Biochar for Palm Oil Nurseries Part 2

In 2024, Malaysia reported that replanting their palm oil plantations reached 114,000 hectares, or 2% of the country's total area, compared to the targeted 4% to 5%. Indonesia's replanting rate is estimated to be lower, but because Indonesia's palm oil plantations are much larger, approximately three times Malaysia's, the area is larger. This situation has led to a decline in palm oil production, as palm oil productivity begins to decline after 20 years and requires replacement or replanting after 25 years to maintain productivity. Replanting should be carried out periodically, with an area of approximately 5% of the total palm oil plantation area.

Palm oil rejuvenation (replanting) requires palm oil seedlings. If estimated current replanting of palm oil plantations in Indonesia is 300,000 hectares per year (or 1.8% of Indonesia's oil palm plantation area), then with an average oil palm plantation population of 125 trees per hectare, the need for palm oil seedlings reaches 37,500,000. And with 114,000 hectares in Malaysia, the need for palm oil seedlings will reach 14,250,000 seedlings. Producing quality palm oil trees, in addition to selecting superior varieties, also includes seedling production in palm oil nurseries. Biochar can be used effectively in palm oil nurseries, as it helps improve seedling growth and health.

Biochar, made from biomass, functions as a soil amendment, improving soil structure, water retention, and nutrient availability, while also providing a favorable environment for the growth of soil microorganisms. Biochar can be mixed directly into the growing medium during nursery cultivation, with the dosage adjusted to the type of growing medium and the plant's needs. Numerous studies have shown that applying biochar to palm oil nurseries can improve seedling growth, including plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, and root dry weight. By utilizing biochar, palm oil nurseries can become more efficient, productive, and environmentally friendly.

And because the planting medium for palm oil seedlings generally uses compost, if the compost is enriched with biochar or the composting process also uses biochar, the compost quality will be even better. The advantages of the composting process using biochar include improving compost quality, accelerating the composting process, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane (CH4) and nitrogen oxide (N2O), reducing ammonia (NH3) loss, increasing aeration (bulking agent) in composting, and reducing odor. As for the biochar material itself, it will enrich the biochar with various nutrients and the biochar is not damaged or decomposed during the composting process. So by utilizing biochar in composting, we can process organic waste more effectively, produce high-quality organic fertilizer, and contribute to more sustainable agricultural practices. 

Competing in Goodness in Lowering the Earth's Temperature

Competing to lower the global temperature is a good thing. Competing in good deeds is highly encouraged in Islam. The negative impacts of global warming can be felt on land and at sea, and therefore must be minimized. This is why various parties involved in this effort should collaborate and synergize to achieve this goal. The business aspect of this activity should be a secondary priority, so that a spirit of good deeds, collaboration, and synergy will be fostered. Technically, strategic sectors that are the main causes of global warming are an important priority to address, although other, more pressing matters must also take precedence.

There is an excess concentration of carbon (CO2) in the atmosphere that causes the earth's temperature to rise due to the greenhouse gas effect, but on the other hand there are billions of hectares of land on earth that need carbon in the form of biochar to increase soil fertility as well as to absorb CO2 in the atmosphere with carbon sequestration / carbon sink. If these two things can be synchronized, it will be an effective solution to reduce the earth's temperature. In 2024, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels were recorded at around 36.3 giga tons (36.3 billion metric tons) and the latest CO2 concentration according to the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii reached 429.25 ppm (on June 24, 2025). Meanwhile, on the land side, globally an estimated 1.66 billion hectares of land have been degraded due to human activities such as deforestation, overgrazing, mismanaged irrigation, and excessive use of chemicals. 

Biomass fuel, produced by producing wood chips and wood pellets, or biofuel, is a carbon-neutral renewable fuel or source, thus complementing biochar. Wood chips and wood pellets, or biofuel, do not increase CO2 emissions, and biochar absorbs CO2, acting as a carbon sink (carbon sequestration), or carbon-negative. 

