Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Integrated biochar solutions can achieve carbon-neutral staple crop production

Nature Food volume 4, pages 236–246 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

This article has been updated

Abstract

Agricultural food production is a main driver of global greenhouse gas emissions, with unclear pathways towards carbon neutrality. Here, through a comprehensive life-cycle assessment using data from China, we show that an integrated biomass pyrolysis and electricity generation system coupled with commonly applied methane and nitrogen mitigation measures can help reduce staple crops’ life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from the current 666.5 to −37.9 Tg CO2-equivalent yr−1. Emission reductions would be achieved primarily through carbon sequestration from biochar application to the soil, and fossil fuel displacement by bio-energy produced from pyrolysis. We estimate that this integrated system can increase crop yield by 8.3%, decrease reactive nitrogen losses by 25.5%, lower air pollutant emissions by 125–2,483 Gg yr−1 and enhance net environmental and economic benefits by 36.2%. These results indicate that integrated biochar solutions could contribute to China’s 2060 carbon neutrality objective while enhancing food security and environmental sustainability.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: GHG emissions from staple food production in China.
Fig. 2: Effects of various management scenarios on staple crop yield, environmental impact and GHG emissions in China.
Fig. 3: Effects of biochar and straw application on SOC change rates for staple food production in China.
Fig. 4: Net GHG emissions from staple food production in China under different mitigation scenarios.
Fig. 5: Impacts of different mitigation scenarios on food security and environmental sustainability.
Fig. 6: Overall effects of IPEG–CH4–N on mitigating GHG emissions from staple food production in China.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The meta-analysis dataset generated during this study is available in Supplementary Data 1. The source data underlying Figs. 1–5 are available in the online version. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

This study does not generate codes.

Change history

  • 24 February 2023

    In the version of this article originally published, an earlier version of the paper, before final edits were implemented, was mistakenly used. The updated sections appear at the end of Figure 2 legend (with new text starting “Each scenario is contingent upon the previous one…”), in the second paragraph of the “IPEG–CH4–N” subsection (new text starting “We found that the proportions…”), in one instance each in the Methods and main text, where an earlier typo (“74%”) was corrected in the statement that “By contrast, IPEG–CH4–N requires only 72% of the total crop residue for biochar production…”, while the Supplementary Information presented was an earlier version The updates are made in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

References

  1. Martin-Roberts, E. et al. Carbon capture and storage at the end of a lost decade. One Earth 4, 1569–1584 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Liu, Z. et al. Challenges and opportunities for carbon neutrality in China. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 3, 141–155 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Wang, F. et al. Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality. Innovation 2, 100180 (2021).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Third National Communication of Climate Change in the People’s Republic of China (Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, 2018).

  5. Chen, X. et al. Producing more grain with lower environmental costs. Nature 514, 486–489 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Cui, Z. et al. Pursuing sustainable productivity with millions of smallholder farmers. Nature 555, 363–366 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, B. et al. Promoting potato as staple food can reduce the carbon–land–water impacts of crops in China. Nat. Food 2, 570–577 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jiang, Y. et al. Water management to mitigate the global warming potential of rice systems: a global meta-analysis. Field Crops Res. 234, 47–54 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Shang, Z. et al. Can cropland management practices lower net greenhouse emissions without compromising yield? Glob. Change Biol. 27, 4657–4670 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Xia, L. et al. Can knowledge-based N management produce more staple grain with lower greenhouse gas emission and reactive nitrogen pollution? A meta-analysis. Glob. Change Biol. 23, 1917–1925 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Ju, X. et al. Reducing environmental risk by improving N management in intensive Chinese agricultural systems. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 3041–3046 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Wang, B. et al. Four pathways towards carbon neutrality by controlling net greenhouse gas emissions in Chinese cropland. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 186, 106576 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Xia, L. et al. Trade-offs between soil carbon sequestration and reactive nitrogen losses under straw return in global agroecosystems. Glob. Change Biol. 12, 5919–5932 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Zhao, Y. et al. Economics- and policy-driven organic carbon input enhancement dominates soil organic carbon accumulation in Chinese croplands. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 4045–4050 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Yan, X., Akiyama, H., Yagi, K. & Akimoto, H. Global estimations of the inventory and mitigation potential of methane emissions from rice cultivation conducted using the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines. Glob. Biogeochemical Cycles 23, GB2002 (2009).

