The current atmospheric CO₂ concentration remains far below the optimal level for plant photosynthesis. Moderate enrichment of CO₂ in crop growth environments—including both the rhizosphere and plant canopy—can effectively enhance photosynthetic efficiency, improve saline–alkali soils, optimize growth conditions, and increase crop yields.
Professor Jianfeng Chen’s research team has innovatively proposed a new approach to directly produce CO₂-enriched aqueous liquid fertilizer using industrial CO₂ and irrigation water. This technology enables large-scale application for crop yield improvement and saline–alkali soil remediation, achieving both CO₂ resource utilization and negative carbon emission reduction. The team has also developed specialized high-gravity equipment to successfully produce CO₂ aqueous liquid fertilizer containing CO₂ nanobubbles, enabling continuous and large-scale production. The prepared fertilizer demonstrates high stability, maintaining a pH value below 6 even after being exposed to open air for 10 days.
Field experiments in saline–alkali soils show that, compared with conventional drip irrigation without CO₂, the application of CO₂-enriched aqueous fertilizer increases key crop growth indicators—such as total root length and surface area—by 10% to 30%. Yields of typical crops (including tomatoes, rice, maize, and celery) increase by 20% to 40%, while total soil salinity decreases by nearly 10%. This approach successfully achieves multiple objectives, including crop yield enhancement, saline–alkali soil improvement, and agricultural carbon sequestration. It also provides a new pathway with positive economic benefits for large-scale industrial CO₂ emission reduction and resource utilization.
If applied nationwide to improve 500 million mu (approximately 33 million hectares) of saline–alkali land, the technology is estimated to generate an additional annual economic benefit of RMB 400 billion (assuming a 20% yield increase), while enabling agricultural carbon sequestration of approximately 150 million tons per year.
