Biochar spreading and soil carbon quantification using smart drones for climate-smart precision agriculture
Drone-based precision agriculture solution that combines biochar-manure granules with multi-spectral remote sensing to quantify soil carbon and reduce dairy-sourced greenhouse gas emissions.
Overview
This solution addresses greenhouse gas emissions from dairy operations by combining biochar-manure granules with drone-based precision application. The approach uses smart drones equipped with multi-spectral, short-wave infrared (SWIR), and thermal infrared (TIR) cameras to perform site-specific soil carbon quantification, enabling targeted spreading of biochar-manure mixtures. The result is a climate-smart precision agriculture system designed to meaningfully reduce dairy-sourced methane and carbon emissions while improving soil health.
California's agricultural sector contributes roughly 10% of state greenhouse gas emissions, with manure management responsible for approximately 54.8% of those agricultural emissions. Dairies represent the single largest source of man-made methane in the state. By integrating biochar derived from biomass with manure and applying the mixture as granules via drone cropdusting, this approach offers a scalable pathway to carbon abatement in livestock-intensive regions.
Technical specifications
Key features:
- Drone-based remote sensing for soil carbon quantification using multi-spectral, short-wave infrared (SWIR), and thermal infrared (TIR) imaging to generate site-specific soil carbon data
- Physics-based modeling to predict methane and COx emission concentrations and flux from soil
- Precision drone cropdusting of biochar-manure granules tailored to site-specific carbon needs
- Climate-smart agriculture workflow combining detection, measurement, prediction, and targeted application
- Scalable deployment strategy starting with small-scale carbon abatement pilots and expanding to cost-effective regional implementation
The system integrates remote sensing data with emission flux models to plan drone missions as mobile spreaders of biochar-manure particulates, linking soil monitoring directly to application decisions.
Technology readiness level
The research is at an early-to-mid stage of development. Validation procedures are partially completed, with future validation planned around real-world soil monitoring data, pyrolysis practices, and measurement of greenhouse gas reduction following biochar application. The team intends to begin with small-scale deployment to demonstrate carbon abatement and then scale toward a cost-effective method for detecting, measuring, and predicting local soil conditions and emission reductions.
About University of California, Merced
UC Merced is a young, comprehensive public research university in Merced, California, serving the San Joaquin Valley with modern, purpose-built facilities and growing graduate programs. Industry partners connect through co-located interdisciplinary labs and shared instrumentation cores, with streamlined mechanisms for sponsored research and data-use agreements. The campus’s Central Valley location enables field-scale pilots and validation in real-world production environments, supported by employer-engaged internships and capstone collaborations. Faculty attract competitive federal funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, and NASA. A dedicated technology transfer office manages IP and licensing and provides a single point of entry for corporate partnerships.
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