Researchers from the University of Sheffield develop pellets made with captured CO2 they claim could be used as a fertiliser
Captured carbon dioxide could be used to make fertiliser pellets that can help restore soil health and boost harvests, scientists at the University of Sheffield have declared today.
Researchers at the University's Institute for Sustainable Food have developed pellets made from CO2 and waste straw or bio-dregs from anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. They say the technology could be used as a lower carbon alternative to traditional fertilisers.
The pellets boost yields by 38 per cent and improve soil retention by 62 per cent, lab tests suggests, and could help crops cope better with the drought conditions that are expected to become increasingly common as the impacts of climate change start to bite. The pellets also increase microbial growth in the soils by 20 per cent, paving the way towards healthier soils that act more effectively as carbon sinks.
"Faced with a climate emergency and a growing population, we urgently need innovative solutions to feed the world," said Dr Janice Lake, a research fellow at the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences. "As well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we need to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to limit temperature rises.
"These new pellets could turn damaging CO2 into something positive - helping communities to cope with increasingly extreme droughts by allowing farmers to grow more food while using less water."
Producing a tonne of the pellets generates around 0.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide - around 6.5 tonnes of CO2 less than a traditional fertiliser, which is made using a process known as 'Haber-Bosch' - an energy intensive approach that relies on fossil fuels.
If the pellets are used instead of conventional fertiliser, the scientists argue the carbon footprint of staple food products such as bread could be dramatically reduced.
Lake said her team now intend to test the pellets in the field, to verify whether they yield similarly promising results in real world conditions.
The breakthrough is the latest in a series of projects to use captured greenhouse gases to create feedstocks or chemicals that could prove commercially viable. Just last week, BP announced it was investing $30m in a company that uses methane to create animal feed.