Biochar amendments to soil have potential as a climate change mitigation strategy. However, their effect on carbon exchange in different ecosystems has not been well evaluated. Understanding how biochar affects carbon exchange from agricultural soil is essential for clarifying the contribution of biochar management to the carbon budget. We performed a laboratory and a two-year field experiment ...

When applied in agriculture, the solid carbonaceous residue of anoxic thermochemical conversion of biomass (biochar) has variable effects on soil, crop yields, and climate mitigation. Biochar can be added to soil as powder or as pellets. While powdered forms have demonstrated effects on crop yields, they may release coarse and fine particulate that can be transported into the atmosphere during ...

In Brazil, the degradation of nutrient-poor Ferralsols limits productivity and drives agricultural expansion into pristine areas. However, returning agricultural residues to the soil in a stabilized form may offer opportunities for maintaining or improving soil quality, even under conditions that typically promote carbon loss. We examined the use of biochar made from filtercake (a byproduct of ...

Biosorption with macroalgae is a promising technology for the bioremediation of industrial effluents. However, the vast majority of research has been conducted on simple mock effluents with little data available on the performance of biosorbents in complex effluents. Here we evaluate the efficacy of dried biomass, biochar, and Fe-treated biomass and biochar to remediate 21 elements from a real-...

During fungal rock phosphate (RP) solubilization, a significant quantity of fluoride (F(-)) is released together with phosphorus (P), strongly inhibiting the process. In the present study, the effect of two F(-) adsorbents [activated alumina (Al2O3) and biochar] on RP solubilization by Aspergillus niger was examined. Al2O3 adsorbed part of the F(-) released but also adsorbed soluble P, which ma...

This study aimed to determine effects of rice straw biochar on Pb sequestration in a soil-rice system. Pot experiments were conducted with rice plants in Pb-contaminated paddy soils that had been amended with 0, 2.5, and 5% (w/w) biochar. Compared to the control treatment, amendment with 5% biochar resulted in 54 and 94% decreases in the acid soluble and CaCl2-extractable Pb, respectively, in s...

The impact of increasing amendments of two particle sizes of biochar (≤2 mm and 3–7 mm), applied at 0%, 0.01%, 0.1% and 1% concentrations, on the development of indigenous phenanthrene catabolism was investigated in two soils with different soil organic matter contents. Mineralisation of C-phenanthrene was measured after 1, 20, 60 and 100 d soil-phenanthrene-biochar aging period. The presence o...

Material dielectric properties are important for understanding their response to microwaves. Carbonaceous materials are considered good microwave absorbers and can be mixed with dry biomasses, which are otherwise low-loss materials, to improve the heating efficiency of biomass feedstocks. In this study, dielectric properties of pulverized biomass and biochar mixtures are presented from 0.5 GHz ...

Green roofs are used increasingly to alleviate peaks of water discharge into the sewage systems in urban areas. Surface runoff from roofs contain pollutants from dry and wet deposition, and green roofs offer a possibility to reduce the amounts of pollutants in the water discharged from roofs by degradation and filtering. These pollutants would otherwise enter wastewater treatments plants and ul...

The impact and cost of synthetic fertilizers as well as their associated risks on the environmental safety was becoming unaffordable. To alleviate these problems, integrating this synthetic fertilizers with easily available and an environment friendly compound like bio-char is of very high significance towards meeting our goal of increasing agricultural production and ensuring food security. Th...