Sewage sludge biochars were obtained at different pyrolysis temperatures from 300°C to 900°C and their macro- and microscale properties were analyzed. The biochar's plant-available nutrients and humus-like substances in the water-extractable phase and fixed nutrients in the solid fraction were evaluated for their potential agronomic implications. FT-IR, Raman, XRD, XPS, and SEM techniques were ...

Biochar application as a soil amendment has been proposed as a strategy to improve soil fertility and increase crop yields. However, the effects of successive biochar applications on cotton yields and nutrient distribution in soil are not well documented. A three-year field study was conducted to investigate the effects of successive biochar applications at different rates on cotton yield and o...

Ginkgo trees are common street trees in Korea, and the large amounts of leaves that fall onto the streets annually need to be cleaned and treated. Therefore, fallen gingko leaves have been used as a raw material to produce biochar for the removal of heavy metals from solutions. Gingko-leaf-derived biochar was produced under various carbonization temperatures and times. This study evaluated the ...

Biochar is widely used as an adsorbent to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. To investigate the contribution of soluble minerals (mainly anions) to Pb2+ removal in solution, wheat straw biochar was washed with deionized water to remove soluble minerals. Batch adsorption was conducted using washed biochar (WBC) and unwashed biochar (BC) to absorb Pb2+. After washing, the pH and ash cont...

As an important component of soil organic matter (SOM), the transformation of pyrogenic carbon plays a critical role in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and other redox-active elements such as iron (Fe). Herein, we studied the influences of wheat straw-derived biochars on the microbial reduction of 100 mM of hematite by the dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 und...

There is a need for the development of low-cost adsorbents to removal arsenic (As) from aqueous solutions. In this work, a magnetic biochar was synthesized by pyrolyzing a mixture of naturally-occurring hematite mineral and pinewood biomass. The resulting biochar composite was characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) ...

This work describes the synthesis and testing of a novel environmental sorbent that combines the advantages of biochar, chitosan, and zerovalent iron (ZVI). Chitosan was used as a dispersing and soldering reagent to attach fine ZVI particles onto bamboo biochar surfaces. Characterization of the resulted ZVI-biochar composites (BBCF) indicated that chitosan effectively soldered the iron particle...

Remediation of soils contaminated with petroleum is a challenging task. Four different bioremediation strategies, including natural attenuation, biochar amendment, phytoremediation with ryegrass, and a combination of biochar and ryegrass, were investigated with greenhouse pot experiments over a 90-day period. The results showed that planting ryegrass in soil can significantly improve the remova...

The sustained release and reduced leaching of herbicides is expected for enhancing their efficacy and minimizing their pollution. For this purpose, the rice straw biochar made at a relatively low temperature (350 °C) (RS350) was used simultaneously as the carrier for incorporating herbicides besides as the soil amendment. In this way, the sustained release of herbicides acetochlor and 2,4-D was...

Biochar is widely recognized as an efficient tool for carbon sequestration and soil fertility. The understanding of its chemical and physical properties, which are strongly related to the type of the initial material used and pyrolysis conditions, is crucial to identify the most suitable application of biochar in soil. A selection of organic wastes with different characteristics (e.g., rice hus...