  16. Jiang, Y. et al. Acclimation of methane emissions from rice paddy fields to straw addition. Sci. Adv. 5, eaau9038 (2019).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Chen, Z. et al. Microbial process-oriented understanding of stimulation of soil N2O emission following the input of organic materials. Environ. Pollut. 284, 117176 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Lugato, E., Leip, A. & Jones, A. Mitigation potential of soil carbon management overestimated by neglecting N2O emissions. Nat. Clim. Change 8, 219–223 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Xia, L., Wang, S. & Yan, X. Effects of long-term straw incorporation on the net global warming potential and the net economic benefit in a rice-wheat cropping system in China. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 197, 118–127 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Xia, L., Ti, C., Li, B., Xia, Y. & Yan, X. Greenhouse gas emissions and reactive nitrogen releases during the life-cycles of staple food production in China and their mitigation potential. Sci. Total Environ. 556, 116–125 (2016).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Yang, Y. et al. Restoring abandoned farmland to mitigate climate change on a full Earth. One Earth 3, 176–186 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Lehmann, J. et al. Biochar in climate change mitigation. Nat. Geosci. 14, 883–892 (2021).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Woolf, D., Amonette, J. E., Street-Perrott, F. A., Lehmann, J. & Joseph, S. Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change. Nat. Commun. 1, 56 (2010).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Jeffery, S., Verheijen, F. G., Kammann, C. & Abalos, D. Biochar effects on methane emissions from soils: a meta-analysis. Soil Biol. Biochem. 101, 251–258 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Schmidt, H. P. et al. Biochar in agriculture – a systematic review of 26 global meta-analyses. GCB Bioenergy 13, 1708–1730 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Cayuela, M. L. et al. Biochar and denitrification in soils: when, how much and why does biochar reduce N2O emissions? Sci. Rep. 3, 1732 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. He, Y. et al. Effects of biochar application on soil greenhouse gas fluxes: a meta-analysis. GCB Bioenergy 9, 743–755 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Liu, Q. et al. Biochar application as a tool to decrease soil nitrogen losses (NH3 volatilization, N2O emissions, and N leaching) from croplands: options and mitigation strength in a global perspective. Glob. Change Biol. 25, 2077–2093 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. He, X. et al. Effects of pyrolysis temperature on the physicochemical properties of gas and biochar obtained from pyrolysis of crop residues. Energy 143, 746–756 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Yang, Q. et al. Prospective contributions of biomass pyrolysis to China’s 2050 carbon reduction and renewable energy goals. Nat. Commun. 12, 1698 (2021).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Smith, P. et al. Biophysical and economic limits to negative CO2 emissions. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 42–50 (2016).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (eds Masson-Delmotte, V. et al.) (WMO, 2018).

  33. Ritchie, H., Roser, M. & Rosado, P. CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Our World in Data, 2020); https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions

