Biochar, Soil Health, and the Sustainability of Palm Oil Productivity

Healthy soil is invariably fertile, but fertile soil is not necessarily healthy. Healthy soil teems with life—such as earthworms and other organisms—that naturally provides nutrients. Continuous use of chemical fertilizers without a corresponding addition of organic matter depletes soil microorganism populations. Over the long term, this causes the soil to harden, reduces its nutrient-supplying capacity, and increases crop dependence on chemical fertilizers. Consequently, production costs rise while land quality steadily declines.

The future of the palm oil industry is no longer solely about increasing production; it is also required to demonstrate that productivity can go hand-in-hand with environmental protection and social acceptance. Palm oil plantations must be grounded in the three pillars of sustainability: generating economic profit, gaining social acceptance, and preserving the environment. These principles also guide the implementation of the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standard. Balanced fertilization—combining chemical (inorganic) and organic fertilizers—serves as one such solution.

These two types of fertilizers serve complementary functions. Chemical or inorganic fertilizers provide nutrients rapidly, whereas organic fertilizers improve soil structure and health, thereby sustaining productivity over the long term. A well-balanced combination of the two can maintain high productivity while ensuring land sustainability. Another equally important factor is the use of superior-quality seedlings that are certified or come from reliable sources with proven quality; if the seedlings are unsuitable, the results will not be optimal, regardless of how well they are fertilized.

Biochar is not a fertilizer, so its nutrient content is very low. While some types of biochar do possess relatively high nutrient levels, these are exceptions or added bonuses. As an organic material, biochar is environmentally friendly and derived from renewable sources. Its use also enhances fertilization efficiency—specifically Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE)—for both chemical (inorganic) and organic fertilizers. This is because biochar transforms fertilizers into slow-release products, allowing nutrient availability to better align with plant needs; read more details here.

Biochar significantly supports soil health due to its favorable physical, chemical, and biological properties. Physically, it features high porosity and low bulk density; chemically, it offers high cation exchange capacity (CEC), alkalinity (high pH), and high carbon stability; and biologically, it serves as a habitat for microorganisms and stimulates soil enzyme activity. Furthermore, biochar is capable of binding toxic substances. This is due to its strong adsorption capacity, which allows it to capture heavy metals (such as lead or cadmium) and chemical pesticide residues present in the soil. These harmful substances are trapped within the biochar's pores, preventing their uptake by plant roots. For more details on biochar quality parameters, read here.

Biochar application is also a climate solution. Biochar can store carbon for hundreds of years in the soil. Each ton of biochar can store up to 3 tons of carbon / CO2 equivalent. This makes it very possible to get carbon credits. For this reason, biochar producers must use methodologies created by carbon standard institutions such as Verra, Puro, CSI (Carbon Standard International), Isometric and so on. By using biochar, fertilizer application becomes optimal, environmentally friendly and improves social acceptance in the community. Economically, the use of biochar can also be very profitable. So regarding biochar, soil health and sustainable palm oil productivity, biochar is very suitable and relevant so its use needs to be widely socialized and increased.

When the soil is healthy, fertilizer use becomes more efficient. High dosages are not always necessary, yet productivity can still increase because the soil functions naturally. Shifting the paradigm to recognize that sustainable productivity depends on soil health is no longer merely an option, but a necessity. Global markets are increasingly scrutinizing production methods, making environmentally friendly cultivation practices a key factor in the competitiveness of Indonesian palm oil. A model that successfully boosts productivity while lowering production costs—all while preserving the environment for long-term sustainability—naturally serves as an exemplary standard.

Slow-Release Fertilizer: A New Trend in the Palm Oil Industry

Fertilizer is crucial for plant growth, especially for palm oils. Palm oil trees won't even bear fruit without fertilization. Fertilization is the highest cost component of palm oil plantation operations. Fertilizer efficiency is clearly a key consideration. This is why innovation in palm oil fertilization is rapidly developing.

Regarding innovations to increase fertilizer efficiency in palm oil plantations, the concept of slow-release fertilizer (SRF), or controlled-release fertilizer (CRF), is gaining increasing attention. By engineering the slow or controlled release of nutrients, the plant's nutrient use efficiency (NUE) increases. Fertilizer becomes more economical and environmental pollution is reduced. Indonesia's tropical climate, with its high rainfall, also results in high fertilizer leaching.

Several materials have been developed as SRF/CRF agents to achieve the desired nutrient release levels. These include polymers, sulfur, chemical compounds, and even compost. The characteristics of SRF/CRF agents vary depending on the material and product type. In addition to performance, the price of the SRF/CRF agent is also an important consideration.

Biochar is a renewable SRF/CRF agent and a climate solution. Biochar can persist for hundreds of years in the soil as a carbon sequestration. In addition to synthetic materials derived from non-renewable sources, biochar is an alternative SRF/CRF agent derived from renewable sources. Biomass from agricultural, plantation, and forestry waste is the main source of biochar production through the pyrolysis process. A number of SRF/CRFs with slow-release biochar agents have also begun production. This will increase biochar production, which has so far been less popular. It will also provide a solution to the biomass waste problem and be economically valuable. 

