Schmidt, H.; Anca-Couce, A.; Hagemann, N.; Werner, C.; Gerten, D.; Lucht, W.; Kammann, C. (2018): Pyrogenic carbon capture and storage. In: GCB Bioenergy 38 (1), S. 215. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12553.

"During the last decade, biochar has been discussed as a promising option to improve soil fertility and sequester carbon, although the carbon efficiency of the thermal conversion of biomass into biochar is in the range of 30%–50% only. So far, the liquid and gaseous pyrolysis products were mainly considered for combustion, though they can equally be processed into recalcitrant forms suitable for carbon sequestration. In this review, we show that pyrolytic carbon capture and storage (PyCCS) can aspire for carbon sequestration efficiencies of >70%, which is shown to be an important threshold to allow PyCCS to become a relevant negative emission technology."

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Werner, Constanze; Schmidt, H-P; Gerten, Dieter; Lucht, Wolfgang; Kammann, C. (2018): Biogeochemical potential of biomass pyrolysis systems for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. In Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (4), p. 44036. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aabb0e.

"Negative emission (NE) technologies are recognized to play an increasingly relevant role in strategies limiting mean global warming to 1.5 °C as specified in the Paris Agreement. The potentially significant contribution of pyrogenic carbon capture and storage (PyCCS) is, however, highly underrepresented in the discussion. In this study, we conduct the first quantitative assessment of the global potential of PyCCS as a NE technology based on biomass plantations. Using a process-based biosphere model, we calculate the land use change required to reach specific climate mitigation goals while observing biodiversity protection guardrails. We consider NE targets of 100–300 GtC following socioeconomic pathways consistent with a mean global warming of 1.5 °C as well as the option of additional carbon balancing required in case of failure or delay of decarbonization measures."

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Li, Yongfu; Hu, Shuaidong; Chen, Junhui; Müller, Karin; Li, Yongchun; Fu, Weijun et al. (2017): Effects of biochar application in forest ecosystems on soil properties and greenhouse gas emissions. A review. In J Soils Sediments 202–203 (Part 2), p. 183. DOI: 10.1007/s11368-017-1906-y.

"Here, we review and summarize the available literature on the effects of biochar on soil properties and GHG emissions in forest soils."

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Fidel, Rivka B.; Laird, David A.; Parkin, Timothy B. (2017): Impact of Biochar Organic and Inorganic Carbon on Soil CO2 and N2O Emissions. In: Journal of environmental quality. DOI: 10.2134/jeq2016.09.0369.

"Here we therefore aim to assess biochar organic and inorganic C pool impacts on CO₂ and N₂O emissions from soil amended with two untreated biochars, inorganic carbon (as Na₂CO₃), acid (HCl) and bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) extracts of the biochars, and acid and bicarbonate/acid-washed biochars during a 140-d soil incubation. We hypothesized that (i) both biochar labile organic carbon (LOC) and inorganic carbon (IC) pools contribute significantly to short-term (<1 mo) CO₂ emissions from biochar-amended soil, (ii) biochars will influence the size of soil NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ pools, and (iii) changes in soil inorganic N pools will affect soil N₂O emissions."

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