Biochar Demonstrator Addressing Key Deployment Barriers for Carbon Sequestration

为使英国在2050年前实现净碳中和，据估计，所需的温室气体清除(GGR)技术组合相当于每年约3500万吨碳(MTC)。生物炭可能对这一目标和气候变化委员会(2020年)所述的耕作措施做出重大贡献，以实现到2050年农业、土地利用和泥炭地的温室气体排放量在2017年16 MTC的基础上减少%和%。然而，仍有一些重大挑战需要克服。用于生产生物炭的原木供应有限，而且英国没有大规模的生产工厂。此外，除了经济可行性和社会可接受性外，人们还担心生物炭的稳定性，最初的降解发生在相对较短的时间范围内。我们建议开展迄今为止最雄心勃勃和最全面的示范方案，涉及耕地和草地、林地、受污染的土地，以及需要控制土壤侵蚀的地方。使用超过200吨的生物炭，我们将解决碳固定的部署程度和范围及其稳定性方面的不确定性，以及对生态系统服务的量化影响。拟议的研究计划是高度跨学科的，将工程学、地球科学、生物科学、社会科学和技术经济学联系在一起，专门旨在为列出的关键挑战提供答案，并确定生物碳是否能够为实现英国2050年全球GGR目标做出重大贡献。我们将采用的基于国际领先科学的量化方法代表着英国生物碳研究的一大变化，该研究主要关注农业效益，而没有解决减少政策制定不确定性所需的碳封存方面的关键挑战。将确定替代的生物衍生原料，这些原料将显著增加每年1MTC的生产潜力。我们的两个工业合作伙伴，CEG和CPL经营着示范和商业工厂，这使他们处于在英国建立大规模生物炭生产的理想位置。广泛的试验将为确定在农业、受污染和开垦的土地和林地部署生物炭的潜力提供坚实的基础，使区域和国家规模效应得以量化。到目前为止，大多数实地试验都是相对本地化和短期的。我们的目标是在大规模农业和土地管理场景中部署CHAR，在这些场景中，将评估“现实世界”管理实践对CHAR行为的影响。我们与农业部门的良好联系，包括农业和园艺发展委员会和全国农民联盟，将提供跳板，探索广泛的利益相关者对生物碳在GGR中的作用的看法，以帮助制定政策。。演示者将解决人们对环境健康和土壤生态系统服务功能的担忧，并将利用我们国际领先的生物科学和分析能力，首次全面评估英国的生物炭稳定性及其对温室气体土壤排放的影响。这将使制定强有力的政策成为可能，在这种政策中，支付是基于延长的时间尺度上的碳封存数量。我们的商业模式将基于我们的综合生命周期和技术经济分析，确定使部署可行所需的碳价格，并纳入农业中使用生物炭的共同好处。演示者将向中心提供所有必要的科学、技术、环境、经济和社会证据，以便对照其他GGR方法评估生物碳的部署。

For the UK to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050, it is estimated that the mix of Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) technologies required will equate to ca. 35 M tonnes of carbon (MtC) p.a. Biochar can potentially make a major contribution both to this target and the adoption of farming practices described by the Committee on Climate Change (2020) to achieve a 64% reduction by 2050 in greenhouse gas emissions across agriculture, land use and peatlands by 64% from the 2017 level of 16 MtC. However, there are some significant challenges to overcome. There is limited availability of virgin wood to produce biochar and there are no large-scale production plants operating in the UK. Further, as well as economic viability and societal acceptability, there are concerns over biochar stability with initial degradation occurring over relatively short timescales. We propose to conduct the most ambitious and comprehensive demonstration programme to date involving arable and grassland, woodland, contaminated land, and where soil erosion control is required. Using over 200 tonnes of biochar, we will address uncertainties regarding the extent and scope of deployment and its stability with respect to carbon sequestration, together with quantifying effects on ecosystem services. The proposed research programme is highly inter-disciplinary, bridging engineering, geoscience, bioscience, social science and techno-economics, specifically designed to provide answers to the key challenges outlined and establish whether biochar can make a significant contribution to meet the UK's 2050 GGR target . The quantitative approach that we will adopt based on internationally leading science represents a step-change for biochar research in the UK, which has focussed primarily on agricultural benefits and not addressed the key challenges regarding carbon sequestration that are needed to reduce the uncertainty for policy development. Alternative bio-derived feedstocks that will significantly increase the production potential by >1 MtC p.a, will be identified. Two of our industrial partners, CEG and CPL operate demonstration and commercial plants, making them ideally placed to establish biochar production at scale in the UK. The extensive trials will provide a sound basis for establishing the potential for biochar deployment across agriculture, contaminated and reclaimed land and woodland, enabling regional and national scale effects to be quantified. To date, most field trials have been relatively localised and short-term. We aim to deploy char in large-scale farming and land management scenarios where the effects of 'real-world' management practices on the behaviour of char will be evaluated. Our excellent links with the farming sector, including the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and the National Farmers' Union, will provide the springboard to explore a wide range of stakeholder perspectives on biochar's role in GGR to aid policy development. . The Demonstrator will address concerns over environmental health and soil ecosystem service functioning and will provide the first comprehensive assessment of biochar stability in the UK and its impact on greenhouse gas soil emissions, with our international leading biological science and analytical capabilities. This will enable robust policy to be developed in which payments are based on the amount of carbon sequestered over extended timescales. Our business models will be based on our integrated life cycle and techno-economic analysis, identifying the carbon prices required to make deployment feasible and incorporating co-benefits of biochar use in agriculture. The Demonstrator will provide the Hub with all the necessary scientific, technological, environmental, economic and societal evidence to enable biochar deployment to be assessed in relation to other GGR approaches.