greenhouse gases from manufacture of fertilizer. Biocharimproves microbial life of soil, which results into more soil carbon storage.Biocharenhances soil fertilityby stimulation of plant growth, which leads to consumption of more carbon dioxide in a positive feedback mechanism.It alsoreduces emissions of nitrous oxide and methane. These are two potent greenhouse gases.

Biochar Removes Carbon from Atmosphere: 

According to Woolf et al, 2010, sustainable biochar implementation could make a decrease of 12 percent of anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions in a year. The study hypothesized that no conversion from food to biomass, no use of industrial treated waste biomass and extraction rates of biomass that would not result in soil erosion.The figure (Woolf et al, 2010) clears avoided emissions attributable to sustainable biochar generation or pyrolysis of biomass over hundred years, in comparison to the current biomass use. There were 3 scenariosmodeled showing different degrees of requirements on global biomass resources; red is for Maximum Sustainable Technical Potential (MSTP), blue for Medium and black for Low). Sustainable biochar is depicted by solid lines; dashed linesfor biomass combustion. In all three levels sustainable biochar trumped combustion of biomass in terms of avoided emissions of gases.

By : Shoaib Aslam