Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experiences soil degradation, food and livelihood insecurity, environmental pollution and lack of access to energy. Biochar has gained international research attention, but few studies have investigated the potential of biochar to address the challenges in SSA. This paper seeks to identify and evaluate generic potential opportunities and constraints associated with bioc...

Biochar can potentially increase soil fertility and sequester carbon by incorporating nutrients and stable black carbon into the soil; however its effect on soil nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) processes is not well understood. A defined methodology to characterize biochar is necessary to predict how specific biochars will affect C and N mineralization. We amended a Tifton soil (Fine-loamy, siliceo...

Application of biochar alters availability of nutrients and acidic cations in soils which in turn could affect growth of plant to different degrees. Effect of rubber wood biochar amendment on the growth and nutritional status of Hevea nursery plants was determined in this study. Biochar were applied at 1% and 2% (w/w) with and without the recommended rates of N and Mg liquid fertilizers (LF). T...

An experiment was conducted to study the influences of nitrification inhibitor (NI) and biochar incorporation on yield-scaled N2O using the static chamber method and gas chromatography in an intensively managed vegetable field with seven consecutive vegetable crops from 2012 to 2014 in southeastern China. With an equal annual nitrogen (N) application rate (1217 kgNha yr), six treatments under t...

The feasibility of using biochar as a sorbent to remove nitro explosives and metals from contaminated water was investigated through batch experiments. Biochar, synthesized using various biomasses, showed a porous structure and a high surface area and includes embedded carbonate minerals. Compared with granular activated carbon, biochar was competitive as a sorbent for removing Cd, Cu, Pb, and ...

In the last decade, an increasing number of studies have reported that soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions can be reduced by adding biochar. However, the effect of biochar amendment on soil N2O emissions during freeze-thaw cycle (FTC) is still unknown. In this laboratory study, biochar (0%, 2% and 4%, w/w) was added into a cultivated sandy loam soil and then treated with 15 times of FTC (each FT...

This report has been put together for the Interreg IVB project: Biochar: climate saving soils The objectives for this report were: Objective 4.2.1: Systems to screen biochar–plant interactions-The effect of biochar on root architecture and the localisation of soil mineral nitrogen in the rhizosphere, characterized using mesocosms. Objective 4.2.2: Testing the simulation of physical ageing of bi...

BACKGROUND Claims about the environmental benefits of charring biomass and applying the resulting "biochar" to soil are impressive. If true, they could influence land management worldwide. Alleged benefits include increased crop yields, soil fertility, and water-holding capacity; the most widely discussed idea is that applying biochar to soil will mitigate climate change. This claim rests on th...

Twenty seven methods currently used to characterize biochar were assessed in terms of their usefulness to determine the stability of biochar carbon in the environment. The International Biochar Initiative (IBI), which led the effort, gathered fourteen world-class experts in different fields of biochar relevant to stability, who guided the process for obtaining a simple, yet reliable, measure fo...

Biomass pyrolysis with biochar returned to soil is a possible strategy for climate change mitigation and reducing fossil fuel consumption. Pyrolysis with biochar applied to soils results in four coproducts: long-term carbon (C) sequestration from stable C in the biochar, renewable energy generation, biochar as a soil amendment, and biomass waste management. Life cycle assessment was used to est...