  34. Liu, Y. et al. A quantitative review of the effects of biochar application on rice yield and nitrogen use efficiency in paddy fields: a meta-analysis. Sci. Total Environ. 830, 154792 (2022).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Cassman, K. G. & Grassini, P. A global perspective on sustainable intensification research. Nat. Sustain. 3, 262–268 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Gu, B. et al. Abating ammonia is more cost-effective than nitrogen oxides for mitigating PM2.5 air pollution. Science 374, 758–762 (2021).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Yang, Y., Reilly, E. C., Jungers, J. M., Chen, J. & Smith, T. M. Climate benefits of increasing plant diversity in perennial bioenergy crops. One Earth 1, 434–445 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. Weller, S. et al. Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice and maize production in diversified rice cropping systems. Nutr. Cycling Agroecosyst. 101, 37–53 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Rogelj, J. et al. Scenarios towards limiting global mean temperature increase below 1.5 °C. Nat. Clim. Change 8, 325–332 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Gu, B., Zhang, X., Bai, X., Fu, B. & Chen, D. Four steps to food security for swelling cities. Nature 566, 31–33 (2019).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Zhang, X. et al. Managing nitrogen for sustainable development. Nature 528, 51–59 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Gu, B., Ju, X., Chang, J., Ge, Y. & Vitousek, P. M. Integrated reactive nitrogen budgets and future trends in China. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 8792–8797 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Galloway, J. N. et al. Transformation of the nitrogen cycle: recent trends, questions, and potential solutions. Science 320, 889–892 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Lee, X. J., Ong, H. C., Gan, Y. Y., Chen, W. H. & Mahlia, T. M. I. State of art review on conventional and advanced pyrolysis of macroalgae and microalgae for biochar, bio-oil and bio-syngas production. Energy Convers. Manag. 210, 112707 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Nevzorova, T. & Kutcherov, V. Barriers to the wider implementation of biogas as a source of energy: a state-of-the-art review. Energy Strategy Rev. 26, 100414 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Xia, S. et al. Pyrolysis behavior and economics analysis of the biomass pyrolytic polygeneration of forest farming waste. Bioresource Technol. 270, 189–197 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Liu, Z., Niu, W., Chu, H., Zhou, T. & Niu, Z. Effect of the carbonization temperature on the properties of biochar produced from the pyrolysis of crop residues. BioResources 13, 3429–3446 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Hengeveld, E. J., Bekkering, J., van Gemert, W. J. T. & Broekhuis, A. A. Biogas infrastructures from farm to regional scale, prospects of biogas transport grids. Biomass Bioenergy 86, 43–52 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Ansari, S. H. et al. Incorporation of solar-thermal energy into a gasification process to co-produce bio-fertilizer and power. Environ. Pollut. 266, 115103 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Yang, S. I., Wu, M. S. & Hsu, T. C. Spray combustion characteristics of kerosene/bio-oil part I: experimental study. Energy 119, 26–36 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Xia, L. et al. Elevated CO2 negates O3 impacts on terrestrial carbon and nitrogen cycles. One Earth 4, 1752–1763 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  52. Gu, B. et al. Atmospheric reactive nitrogen in China: sources, recent trends, and damage costs. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46, 9420–9427 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Xia, L. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions and reactive nitrogen releases from rice production with simultaneous incorporation of wheat straw and nitrogen fertilizer. Biogeosciences 13, 4569–4579 (2016).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Helmholtz-OCPC (Office of China Postdoc Council) Postdoc Program and Humboldt Postdoctoral Reserch Fellowship, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 42061124001, 72174197, 72025401, 71974108, 71690244 and 41961124004) and the Tsinghua University-Inditex Sustainable Development Fund. We would like to thank Y. Zhao for providing the SOC data.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Longlong Xia, Liang Cao.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Longlong Xia, Chaopu Ti & Xiaoyuan Yan

  2. Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

    Longlong Xia, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl & Ralf Kiese

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Liang Cao

  4. Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Yi Yang

  5. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Yize Liu & Minghao Zhuang

  6. School of Biological Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Pete Smith

  7. Department of Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Kees Jan van Groenigen

  8. Soil and Crop Science, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Johannes Lehmann

  9. Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Johannes Lehmann

  10. CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Sequestration and Management, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Rattan Lal

  11. Pioneer Center Land-CRAFT, Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Klaus Butterbach-Bahl

  12. School of Environment, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Xi Lu

  13. Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Xi Lu

  14. Beijing Laboratory of Environmental Frontier Technologies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Xi Lu

Authors
  1. Longlong Xia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Liang Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yi Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Chaopu Ti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yize Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Pete Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Kees Jan van Groenigen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Johannes Lehmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Rattan Lal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Ralf Kiese
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Minghao Zhuang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Xi Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Xiaoyuan Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.Z., L.X., X.L., X.Y. designed the research. L.X. and L.C. performed the data extraction and analysis. L.X. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, with all authors contributing to the revisions.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Minghao Zhuang, Xi Lu or Xiaoyuan Yan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Food thanks Baojing Gu, Annette Cowie and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–6, Supplementary Tables 1–20 and Supplementary Figs. 1–9.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Data 1

Effects of straw and biochar application on food production and environmental sustainability.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Source data for Fig. 1

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data for Fig. 2

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data for Fig. 3

Source Data Fig. 4

Source data for Fig. 4

Source Data Fig. 5

Source data for Fig. 5

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Xia, L., Cao, L., Yang, Y. et al. Integrated biochar solutions can achieve carbon-neutral staple crop production. Nat Food 4, 236–246 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00694-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00694-0

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene