DOE Phase I DE-SC0022445, FOA DE-FOA-0002859, DOE Topic 21f, "Enhanced Biochar for Soil Reclamation Co-Produced by a Drop-In Biofuels Process"

C53-21f-271174In the US more than 300 million tons/year of biomass are produced from agricultural operations that are subject to microbial decay to greenhouse gases. Through thermal processing this biomass can be converted to a high carbon biochar that could be used as a soil amendment for acidic soils to increase crop production. However, current biochar costs are too high. By coproducing a biofuel with the biochar, biochar costs can be reduced. A patented drop-in biofuels process will be leveraged to also create a low-cost biochar. In addition, carbon dioxide will be adsorbed on the biochar to improve soil amendment characteristics. The goal of the proposed project is to build a larger-scale enhanced biochar production system and operate the system to generate enhanced biochar for improving Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) operations and improve the growth of corn and wheat in field applications in acidic soils. During the Phase I project, the enhanced biochar test system was designed and fabricated, and biochar was produced from corn stover and wheat straw. The biochar was characterized by standard tests and was shown to have good carbon dioxide capture potential and good potential for long-term carbon sequestration. Lettuce plant growth tests under Controlled Environmental Agriculture conditions in pots showed that the enhanced biochar could increase plant production in acidic media by up to 386%. A techno-economic analysis showed that these benefits could be achieved at a cost below $40/ton biochar. In the Phase II project, the enhanced biochar production system will be scaled up by a factor of ten to produce larger quantities of biochar. The corn stover and wheat straw biochar will then be applied to controlled environment agriculture pot studies in the first year of the effort to show the growth improvements with enhanced biochar. In the second year of the project, the enhanced biochar will be applied in field studies to show the growth improvement with corn and wheat in acidic soils. The project will conclude with a techno-economic analysis to show the cost, agricultural production and carbon sequestration benefits of enhanced biochar. The enhanced biochar can be applied to increase the productivity of crops in acidic soils and replacing peat in the soilless media used for controlled environmental agriculture. This will improve the economic well-being of farmers, reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, sequester carbon in soil and generate drop-in jet or gasoline renewable fuel. Preliminary results indicate farm revenues can be increased by $8.8 billion/year and 11.4 million tons of carbon can be sequestered in the soil.