Carbon Capture Crops

About the Project

To avoid climate breakdown, humanity urgently needs to design technologies to capture and store carbon. A widely proposed ‘nature-based’ solution is the enhancement of photosynthetic carbon-capture by plants but with a growing population, repurposing existing cropland for carbon sequestration is not feasible. A more likely scenario is the cultivation of novel crop cultivars that can both produce food and lock away stable carbon polymers. This project will study rice plants that have been genetically engineered to enhance CO2 uptake and fixation in the leaves and to produce stable carbon polymers in the roots. The study will be carried out in rice – a widely cultivated crop that is amenable to genetic manipulation. The results of this study will demonstrate the feasibility of generating new crop varieties that can enhance long-term storage of carbon in agricultural soils, without compromising on seed yield. However, genetically modified crops remain controversial, and the student will also explore emerging methods to produce similar ‘carbon-capture’ plants using gene-editing technology.

Please apply for this project using this link: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/apply/applying

Funding Notes

Open to Self or externally funded students only.