Fastest Entry Point for Biochar Industry

When in the West, especially in Europe, biochar is seen primarily for climate mitigation, namely as carbon sequestration / carbon sink and compared with various similar efforts in carbon negative / negative emission technologies with compensation in the form of carbon credits or BCR (biochar carbon removal) credits, it is very different, especially in Asia and Africa. Biochar in both continents is mainly to increase soil fertility or repair damaged / degraded soils so that they can be more productive to produce agricultural food products. The different approaches are mainly motivated by the factors that influence it, namely especially in Europe when the problems of climate change, the environment, sustainability and global warming are more of their concern, then various efforts in line with that become important and relevant so that biochar is one of the solutions. While in Asia and Africa, the factor of meeting food needs is a more important concern.

Currently there are 6 NET (negative emission technologies) or carbon negative actions that can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as in the diagram above. Basically, adequate scale or capacity is needed so that climate change mitigation efforts can run effectively and efficiently. The convenience, cost and additional benefits of the above technology applications will affect their implementation. Of the six NETs, ​​biochar has the fastest development, this is because biochar can meet the above factors. Scientific and public interest in Biochar began to grow in the early 2010s and has grown rapidly since then. The initial focus of biochar research was on terra preta (black earth) and soil improvement. And now it has expanded into various fields, including in the context of industry and construction.

The vast area of ​​degraded land reaching tens or even hundreds of millions of hectares in Indonesia can be improved by using biochar. Moreover, the potential for biomass waste that can be utilized is also very large, tens of millions of tons or even more and the need for food (even bioenergy) also continues to increase. Gradual and sustainable efforts to improve the land need to be started immediately. Soil improvement, as well as efforts to manage biomass waste, energy production and become a climate solution with NET are effective simultaneous efforts. This is the appeal of biochar so that it should be a leading program for various industries that are concerned with food and energy security, the environment, decarbonization, climate and sustainability. This is also so that forest clearing for food estates can be avoided if biochar is chosen as a solution. 

The question is how can this biochar immediately become a solution and be implemented massively? Increasing awareness of the benefits of biochar is the entry point. Furthermore, soil improvement as a real action is followed by carbon credit or can be done simultaneously to become the fastest entry point for the biochar industry in Indonesia. This is in addition to carbon credits with biochar or biochar carbon removal (BCR) credits that have been applied globally, carbon credits are also one of the main drivers of the growth of the biochar industry globally. Even globally, BCR credits are ranked first or more than 90% in Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) recorded in cdr.fyi.

Biochar for Energy Plantations

The low productivity of wood from energy plantations is one of the obstacles to the development of energy plantations. Although energy plantation plants such as calliandra can grow on marginal or critical lands, the quality of the soil affects the productivity of the wood produced. This makes it important to improve the quality of the soil of these energy plantations so that they can produce optimal plant productivity. Biochar can be an effective solution for this. Biomass waste that pollutes the environment can be used for biochar production or wood products from these energy plantations can be partly used for biochar production.

Biochar and energy plantations are two positive things for climate solutions. Energy plantations for the production of carbon neutral biomass fuels such as wood pellets, while biochar is to improve soil quality, save fertilizer use and so on and as carbon sequestration / carbon sinks that are carbon negative. The biochar solution for energy plantations will maximize CO2 reduction and sustainability efforts. The vastness of energy plantations is because they are pursuing the target of producing biomass fuel quantities which are comparable to land use and also comparable to the use of biochar. This is so that industrial-scale biochar production is needed to support this, read more details here. The more damaged the land or critical lands are, the greater the need for biochar. And the production of large-capacity biochar has the opportunity to get carbon credit or BCR (Biochar Carbon Removal) credit which can be a driving force for the growth of biochar industries.

Critical and marginal lands should be prioritized as energy plantation lands. This will not only restore land quality but will also provide added value to land use and efforts to prevent disasters. Land legality is also an important concern. Land must be clear and clean, meaning free from disputes so that it does not cause problems in the future. Furthermore, industrial forest plantation land (HTI) which is indeed in accordance with its designation as a production forest can also be used for energy plantation land. How damaged or degraded the land is will determine how much biochar is used. Meanwhile, the creation of energy plantations from land conversion from protected forests / conservation forests to production forests should be prohibited, because instead of saving the environment, it will actually have a greater negative impact on the environment. So opening forest land (deforestation) for energy plantations is not recommended at all.

