Images of climate innovation
Big things have small beginnings
This Miscanthus seedling will grow 3-4 metres tall each year, and suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as it does so. The plant is harvested, burnt to generate electricity, the carbon is captured as it is re-emitted, and then stored underground. The more the plant grows each year, the more carbon we can remove. Aberystwyth University are breeding new high yielding Miscanthus varieties for a range of environments.
Miscanthus is a perennial grass, originating in Asia. It is harvested in the spring before new shoots emerge. In the UK it produces about 14 tonnes of biomass per hectare on land that is unsuitable for food production. Its yield can be well over 20 tonnes per hectare in other countries.
Harnessing the ability of plants to take CO2 out of the atmosphere, burning the biomass, and then capturing the carbon as it is re-emitted is a 'negative emissions technology'; one that can reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Governments around the world are assessing how much land they can use for this purpose, without compromising their ability to produce food. In the UK, we need to increase the rate of biomass planting from around 800 hectares in 2021 to 23,000 hectares per year by 2050.
The current commercial variety of Miscanthus is a sterile plant, so is propagated by cloning of the root material. This is expensive and slow compared to plants that produce seed; a hectare of plants can only provide enough root material for 20 hectares of new planting per year. In contrast, seed from 1 hectare is enough for 20,000 hectares of new planting.
Aberystwyth University has therefore been breeding new Miscanthus varieties that can be grown from seed. Our first new varieties are licensed to Terravesta, a UK biomass company with a network of contracted growers. We also work on establishment methods, alternative end uses, and quantifying the overall carbon benefits, which feeds into Government policy design. Work with international collaborators on the genetics of Miscanthus is yielding insights which we will incorporate into our breeding programme.
Whilst negative emissions technologies may prove useful to decarbonise particular sectors, we should not allow this to deflect from the importance of drastic and far reaching cuts in carbon emissions in the near term.
Entrant: Judith Thornton and Iain Donnison , Aberystwyth University
Copyright: Terravesta Ltd
Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4nNWdrq-1A
https://bbsrc.ukri.org/research/impact/accelerating-the-growth-of-bioenergy-crops/