IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v175y2023ics1364032123000011.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate mitigation potential of sustainable biochar production in China

Author

Listed:
  • Xia, Longlong
  • Chen, Wenhao
  • Lu, Bufan
  • Wang, Shanshan
  • Xiao, Lishan
  • Liu, Beibei
  • Yang, Hongqiang
  • Huang, Chu-Long
  • Wang, Hongtao
  • Yang, Yang
  • Lin, Litao
  • Zhu, Xiangdong
  • Chen, Wei-Qiang
  • Yan, Xiaoyuan
  • Zhuang, Minghao
  • Kung, Chih-Chun
  • Zhu, Yong-Guan
  • Yang, Yi

Abstract

While feeding 20% of global population, China's agriculture is a large greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter, posing a major challenge to the country's carbon neutrality target. However, the pathways of agriculture towards carbon neutrality remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we conduct a comprehensive life-cycle assessment and show that valorization of sustainable biomass wastes (crop residues, forest residues, livestock manure, food waste, and sewage sludge) into biochar can contribute importantly towards agricultural carbon neutrality in China. The maximum potential of biochar production from these waste resources in 2018 is 145 Mt yr−1 with a corresponding GHG mitigation potential of 455.7 (405.5–572.4) Mt CO2-eq yr−1. This can fully offset the total CH4 and N2O emissions from China's croplands (∼400 Mt CO2-eq yr−1), which are difficult to be entirely eliminated due to rice paddy irrigation and intensive use of fertilizers. Distribution of biomass waste varies across regions, and at the national level , crop residues (48.8%) and livestock manure (25.4%) and food waste (15.6%) are the main sources of biochar feedstocks and should be prioritized in biochar development. Forest residues have a marginal contribution due to competing uses from other sectors, and sewage sludge derived biochar is a net source of GHG emissions due to the large energy consumption required for sludge drying. The total GHG mitigation potential of biochar is greatly affected by pyrolysis temperature and the highest mitigation effect is observed under 300–500 °C. These results underscore the benefit of sustainable biochar production to agricultural carbon neutrality, and to maximize the climate benefit requires differential policies and pyrolysis technologies tailored to regional availability of biomass resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Xia, Longlong & Chen, Wenhao & Lu, Bufan & Wang, Shanshan & Xiao, Lishan & Liu, Beibei & Yang, Hongqiang & Huang, Chu-Long & Wang, Hongtao & Yang, Yang & Lin, Litao & Zhu, Xiangdong & Chen, Wei-Qiang , 2023. "Climate mitigation potential of sustainable biochar production in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:175:y:2023:i:c:s1364032123000011
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2023.113145
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032123000011
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2023.113145?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Zhikun & Zhu, Zongyuan & Shen, Boxiong & Liu, Lina, 2019. "Insights into biochar and hydrochar production and applications: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 581-598.
    2. Yi Yang & David Tilman & Clarence Lehman & Jared J. Trost, 2018. "Sustainable intensification of high-diversity biomass production for optimal biofuel benefits," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 686-692, November.
    3. Song, Biao & Almatrafi, Eydhah & Tan, Xiaofei & Luo, Songhao & Xiong, Weiping & Zhou, Chengyun & Qin, Meng & Liu, Yang & Cheng, Min & Zeng, Guangming & Gong, Jilai, 2022. "Biochar-based agricultural soil management: An application-dependent strategy for contributing to carbon neutrality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Zhuang, Minghao & Liu, Yize & Yang, Yi & Zhang, Qingsong & Ying, Hao & Yin, Yulong & Cui, Zhenling, 2022. "The sustainability of staple crops in China can be substantially improved through localized strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    5. Kung, Chih-Chun & Mu, Jianhong E., 2019. "Prospect of China's renewable energy development from pyrolysis and biochar applications under climate change," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    7. Qing Yang & Hewen Zhou & Pietro Bartocci & Francesco Fantozzi & Ondřej Mašek & Foster A. Agblevor & Zhiyu Wei & Haiping Yang & Hanping Chen & Xi Lu & Guoqian Chen & Chuguang Zheng & Chris P. Nielsen &, 2021. "Prospective contributions of biomass pyrolysis to China’s 2050 carbon reduction and renewable energy goals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Xinping Chen & Zhenling Cui & Mingsheng Fan & Peter Vitousek & Ming Zhao & Wenqi Ma & Zhenlin Wang & Weijian Zhang & Xiaoyuan Yan & Jianchang Yang & Xiping Deng & Qiang Gao & Qiang Zhang & Shiwei Guo , 2014. "Producing more grain with lower environmental costs," Nature, Nature, vol. 514(7523), pages 486-489, October.