Biochar and Food & Energy Security

As the population increases, so does the need for food and energy. This is why food and energy production must also be increased. Increasing food production is closely related to the quality and quantity of land. However, although the quantity of land is very large, its quality tends to decline so that plant productivity automatically also decreases. The decline in land quality or land damage occurs on very large areas of land up to millions of hectares. With the area of ​​sub-optimal and degraded lands reaching hundreds of millions of hectares consisting of 122.1 million hectares of dry land; 8 million hectares of post-mining land; 24.3 million hectares of critical land; a total of around 154.4 million ha, it can be said that the potential loss of food products also reaches millions of tons. Meanwhile, damaged land will be further damaged if no repair efforts are made. Efforts to upgrade or improve the quality of this land should be an important priority in efforts to achieve food and energy security.

Biochar application is a solution for improving these lands. Raw materials for biochar production are also very abundant, including dry palm oil EFB of around 30 million tons/year, bagasse of 2 million tons/year, corn cobs of 5 million tons/year, cassava stalks of 3 million tons/year, waste wood of 50 million tons/year, rice husks of 15 million tons/year, cocoa shells and so on. With the application of biochar, agricultural productivity can increase by an average of 20% or even up to 100%. If applied on a macro or national scale, say with a 20% increase in production, for example, rice production will increase to 36 million tons/year from the previous 30 million tons/year, corn will increase to 18 million tons/year from the previous 15 million tons/year, crude palm oil or CPO to 60 million tons/year from the previous 50 million tons/year. This will save land use so that the opening of forest land for food crops and (bio)energy such as food estates may not be necessary or at least slow it down. But why until now has biochar not received attention and been used as a solution?

In addition, biochar production with pyrolysis will also produce a number of by-products that can be used for energy applications or others, as in the diagram above. Many agro-industries require drying in their production processes, so this is an additional advantage of using pyrolysis technology for biochar production. While from the environmental aspect, biochar is also a carbon sequestration so that it is a climate solution and can get carbon credit. Likewise in waste management, because the raw material for biochar is biomass waste from agriculture, plantations and forestry, even from organic waste, the pyrolysis and biochar business is also a solution to this problem.

Optimizing Pyrolysis and Biochar in the Palm Oil Industry

Indonesia's CPO production currently reaches around 50 million tons per year with a land area of ​​around 17.3 million hectares. This means that the average CPO production per hectare is only 2.9 tons or per million hectares produces 2.9 million tons. If biochar is used and there is a 20% increase, it means there is an increase of 10 million tons of CPO per year and this is equivalent to saving around 3.5 million hectares of land, or the use of biochar will slow down forest clearing (deforestation) for palm oil plantations.

The average speed of Indonesian palm oil plantation area is 6.5% per year or equivalent to about 1 million hectares per year for the last 5 years, while the increase in palm oil fruit production or FFB (fresh fruit bunches) is only 11% on average. Even the largest expansion of palm oil land occurred in 2017, which increased by 2.8 million hectares. By opening 1 million hectares of forest, national CPO production only increased by 11%, while without the need to open forests, namely with the application of biochar, there could be a 20% increase in productivity. And the 20% increase in FFB yield (fresh fruit bunches) using biochar is a low estimate.

With the number of palm oil mills in Indonesia reaching more than 1000 units and tens of millions of tons of biomass waste, especially empty palm fruit bunches (EFB), the volume of biochar production produced is certainly very large. In addition, pyrolysis technology can replace combustion technology which is generally used in palm oil mills to produce steam for electricity production and sterilization of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in CPO production. With pyrolysis raw materials using palm oil tankos and being able to replace palm kernel shells, 100% of palm kernel shells (PKS) can be sold or exported. The sale of palm kernel shells or PKS (palm kernel shells) will certainly provide additional attractive benefits for the palm oil company. Palm kernel shells or PKS are the main competitors of wood pellets in the global biomass market.

In addition, the use of biochar also saves fertilizer use and the highest operational cost on oil palm plantations is fertilizer so this is very relevant. Tens of billions of costs spent on fertilizer can be reduced by using biochar, especially since the biochar comes from its own waste so that it will automatically become a solution for biomass waste management. Including biopesticides and liquid organic fertilizers can also be produced from the pyrolysis process. Carbon credit is the next business potential. This is because the application of biochar to the soil for agriculture or plantations is an effort for carbon sequestration / carbon sink.

