This document discusses biochar and its potential benefits for soil and the environment. It summarizes an organization called InCrops Ltd that is working to stimulate innovation in alternative crops and bio-renewable products. The document discusses how biochar can improve soil quality, productivity, and carbon sequestration. However, there are still uncertainties and a lack of commercial production. InCrops is investigating applications of biochar in the UK to identify niche markets and establish flexible low-cost production to advance scientific understanding through trials. They are working with a steering group of academics and businesses to accelerate industry adoption and innovation in biochar technologies.

1. Biochar
Farming Futures Workshop
11 November 2010
Bruce Tofield
b.tofield@uea.ac.uk

2. • 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

3. • 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

4. • 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:

5. The hub draws upon the complementary expertise of 13 partners
InCrops Enterprise Hub

6. 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?

7. 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

8. Right: a nutrient poor oxisol; Left: an oxisol transformed into fertile terra preta
(Glaser et al, Naturwiss., 2001)
Amazonian
Dark 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

9. Biochar does not
degrade 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 annually
Biochar only once or very infrequently

10. 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

11. Overcoming
market 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

12. 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 biomass
Requirements
* 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

13. Biomass CHP power plant being commissioned
Innovative low-carbon renewable energy source
First of its kind in Europe
Biochar production
at UEA
10,000 tonnes wood chip input pa
200-300 tonnes biochar by-product pa
Low yield, good for trials, but no flexibility in input biomass

14. Biomass is potentially
available
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

15. Potential conflict
with 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

16. InCrops Biochar
Steering 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