    9. Miguel D. Mahecha & Ana Bastos & Friedrich J. Bohn & Nico Eisenhauer & Hannes Feilhauer & Henrik Hartmann & Thomas Hickler & Heike Kalesse-Los & Mirco Migliavacca & Friederike E. L. Otto & Jian Peng &, 2022. "Biodiversity loss and climate extremes — study the feedbacks," Nature, Nature, vol. 612(7938), pages 30-32, December.
    10. Baojing Gu & Xiaoling Zhang & Xuemei Bai & Bojie Fu & Deli Chen, 2019. "Four steps to food security for swelling cities," Nature, Nature, vol. 566(7742), pages 31-33, February.
    11. Kung, Chih-Chun & Fei, Chengcheng J. & McCarl, Bruce A. & Fan, Xinxin, 2022. "A review of biopower and mitigation potential of competing pyrolysis methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. Malyan, Sandeep K. & Kumar, Smita S. & Fagodiya, Ram Kishor & Ghosh, Pooja & Kumar, Amit & Singh, Rajesh & Singh, Lakhveer, 2021. "Biochar for environmental sustainability in the energy-water-agroecosystem nexus," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    13. Zhang, Bingquan & Xu, Jialu & Lin, Zhixian & Lin, Tao & Faaij, André P.C., 2021. "Spatially explicit analyses of sustainable agricultural residue potential for bioenergy in China under various soil and land management scenarios," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    14. Dominic Woolf & James E. Amonette & F. Alayne Street-Perrott & Johannes Lehmann & Stephen Joseph, 2010. "Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-9, December.
    15. Kang, Yating & Yang, Qing & Bartocci, Pietro & Wei, Hongjian & Liu, Sylvia Shuhan & Wu, Zhujuan & Zhou, Hewen & Yang, Haiping & Fantozzi, Francesco & Chen, Hanping, 2020. "Bioenergy in China: Evaluation of domestic biomass resources and the associated greenhouse gas mitigation potentials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    16. Al-Rumaihi, Aisha & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Mckay, Gordon & Mackey, Hamish & Al-Ansari, Tareq, 2022. "A review of pyrolysis technologies and feedstock: A blending approach for plastic and biomass towards optimum biochar yield," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. Song, Jinghui & Wang, Ying & Zhang, Siqi & Song, Yanling & Xue, Shengrong & Liu, Le & Lvy, Xingang & Wang, Xiaojiao & Yang, Gaihe, 2021. "Coupling biochar with anaerobic digestion in a circular economy perspective: A promising way to promote sustainable energy, environment and agriculture development in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    18. Huang, Yawen & Tao, Bo & Lal, Rattan & Lorenz, Klaus & Jacinthe, Pierre-Andre & Shrestha, Raj K. & Bai, Xiongxiong & Singh, Maninder P. & Lindsey, Laura E. & Ren, Wei, 2023. "A global synthesis of biochar's sustainability in climate-smart agriculture - Evidence from field and laboratory experiments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    19. Ilya Gelfand & Ritvik Sahajpal & Xuesong Zhang & R. César Izaurralde & Katherine L. Gross & G. Philip Robertson, 2013. "Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest," Nature, Nature, vol. 493(7433), pages 514-517, January.
    20. Yang, Jun & Dai, Guanghui & Ma, Luyi & Jia, Liming & Wu, Jian & Wang, Xiaohua, 2013. "Forest-based bioenergy in China: Status, opportunities, and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 478-485.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Farhana Bibi & Azizur Rahman, 2023. "An Overview of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Their Mitigation Strategies," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Lan & Wang, Xue-Chao & Dai, Min & Chen, Bin & Qiao, Yuanbo & Deng, Huijing & Zhang, Dingfan & Zhang, Yizhe & Villas Bôas de Almeida, Cecília Maria & Chiu, Anthony S.F. & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & W, 2021. "Shifting from fossil-based economy to bio-based economy: Status quo, challenges, and prospects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    2. Huang, Yawen & Tao, Bo & Lal, Rattan & Lorenz, Klaus & Jacinthe, Pierre-Andre & Shrestha, Raj K. & Bai, Xiongxiong & Singh, Maninder P. & Lindsey, Laura E. & Ren, Wei, 2023. "A global synthesis of biochar's sustainability in climate-smart agriculture - Evidence from field and laboratory experiments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    3. Field, John L. & Tanger, Paul & Shackley, Simon J. & Haefele, Stephan M., 2016. "Agricultural residue gasification for low-cost, low-carbon decentralized power: An empirical case study in Cambodia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 612-624.