The benefits that can be obtained from this biochar carbon credit are also large, even globally biochar carbon credit ranks first or more than 90% in Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) recorded in cdr.fyi. However, there are indeed many large biochar producers who do not sell their carbon credits because of the methodological requirements of standard carbon companies such as Puro Earth and Verra, and these biochar producers are comfortable with their biochar sales business, especially since these producers have existed (established) since before carbon credits were available for biochar. 

If We Don’t Cut Emissions, Creating Carbon Sinks is Irrelevant

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is already high so it must be reduced to save the earth. Efforts to reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere apparently cannot simply absorb CO2 from the atmosphere (carbon capture and storage). Maximizing the absorption of atmospheric CO2 but on the other hand CO2 emissions continue to increase, it will be very difficult (read: impossible) to reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, let alone to a certain target agreed upon by the global community. So what makes sense is that CO2 emissions are not increased again so that the concentration does not increase further and existing CO2 is reduced to a certain level as targeted.

In practice, the production of wood chips and wood pellets as carbon neutral renewable fuels will complement each other with biochar. Wood chips and wood pellets do not add CO2 emissions and biochar absorbs CO2 as a carbon sink (carbon sequestration) or carbon negative. The application of biochar as part of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is currently developing the fastest compared to other CO2 reduction efforts (CDR / Carbon Dioxide Removal). Biochar leads in CDR credits in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), namely with more than 90% globally in 2023 as stated in the cdr.fyi database. From this data, it is estimated that at least 350 thousand tons of biochar have been produced globally in 2023 with an estimated 600,000 units or more of CDR credits (Carbon Credit).

And as in Europe, namely in 2023 there are a total of 48 new biochar plants, installed and operating, although 7 plants are closed, but a total of 41 biochar plants or an estimated total of 171 biochar plants are operating. And in 2024 there are an estimated 51 new biochar plants in Europe or in 2024 the total number of biochar plants is estimated to grow to more than 220 units. In terms of biochar volume, there is an estimated increase of 75,000 tons in 2023 and in 2024 the increase in production to 115,000 tons. Electricity production with 100% biomass fuel and equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) devices will also absorb CO2 or carbon negative, but this method is expensive and slow to develop. While biomass and coal cofiring because the cofiring ratio is small, efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are not too significant but cofiring is indeed the easiest entry point for using renewable energy in , especially in the energy or power generation sector (coal power plants). And in the end, creating a carbon sink, but the emission source is not reduced (cut), then it is the same as a lie or an irrelevant effort.

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.

Turning on Indonesia's “Green Battery”

With its position on the equator so it has a tropical climate, it will receive sunlight all year round. Energy from sunlight should be utilized optimally in the current era of decarbonization. So that solar energy can be used at any time, this energy must be stored. This is like a battery mechanism for storing energy, so that the energy does not just pass through and disappear. Storing and converting solar energy has been done naturally since life existed, namely in plant biomass. With photosynthesis in plants, solar energy with water and CO2 is converted into biomass in the form of wood, fruit, leaves and various parts of these plants as well as O2 for us to breathe. Solar energy does not just pass and disappear but is stored in the plant as an energy source or "battery" that can be used at any time.

With this paradigm, of course efforts to maximize energy storage in "green batteries" must be maximized as an effort towards low or carbon neutral fuel. With the largest land area in Southeast Asia, of course efforts to maximize "green batteries" become more important and strategic. The use of fast growing species and short rotation coppice will be very suitable for converting and storing solar energy. Moreover, in tropical climates the wood harvest is also faster than in sub-tropical countries or cold areas, due to the abundance of solar energy.

The potential land area for making "green batteries" is very large, reaching tens of millions of hectares. In addition, reclaimed land reaches millions of hectares, more details can be read here. The "green battery" is in the form of an energy plantation whose wood is used for the production of wood pellets. In the form of wood pellet products, biomass energy becomes easier to store and use at any time. Unlike intermittent solar or wind or water power plants, biomass fuel in the form of wood pellets is not like that. It can be used according to your request and desired target, making it more practical and reliable. The reasons why the "green battery" in the form of energy plantations has not been developed can be read here.

Apart from "green batteries" from energy plantations, "green batteries" can also come from production forests in general. In these production forests, the main product is wood which can be used for various purposes such as building wood, furniture, plywood, flooring and so on. The wood industry waste is then used for the production of wood pellets. Wood pellet production basically has to use wood waste or wood that worth as wood waste such as wood from energy plantations, so that the wood pellet industry is economical and profitable. It is estimated that there is 25 million tons/year of wood waste that can be used for the production of wood pellets In Indonesia. And specifically from the plywood industry alone, wood waste is estimated to reach 5 million tons every year.

