Biochar Application
- 2023-08-14 17:10:00
- Leemay Original
- 234
What is Biochar?
Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (also called biomass) in a controlled process called pyrolysis. Although it looks a lot like common charcoal, biochar is produced using a specific process to reduce contamination and safely store carbon.
During pyrolysis organic materials, such as wood chips, leaf litter or dead plants, are burned in a container with very little oxygen. As the materials burn, they release little to no contaminating fumes. During the pyrolysis process, the organic material is converted into biochar, a stable form of carbon that can’t easily escape into the atmosphere.
The energy or heat created during pyrolysis can be captured and used as a form of clean energy. Biochar is by far more efficient at converting carbon into a stable form and is cleaner than other forms of charcoal.
In terms of physical attributes, biochar is black, highly porous, lightweight, fine-grained and has a large surface area. Approximately 70 percent of its composition is carbon. The remaining percentage consists of nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen among other elements. Biochar’s chemical composition varies depending on the feedstocks used to make it and methods used to heat it.
Biochar Applications
Biochar as a compost additive
Low soil organic carbon and fertility are challenges faced by many agricultural farmers around the globe. Biochar offers a solution to this challenge because it gives two options, i.e. returning nutrients and carbon to the soil while producing energy. Also, the compositing rate can be increased by using biochar as an additive. Some professors have examined spent mushroom compost and biochar co-composting. Their results showed a great increase in nutrients content of the resultant compost product and an improved composed quality while reducing the composting time from 90 to 270 days to only 24 days. Also, the large porosity of biochar enables it to facilitate microbial growth in the compost pile, leading to accelerated nutrient recycling. The addition of biochar to poultry manure has been found to increase the maximum temperature reached and shorten the thermophilic phase.Biochar as an adsorbent
An issue of heavy metals/metalloids (HMS) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil and water poses detrimental environmental problems and poor quality of agriculture, affecting all forms of life. These pollutants are toxic, persistent, non-biodegradable and potentially bioaccumulate. Among other bioremediation technologies used to solve the HMS and PAHs issue, biochar is one of the best solutions due to its advantages. These advantages include sustainability, low costs, sequestration of carbon, etc. Various physical and chemical characteristics of biochar, such as pore structure, specific surface area and functional groups, have been used to adsorption different pollutants. Other biomass materials such as rice husks and dairy manure have also been used for biochar production with varying adsorption capacities according to the biomass used upon other factors.
Biochar in construction
Biochar has been used in road construction and as a concrete admixture. In one study, biochar addition was found to be beneficial to cement hydration. Also, biochar’s incorporation resulted in enhanced immobilization of potentially organic contaminants and toxic elements in the sediment product, which is significant for moderately to heavily contaminated products. Therefore, biochar from biomass and herb residues can be used as a green combination for cement-based recycling procedures for highly contaminated waste. The use of biochar in construction material to trap atmospheric carbon dioxide in buildings also offers the potential to reduce greenhouse gasses by 25%. High pH and high water retention rate of biochar enable it to absorb some of the mixing water used in concrete mixing, thereby reducing the amount of free water in the concrete.
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