The Urgency of IOT and Biochar Applications in Palm Oil Plantations

The sustainability trend in palm oil plantations is increasingly important and urgent, which is of course part of the global solution to environmental and climate problems. The vastness of palm oil plantations and the large production of palm oil are in the spotlight in the industry. Waste management and environmental pollution are important concerns. The large volume of biomass waste has the potential to be a source of environmental pollution and so is the excessive use of chemical fertilizers in palm oil plantations which will also cause environmental pollution. Inappropriate land use, for example deforestation and land conversion, are also other concerns.

Two important issues in the palm oil industry are increasing FFB productivity (yield improvement) and climate change resilience. And thank God, both of these things can be handled at once, namely by applying biochar. Palm oil mill biomass waste (especially palm oil empty fruit bunch) will be converted into biochar and then applied to plantation soil (sustainable soil amendment) with fertilizer so that it becomes a slow release fertilizer that will increase NUE (nutrient use efficiency) and minimize environmental pollution. With the increase in NUE, there will be yield improvement or an increase in FFB productivity. And the application of biochar which will remain in the soil or not decompose for thousands of years will become carbon sequestration / carbon sink which is in line with climate change resilience. A precise solution with one action, of course this should be very interesting and awaited by these palm oil companies.

To ensure that the biochar can work properly, an instrument is needed to measure performance and monitor it. That is why IoT (Internet of things) in this sector is needed. How slow can it goes fertilizer nutrients can be measured and monitored accurately, quickly and precisely. In this way, palm oil productivity can also be predicted. The area of ​​land on palm oil plantations that reaches thousands or tens of thousands of hectares is also not an obstacle. The area of ​​palm oil plantations in Indonesia is currently estimated to reach 17 million hectares and in Malaysia it reaches 5 million hectares, of course these palm oil companies are also trying to achieve their best level of sustainability according to the demands of the times. This is so that the application of biochar on palm oil plantations will become a trend and even its operational standards. The entry point by ensuring biochar performance with IoT is an important consideration.

This biochar application also follows the 4Rs rule, namely the right source (appropriate biochar raw material), right place (appropriate application area), right rate (appropriate dosage) and right timing. The physical and chemical properties of biochar differ depending on the raw material and production process. By following the 4R rule, biochar performance can be maximized. On the other hand, modernization in the palm oil industry also continues to be improved. The public perception of work in oil palm plantations, abbreviated as 3D (dangerous, difficult, dirty), will be gradually changed with mechanization, automation and digitalization. The ratio of workers to plantation land currently around 1: 8 ha will be increased to more than double to 1: 17.5 ha with the above modernization so that workers' wages can also be increased. This modernization is expected to help overcome the two important issues above with the biochar application.   

From Carbon Neutral to Carbon Negative : Development of Batteries, Wood Pellets, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Biochar

Research to develop large capacity batteries continues to be carried out so that electricity produced from renewable energy power plants such as wind and solar can be stored and used at any time. Electricity generation that comes from wind and sun is intermittent, that is, at any time the wind may not blow or there will be thick clouds or at night so there is no sunlight and electricity cannot be produced. In this condition, it is necessary to use a large capacity battery that can store this electricity. It is predicted that the development of this battery will not only require large costs but will also take a long time. It is predicted that it will take several decades for this battery to become a reality.

The current electricity supply, the majority of which still uses fossil fuels, especially coal, which has been proven to be environmentally unfriendly (carbon positive), needs to continue to be reduced and the portion of renewable energy in the form of wood pellets (carbon neutral) added by cofiring. The portion or ratio of cofiring can continue to be increased and can even be 100% using wood pellets (fulfiring). If the coal power plant can be changed 100% to a biomass or wood pellet fueled power plant, the power plant will become environmentally friendly or carbon neutral. And at a time when renewable energy sources are abundant and the electrical energy products can be stored in large capacity batteries, it is possible that power plants using combustion technology could be closed or stopped.

The use of wood pellets can be said to be an intermediate solution before the battery era. Large capacity wood pellet production will ideally use energy plantations as a supplier or source of raw materials. Fast rotation crops and plantations from legume groups such as calliandra and gliricidae are the right choice for these energy plantationns. Energy plantations themselves can act as carbon sinks or absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. With good management so that the volume of biomass or wood harvested is smaller or maximum equal to the plant growth rate, the function of energy plantations as carbon sinks continues to be maintained. Using wood pellets as carbon neutral fuel while managing energy plantations as a carbon sink or negative carbon provides optimal environmental benefits.