It is estimated that the Indonesian wood industry can actually be optimized until its production capacity reaches 91 million cubic meters per year, but in reality in 2022 the forest products industry will only be able to produce 42.19 million cubic meters per year or around 48.7% of its optimum capacity. There are 3 factors that cause the low realization of the wood industry, namely, efficiency of the wood industry, problems related to raw materials and market availability.

Research on batteries continues along with the global decarbonization trend and the energy transition is a necessity to achieve the decarbonization target. Large capacity batteries so that electrical energy produced from renewable energy plants such as wind and solar can be stored is the target of this research. This research costs a lot of money and takes a long time, it is estimated that in the next 20 or 30 years, these large capacity batteries will be available. Meanwhile, currently most power plants use fossil fuels, especially coal. Energy transition efforts at power plants can be carried out by substituting coal for wood pellets. Moreover, as a tropical area, biomass energy can remain as the main energy in the future non-carbon era.

Indonesia's "green battery" must be activated and developed, because apart from its function as an energy source, the "green battery" is also a CO2 storage or carbon sink. As long as the amount of wood harvested is smaller or the maximum is equal to the growth of the energy plantation or "green battery", the amount of CO2 absorbed by the plants does not decrease or the CO2 released into the atmosphere does not increase, and the same goes for production forests in general. When at a certain age the growth becomes saturated and begins to decline in CO2 absorption, meaning that the forest cannot permanently store CO2 in a fixed volume, so it needs regeneration/replanting. Meanwhile, in energy plantations, due to the characteristics of the plant species, regeneration/replanting is not necessary every time it is harvested, but can be done decades later. And furthermore, the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in power plants that use 100% of their fuel from wood pellets means that the CO2 produced is not released into the atmosphere or is carbon negative, which reduces the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Is Palm Oil Land Expansion Still Needed?

The area of Indonesian palm oil plantations is currently around 15 million hectares, with CPO or crude palm oil production reaching 46.73 million tonnes in 2022. Indonesian palm oil producers are located in 26 provinces with the province producing the most palm oil namely Riau, followed by Central Kalimantan followed in second place, then North Sumatra. While the province that produces the least palm oil is the Riau Archipelago and above it are North Maluku and Maluku. The CPO product is processed into derivative or downstream products and part of it is exported. In general, the classification of CPO derivative products (downstream products) is grouped into, such as: oleochemicals, oleofood, and bioenergy.

The high demand for vegetable oil, especially crude palm oil or CPO, is driving efforts to expand oil palm plantations or extensification in Indonesia. But is this extensification really needed and the only way to increase CPO production? Meanwhile, permits issued for palm oil plantations have reached more than 25 million hectares as shown in the table below.

Biochar should be encouraged to use it rather than extensification of the land. The use of biochar will improve soil fertility and also make fertilization more efficient so that NUE (Nutrient Use Efficiency) increases, for more details read here. FFB production increase of 30% or more is possible with biochar. CPO production is estimated to increase by 30% to around 60 million tonnes annually. This is also equivalent to saving land reaching 5 million hectares. The problem of land disputes that reach hundreds of cases throughout Indonesia, land conversion, deforestation and so on can be overcome by using this biochar. Of course this should be a serious consideration for the intensification of palm oil plantations compared to the extensification of the land. Apart from that, a climate solution in the form of carbon sequestration / carbon sink can also be carried out simultaneously with the application of the biochar. Every 1 ton of biochar will store or reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere by approximately 3 tons. And the price of carbon credits from carbon removal is also increasing.

Sustainable Business in Post-Mining Land: A New Paradigm

The land area of 8 million hectares (80,000 km2) is a large area, even the area is roughly equivalent to twice the size of the Netherlands or Switzerland or as large as Austria. Various types of plants can be planted or cultivated on the land, both food crops, energy (bioenergy), feed and biomaterials. This is very much in line with the current era of bioeconomics and decarbonization where world attention is focused on reducing carbon (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels to non-carbon in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. And moreover Indonesia's location is on the equator so it has a tropical climate so it is very suitable for plant cultivation or biomass production for the purposes as above. The 8 million hectares of land is unproductive land or more precisely damaged land, namely post-mining land in Indonesia. Restoring (recovering) the land to a minimum condition like pre-mining is the responsibility of the mining companies. Of course it would be even better if the recovery was better than pre-mining conditions considering that a number of mining businesses generate large profits so environmental improvement efforts such as reclamation and post-mining rehabilitation should be carried out easily.

