It is unclear how the properties of biochar control its ability to sorb metals. In this work, physicochemical properties of a variety of biochars, made from four types of feedstock at three pyrolysis temperatures (300, 450 and 600°C) were compared to their ability to sorb arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) in aqueous solutions. Experimental results showed that both feedstock types and pyrolysis tempera...

Biochar addition to soil has been reported to reduce the microbial degradation of pesticides due to sorption of the active compound. This study investigated whether the addition of hardwood biochar alters the mineralization of (14)C-labeled atrazine in two atrazine-adapted soils from Belgium and Brazil at different moisture regimens. Biochar addition resulted in an equally high or even in a sig...

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) is an important component of the global soil carbon (C) pool, but its fate, persistence, and loss dynamics in contrasting soils and environments under planted field conditions are poorly understood. To fill this knowledge gap, a 13C-labelled biochar, as a surrogate material for PyC, produced from Eucalyptus saligna by slow pyrolysis (450°C; δ13C -36.7‰) was surface (0-10 ...

Pyrolysis is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and robust thermochemical technology for transforming biomass into bio-oil, biochar, and syngas. The robust nature of the pyrolysis technology, which allows considerable fl exibility in both the type and quality of the biomass feedstock, combined with a distributed network of small pyrolysis plants, would be compatible with existing agriculture and...

Avoiding irreversible climate change requires >50% reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the year 2050 and the net removal of GHGs from the atmosphere by the end of the 21st century. This challenge is particularly daunting given that energy derived from fossil fuels is at the core of all modern economies and some sectors of the economy, such as transportation, will be alm...

Reclaimed water irrigation can satisfy increasing water demand, but it may also introduce pharmaceutical contaminants into the soil and groundwater environment. In this work, a range of laboratory experiments were conducted to test whether biochar can be amended in soils to enhance removal of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) from reclaimed water. Eight types of biochar were tested in laboratory sorption ...

To improve bacterial removal, a traditional stormwater biofilter can be augmented with biochar, but it is unknown whether bacterial removal remains consistent as the biochar weathers during intermittent exposure to stormwater under dry-wet and freeze-thaw cycles. To examine the effect of weathering on bacterial removal capacity of biochar, we subjected biochar-augmented sand filters (or simplif...

Biochar particles have been hypothesized to provide unique microhabitats for a portion of the soil microbial community, but few studies have systematically compared biochar communities to bulk soil communities. Here, we used a combination of sequencing techniques to assess the taxonomic and functional characteristics of microbial communities in four-year-old biochar particles and in adjacent so...

Soil amendment with pyrogenic carbon (biochar) is discussed as strategy to improve soil fertility to enable economic plus environmental benefits. In temperate soils, however, the use of pure biochar mostly has moderately-negative to -positive yield effects. Here we demonstrate that co-composting considerably promoted biochars' positive effects, largely by nitrate (nutrient) capture and delivery...