 

The use of 100% biomass fuel in power plants is carbon neutral, the same as the use of renewable energy from wind, water and sun. However, the use of biomass energy, especially wood pellets, is not intermittent and is always available when needed. Using batteries will be a solution to the intermittent problem. This 100% biomass fueled power plant can become carbon negative when using CCS (carbon capture and storage) devices. And this is very good because it can return the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere back to the bowels of the earth (carbon negative). And when coal power plants are installed with CCS devices, they will become carbon neutral. However, the CCS device is still very expensive and its operation is also not cheap.

And when the battery era arrives so that electricity generation using combustion technology is closed or stopped, the wood from the energy plantations that have been created will be used as raw material for biochar. It is possible that the wood from these energy plantations is still made into wood pellets to save transportation costs and make handling easier and then taken to pyrolysis facilities for biochar production. Biochar used in agriculture has dual benefits, namely improving soil quality and as a carbon sink. Using biochar with fertilizer will create slow release fertilizer, thereby increasing NUE (nutrient use efficiency) for plants, thereby saving fertilizer costs and reducing environmental pollution. Biochar is able to last or not decompose for hundreds of years or is permanent in the soil. The more biochar used, the more benefits it will provide for soil fertility and climate. Biochar as a carbon sink or carbon sequestration is also carbon negative. Energy plantations with good management will become carbon sinks and the biochar is also a carbon sink in the form of carbon sequestration, of course this provides the most optimal climate benefits.

Biochar and N2O Emission in Agriculture

Urea Plant

The world's production of urea fertilizer in 2020 will reach around 181 million tons and this type of urea fertilizer is the most widely used. In practice, the use of urea fertilizer is mostly inefficient, so it is wasted and pollutes the environment. It is estimated that the level of loss of urea and pollution to the environment, in use reaches around 40% or 72.4 million tonnes globally. Efforts to improve fertilization efficiency can be done by modifying it to become a slow release fertilizer (SRF), one of which is highly recommended, namely biochar, as a slow release agent, read more details here. In addition, the use of urea causes N2O emissions. N2O (nitrogen monoxide) is a greenhouse gas and air pollutant, N2O is a dangerous gas because it has a stronger effect about 300 times per unit weight than CO2 in a span of 100 years. In air, N2O reacts with oxygen atoms to form NO, and NO then breaks down ozone.

Urea is one of the conventional fertilizers commonly used in agriculture. Urea has a main content in the form of nitrogen which is absorbed by plants in the form of ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3−). Loss of nitrogen in the fertilizer occurs due to evaporation as ammonia (NH3), immobilization in the pores of the soil or washed by water, both rainwater and irrigation water. In addition to economic losses, environmental pollution due to excess nitrogen also causes a number of negative effects. Nitrogen from urea can also be lost due to complete denitrification of nitrates to produce nitrogen gas (N2) or through incomplete nitrate denitrification to produce nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases, which evaporate from the soil. Nitrate, nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases contribute to environmental problems. Nitrates are harmful substances that cause water pollution. Excess concentration of nitrate in drinking water is harmful to health, especially in infants and pregnant women.

Meanwhile, nitrous oxide (N2O) has now become the largest ozone depleting substance emitted in the 21st century. The main source of global nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions is nitrogen-based fertilizers, especially urea fertilizer. The presence of N2O in the lowest region of the atmosphere (troposphere) can cause a greenhouse effect or global warming because N2O traps infrared radiation emitted from the earth's surface and then warms the atmosphere. In addition, N2O can migrate up into the stratosphere where it reacts with oxygen atoms to produce some nitric oxide (NO). Then, the depletion of the ozone layer occurs because NO reacts with stratospheric ozone (O3) to form NO2 and O2. Furthermore, NO2 reacts with O to form NO again. The depletion of the ozone layer increases the amount of UV rays from the sun that reach the earth's surface.

Biochar application has been suggested as a strategy to reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural soils while increasing soil carbon (C) stocks, especially in tropical areas. Climate change, especially temperature increase, will affect soil environmental conditions and thereby directly affect soil N2O volume. Related to climate issues, there are two aspects of the role of biochar, namely as a carbon sequestration / carbon sink and reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, while related to agriculture, namely increasing soil fertility and increasing the productivity of agricultural products. The multi-benefit application of biochar is predicted to become a trend in the bioeconomy era, when the aspects of sustainability, food adequacy and as a climate solution become a complete package in one action.

The effort to minimize the use of urea fertilizer is by modifying it to become a slow release fertilizer with biochar as the slow release agent. The use of excess doses of urea apart from damaging the environment is also a waste. The use of urea can still be used to a certain extent, namely that all of the urea can be absorbed by plants with minimal loss or environmental pollution. When all the nutrients/fertilizer nutrients can be completely absorbed by the plants, it means that there is no residue in the soil, so that damage or environmental pollution can be minimized even avoided. The residue, especially in the long term, will cause severe soil damage. Slow release with close to the rate of absorption of nutrients by plants is a condition that is pursued or NUE (nutrient use efficiency) as much as possible. The technique of modifying urea fertilizer into SRF is the key.