    4. Roberts, Cameron & Greene, Jenna & Nemet, Gregory F., 2023. "Key enablers for carbon dioxide removal through the application of biochar to agricultural soils: Evidence from three historical analogues," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    5. Wu, Jy S. & Tseng, Hui-Kuan & Liu, Xiaoshuai, 2022. "Techno-economic assessment of bioenergy potential on marginal croplands in the U.S. southeast," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. Chen, Xiaoguang & Huang, Haixiao & Khanna, Madhu & Önal, Hayri, 2014. "Alternative transportation fuel standards: Welfare effects and climate benefits," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 241-257.
    7. Niblick, Briana & Landis, Amy E., 2016. "Assessing renewable energy potential on United States marginal and contaminated sites," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 489-497.
    8. Hoekman, S. Kent & Broch, Amber & Liu, Xiaowei (Vivian), 2018. "Environmental implications of higher ethanol production and use in the U.S.: A literature review. Part I – Impacts on water, soil, and air quality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3140-3158.
    9. Baka, Jennifer & Bailis, Robert, 2014. "Wasteland energy-scapes: A comparative energy flow analysis of India's biofuel and biomass economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 8-17.
    10. Baka, Jennifer & Bailis, Robert, 2014. "Wasteland energy-scapes: a comparative energy flow analysis of India's biofuel and biomass economies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59896, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Robert S. Frazier & Enze Jin & Ajay Kumar, 2015. "Life Cycle Assessment of Biochar versus Metal Catalysts Used in Syngas Cleaning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, January.
    12. Rawat, Lakhpat Singh & Maikhuri, Rakesh Kumar & Bahuguna, Yateesh Mohan & Jugran, Arun Kumar & Maletha, Ajay & Jha, Nabi Kanta & Phondani, Prakash Chandra & Dhyani, Deepak & Pharswan, Dalbeer Singh & , 2022. "Rejuvenating ecosystem services through reclaiming degraded land for sustainable societal development: Implications for conservation and human wellbeing," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    13. Van Meerbeek, Koenraad & Muys, Bart & Hermy, Martin, 2019. "Lignocellulosic biomass for bioenergy beyond intensive cropland and forests," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 139-149.
    14. Yakubu Abdul-Salam & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Jelte Harnmeijer, 2017. "Anaerobic Digestion of Feedstock Grown on Marginal Land: Break-Even Electricity Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, September.
    15. Holland, Robert A. & Scott, Kate & Hinton, Emma D. & Austen, Melanie C. & Barrett, John & Beaumont, Nicola & Blaber-Wegg, Tina & Brown, Gareth & Carter-Silk, Eleanor & Cazenave, Pierre & Eigenbrod, Fe, 2016. "Bridging the gap between energy and the environment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 181-189.
    16. Lin, Richen & O'Shea, Richard & Deng, Chen & Wu, Benteng & Murphy, Jerry D., 2021. "A perspective on the efficacy of green gas production via integration of technologies in novel cascading circular bio-systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    17. Nie, Yazhou & Deng, Mengsi & Shan, Ming & Yang, Xudong, 2023. "Clean and low-carbon heating in the building sector of China: 10-Year development review and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    18. Kumar, A. Naresh & Dissanayake, Pavani Dulanja & Masek, Ondrej & Priya, Anshu & Ki Lin, Carol Sze & Ok, Yong Sik & Kim, Sang-Hyoun, 2021. "Recent trends in biochar integration with anaerobic fermentation: Win-win strategies in a closed-loop," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Na Su & Zhenbo Wang, 2022. "Visual Analysis of Global Carbon Mitigation Research Based on Scientific Knowledge Graphs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-15, May.
    20. Song, Biao & Almatrafi, Eydhah & Tan, Xiaofei & Luo, Songhao & Xiong, Weiping & Zhou, Chengyun & Qin, Meng & Liu, Yang & Cheng, Min & Zeng, Guangming & Gong, Jilai, 2022. "Biochar-based agricultural soil management: An application-dependent strategy for contributing to carbon neutrality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:175:y:2023:i:c:s1364032123000011. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.