Perennial Biomass Crops for Greenhouse Gas Removal

芒草和短轮制灌木柳被认为是英国最有前途的可持续多年生生物质作物。这两种作物都有能力从低水平的投入（如化肥）中迅速产生大量可收获的生物质，并且可以在不太适合粮食生产的土地上种植。它们提供了一种可再生能源，基本上是碳中性的。例如，碳通过光合作用固定，当作物收获并转化为能量时，例如通过燃烧，碳再次以二氧化碳的形式释放出来。然而，当生物能源与碳捕获和储存（BECCS）相结合时，光合作用固定的碳不会被释放回大气，而是被储存起来，例如在海上。因此，BECCS可以作为一种消除温室气体的技术，帮助英国实现到2050年“净零”排放的目标。目前，pbc的种植面积为7000公顷芒草和5000公顷柳树。它们也是相对较新的作物，对许多农民来说并不熟悉。我们的多年生生物质温室气体去除作物（PBC4GGR）项目将开展必要的研究，使芒草和柳树作物能够成功地扩大规模，并足够迅速地应对气候变化危机。例如，我们的目标是从目前每年800公顷的种植面积发展到气候变化委员会建议的每年23000公顷的种植面积，以实现2050年的净零目标。我们的项目将展示如何克服增加PBC产量的技术和社会障碍，同时最大限度地减少温室气体排放，以及PBC可以带来的环境和社会效益。为了发挥PBCs的潜力，我们将优化作物种植农艺，使其能够迅速扩大规模。此外，我们将测量向PBCs过渡的土地上的温室气体通量，并将其与仍处于常规管理下的邻近土地进行比较。结合高分辨率二氧化碳通量、生长、气象和土壤特征，将用于推导全英国温室气体制图的建模参数。PBCs可以在地下存在长达20年，甚至更长时间，因此它们也可以增加土壤的碳封存，并为BECCS提供可再生的原料。将筛选生根深度的多样性和根/根茎中寿命较长的碳化合物的存在，以探索是否有机会在未来的品种中培育出更大的碳固存。芒草和柳树也都能够在更边缘的土地上生长，因此在农业支持计划发生变化的时候，为农民提供了更多的多样化选择，也避免了与初级粮食生产的直接竞争。温室气体减排方案所要求的大规模土地使用变化需要为当地社区所接受甚至欢迎，因此我们将调查可能受到影响的社区的态度。我们将使用多种建模方法来了解可能扩大规模的程度、对环境的影响以及BECCS的总体贡献。将在空间上和时间上预测大规模PBCs对环境和农村经济的影响，并利用关于所有人的机会和利益的创新信息评估和解决阻碍社会接受的障碍。与其他示范项目和中心一起，我们将寻求提供一种综合的前进方式，使英国能够实现其净零排放。该项目由阿伯里斯特威斯大学领导，他们培育了可扩展的芒草品种，而罗桑研究所培育了柳树品种。温室气体的测量由英国生态与水文中心领导，阿伯丁的建模将量化温室气体的去除和经济性。格洛斯特郡将引领社会科学去理解感知障碍。

Miscanthus and short rotation coppice willow are regarded as the UK's most promising sustainable perennial biomass crops (PBCs). Both these crops have the capability of producing large amounts of harvestable biomass, very quickly, from low levels of input such as fertiliser and can be grown on land less suited to food production. They provide a renewable source of energy, which is broadly carbon neutral. For example, carbon is fixed by photosynthesis and when the crop is harvested and converted to energy, such as through combustion, that carbon is released again as carbon dioxide. However, when bioenergy is combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), the photosynthetically fixed carbon is not released back to the atmosphere, but is instead stored, for example, offshore. BECCS can therefore be used as a technology for greenhouse gas removal, to help the UK achieve its target to be "net zero" by 2050.The planted area of PBCs is currently 7,000 ha of Miscanthus and 5,000 ha of willow. They are also relatively new crops, unfamiliar to many farmers. Our Perennial Biomass Crops for Greenhouse Gas Removal (PBC4GGR) project will undertake the research needed to enable Miscanthus and willow crops to be successfully scaled up, and rapidly enough, to respond to the climate change crisis. For example, we aim to develop the pathway from the current planting of 800 ha a year, to the 23,000 ha a year recommended by the Committee of Climate Change to meet the 2050 net zero target. Our project will demonstrate how the technical and social barriers to increased PBC production can be overcome, while maximising the amount of greenhouse gas removal and the environmental and social benefits which PBCs can deliver.For PBCs to deliver their potential, we will be optimising the crop establishment agronomy needed to enable their rapid scale up. In addition, we will measure greenhouse gas fluxes on the land transitioned to PBCs and compare it to adjacent land remaining under conventional management. Combined high resolution CO2 fluxes, growth, meteorology and soil traits will be used to derive modelling parameters for UK wide greenhouse gas mapping. PBCs could be in the ground for up to 20, or even more, years so they can also increase soil carbon sequestered as well as providing a renewable feedstock for BECCS. Diversity in rooting depth and the presence of longer lived carbon compounds in root/rhizome will be screened to explore if opportunities for greater carbon sequestration could be bred into future varieties. Miscanthus and willow are both also capable of growing on more marginal land, so providing farmers with more options for diversification, at a time of change in the support schemes for farming, and also avoiding direct competition with primary food production. The large-scale changes in land use that greenhouse gas removal options will require need to be acceptable or even welcome to local communities, so we will investigate attitudes amongst the communities who may be affected. We will use a number of modelling approaches to understand the extent of scale up possible, the environmental impacts and the overall contribution of BECCS. Impacts of large scale PBCs on environment and rural economies will be forecast spatially and temporally and barriers to social acceptance will be assessed and addressed with innovative information on the opportunities and benefits for all. In conjunction with other Demonstrator projects and the Hub, we will seek to provide an integrated way forward that allows the UK to meet its net zero emissions.The project is led by Aberystwyth University who have bred scalable Miscanthus varieties, and willow varieties have been bred by Rothamsted Research. Measurements of greenhouse gases are led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and modelling at Aberdeen will quantify greenhouse gas removal and economics. Gloucestershire will lead social science to understand perception barriers.