In addition to residential areas, tourism, water sources and cultivation areas, revegetation is one of the efforts for reclamation and rehabilitation of post-mining land (OP phase reclamation program attachment VI Kepmen ESDM No. 1827 K/MEM/2018). Revegetation for the ultimate goal of an environmentally friendly, sustainable and profitable business activity is certainly the best solution. The general characteristic of ex-mining land is a thin layer of top soil and subsoil so that little soil organic matter and soil microbes are needed for plant growth. It is impossible to simply revegetate land with these extreme conditions, therefore successful revegetation of ex-mining land can only be achieved by combining soil amendments, species selection and application of appropriate silvicultural techniques. This is because these business activities provide environmental, social and financial benefits. Revegetation with productive plantations or forests is an effort to achieve this. How big the benefits are, of course, needs to be studied in more depth on the types of productive plantations or forests that will be created.

The type of mine also influences the post-mining reclamation and rehabilitation work. In almost all coal mines there is no further processing, in contrast to mineral mines which require further processing. In post-mining reclamation coal mines it is simpler just to return the soil to its original condition whereas in mineral mines, apart from returning the soil as in coal mines, the problem of tailings (waste soil left over from the mining ore extraction process) is also another problem, whereas in smelters or smelters (processing/refining) of these minerals also produces slag (post-operation) which can also be another additional problem. The damaged lands in the post-mining reclamation area need to be repaired or rehabilitated so that they can return to their previous condition. The addition of organic fertilizer and biochar, will accelerate the improvement of soil fertility. Acceleration of soil fertility is important to accelerate the growth of plants planted in the area so as to reduce the potential for natural disasters such as floods and landslides. The use of biochar can also provide valuable additional income from carbon credit through a carbon sequestration / carbon sink mechanism. 

In these land conditions, not all types of plants or trees can be planted on the land. Trees or plants that can live and grow in marginal and even extreme conditions are the choices for these land conditions. Energy plantation of legumes (fast growing species) and bamboo is the best choice for the land. In energy plantations from legumes (fast growing species), apart from having high adaptability to marginal conditions including minimal water availability, the root nodules are also useful for fertilizing the soil. Wood from energy plantations is used for bioenergy into products such as wood pellets, while the leaves are for animal feed and honey from beekeeping which utilizes the flowers of these plants. Bamboo plants also have high adaptability. Products from bamboo plantations can be in the form of food, namely from bamboo shoots and the bamboo itself for various purposes. Industrialization of bamboo so that it becomes high added value products must be carried out. Almost all wood products can be replaced with bamboo and even the quality can be better, such as furniture, bamboo boards, ply bamboo and so on. With the existence of a sustainable industry that takes advantage of the products from the post-mining reclamation land, a number of benefits as mentioned above will be obtained.

The potential of 8 million hectares of land will produce very large biomass products if managed properly and correctly. The era of electric vehicles which is also expected to soon become a world trend will also require electrical energy stored in the battery. The electrical energy used should also come from renewable energy, not from fossil energy sources. The energy source from biomass to electricity is an ideal renewable energy source for the electric vehicle energy source. Production of biochar by pyrolysis and production of biogas from livestock manure as organic matter can be used for electricity production. With a number of driving forces and future trends, it is important to consider the utilization of the 8 million hectare land.
 

Become the Trendsetter of the World's Vegetable Oil Producers

In the vegetable oil market, there are 4 types of vegetable oils that are widely consumed around the world, namely soybean oil, sunflower oil, palm oil and rapeseed oil. Based on USDA data (2018) the total area of the 4 vegetable oil-producing plants in 2017 was around 208 million hectares. Soybean plantations have the largest proportion of area, namely 126 million hectares (61 percent), while the area of palm oil plantations is only 21 million hectares (10 percent). However, with an area of 126 million hectares, soybeans are only able to produce 56 million tons of oil or only 32 percent of the production of the world's 4 main vegetable oils. In contrast, palm oil with an area of 21 million hectares is capable of producing 73 million tons or 42 percent of the production of the world's 4 main vegetable oils.

