%0 Journal Article %A ZHU Yu-en %A MENG Fan-jian %A WANG Yun %A LI Li-fen %A LI Hua %A XIE Wen-xiang %T Carbon Sequestration Potential and Economic Analysis of Agricultural Biochar—A Case Study in Shanxi Province %D 2017 %R 10.11849/zrzyxb.20161137 %J JOURNAL OF NATURAL RESOURCES %P 2115-2124 %V 32 %N 12 %X Under the pressure of emission reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) and low-carbon development, biochar has attracted wide attention as a new agricultural carbon-sequestration technology. This paper reports a case study about the carbon sequestration potential and economics of biomass pyrolysis products which are the basis of large-scale development and utilization of biomass resources. The study examines whether biochar can be applied for carbon abatement in Shanxi and to what extent it brings economic benefits using an evaluation method integrating biomass resources, carbon abatement potential and economic benefits. The results show that the three main feed stocks offset about 12.28 million tons of equivalent CO2, which approximately accounts for 2.5% of total carbon emissions in Shanxi in 2014. Biomass resources have positive economic profitability. For example, crop straw and agricultural byproducts are around 8.09 RMB yuan and 21.79 RMB yuan per ton of raw material in terms of average and the highest GHG price in 2014, respectively. The total economic value of the three types of biochar ranges from 43.69 million RMB yuan to 280.10 million RMB yuan, showing the economic feasibility of biochar technique in Shanxi. Further study should focus on characteristic parameters estimation, default value screening, cost fluctuation effects and different utilization approaches to improve the applicability and accuracy of the method. %U https://www.jnr.ac.cn/EN/10.11849/zrzyxb.20161137