The high level of palm oil production is obtained from the productivity of palm oil plantations which is much higher than the productivity of other vegetable oil producing plants. According to Oil World (2018), the average productivity of oil palm is 4.27 tons/hectare, while the productivity of other vegetable oil-producing plants is only 0.4 – 0.6 tons/ha. The productivity of palm oil is much higher, around 8-10 times compared to other types, making palm oil have a comparative advantage over other vegetable oils. This comparative advantage can be interpreted as saving deforestation in various regions of the world if palm oil is consumed by the global community or to produce the same amount of oil, the land needed for oil palm is 8-10 times smaller than other crops.

With an average annual productivity of 4.27 tons/hectare of palm oil or 17 tons of FFB/year, this is actually still quite low and productivity can be increased up to around 30 tons of FFB/hectare or 7.5 tons/hectare of oil. Increasing the productivity of palm oil is primarily by increasing soil fertility so that fertilization efficiency increases. Slow release fertilizer (SRF) is an efficient fertilizer that is economical and environmentally friendly. In addition, the use of biochar, apart from being a slow release agent in the fertilizer, will also improve soil quality or fertility by increasing soil porosity, providing organic carbon, raising soil pH, retaining water and nutrients so that they are more available to plants and as a medium for soil microbial colonies. By increasing the productivity of palm oil, followed by saving fertilizer due to increased efficiency, minimizing environmental pollution so that production costs can be reduced, it means that it is equivalent to increasing land efficiency by 76%. This means that the productivity of palm oil per year is 30 tons of FFB/hectare, or 7.5 tons/hectare oil and when compared to other vegetable oils it is 15 times more land-efficient or per tonne of palm oil requires 0.13 hectares while other vegetable oils require 2 hectares of land.

The climate solution in the form of carbon sequestration / carbon sink can also be done simultaneously with the biochar application. Every 1 ton of biochar will store or reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere by approximately 3 tons. Carbon credit from the application of biochar is a significant additional income apart from fertilizer efficiency and increased crop productivity, including palm oil yields. Moreover, the value of carbon credit tends to increase and the carbon (CO2) removal mechanism with biochar will become a trend in the future. The amount of income from carbon credit is proportional to the number of biochar applications in the oil palm plantation which will also be proportional to the area of the palm oil plantation.

The area of palm oil plantations ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of hectares owned by a company is common in Indonesia. This indicates the business potential that can be done. With the current area of palm oil plantations in Indonesia reaching around 15 million hectares, as much as 40% (6 million hectares) are smallholder plantations so that the company's plantation area is 60% (9 million hectares) which is divided into owned by Large Private Plantations (PBS), which is 8 .42 million ha (55.8%) and State Large Plantations (PBN) covering an area of 579.6 thousand ha (3.84%), for more details read here. Palm oil trees themselves can only produce well in the tropics because the temperature factor affects production through the rate of biochemical and generative reactions in the plant's body. To some extent, higher temperatures lead to increased fruit production. The temperature of 20°C is referred to as the minimum limit for generative growth and an annual average temperature of 22-23°C is required for continued fruit production. That is why not all locations on earth can be cultivated for palm oil even though the productivity of the oil is the largest compared to other plants, so that it becomes a comparative advantage in itself.

Meanwhile, from biochar production technology, it is also possible to reduce the use of solid fuels such as palm kernel shells (pks) which are commonly used in boilers at palm oil mills. Palm kernel shell which is a biomass fuel and used as boiler fuel in palm oil mills besides fiber (mesocarp fiber), can then be sold directly for both the domestic market (local) and the international market (export). The palm kernel shells can also be further processed into charcoal or activated carbon. The use of energy from biochar production technology (pyrolysis) will also increase the efficiency of boilers at palm oil mills, in addition to additional income from selling palm kernel shells or further processing. Becoming a trendsetter in the world's vegetable oil producers is very possible based on the reasons mentioned above. With Indonesia's current condition in particular, or other palm oil producing countries, with a little improvement, it is very possible to do this. Moreover, the palm oil industry produces a lot of biomass waste which is very potential as raw material for making biochar.

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.