Biochar is the carbonaceous solid product of biomass pyrolysis which can be used as chemical feedstock for various purposes such as energy production, and adsorption of pollutants. In particular, application of biochar to the soil is gaining greater interests, which can reduce fertilizer consumption, increase crop yields, and sequestrate carbon. This study compares the characteristics of biocha...

The addition of charcoal (or biochar) to soil has significant carbon sequestration and agronomic potential, making it important to determine how this potentially large anthropogenic carbon influx will alter ecosystem functions. We used column experiments to quantify how hydrologic and nutrient-retention characteristics of three soil materials differed with biochar amendment. We compared three h...

A potential abatement to increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) in the atmosphere is the use of pyrolysis to convert vegetative biomass into a more stable form of carbon (biochar) that could then be applied to the soil. However, the impacts of pyrolysis biochar on the soil system need to be assessed before initiating large scale biochar applications to agricultural fields. We compared CO(2...

This study examined the effect of nitrogen (N) on biochar stability in relation to soil microbial community as well as biochar labile components using δ13C stable isotope technology. A sandy loam soil under a long-term rotation of C3 crops was amended with biochar produced from maize (a C4 plant) straw in absence (BC0) and presence (BCN) of N and monitored for dynamics of carbon dioxide (CO2) f...

Novel carbon sequestration strategies such as large-scale land application of biochar may provide sustainable pathways to increase the terrestrial storage of carbon. Biochar has a long residence time in the soil and hence comprehensive studies are urgently needed to quantify the environmental impacts of large-scale biochar application. In particular, black carbon emissions from soils amended wi...

The incorporation of biochar into soils has been proposed as a means to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. An added environmental benefit is that biochar has also been shown to increase soil retention of nutrients, heavy metals, and pesticides. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether biochar amendments affect the transport of Escherichia coli through a water-saturated soil. We looked ...

The herbicide atrazine is used extensively throughout the United States, and is a widespread groundwater and surface water contaminant. Biochar has been shown to strongly sorb organic compounds and could be used to reduce atrazine leaching. We used lab and field experiments to determine biochar impacts on atrazine leaching under increasingly heterogeneous soil conditions. Application of pine ch...

The REFERTIL project (FP7 contract no.: 289785) is developing safe and economical biochar quality criteria for EU policy support and proposal for possible inclusion of the biochar case into the EU FERTILIZER REGULATION revision (EC 2003/2003). The objective driven goal of this SME farmer targeted applied science and technology project is to reduce mineral fertilisers and chemicals use in agricu...

Biochar, a charcoal-like product of the incomplete combustion of organic materials, is an increasingly popular soil amendment designed to improve soil fertility. We investigated the possibility that biochar could promote direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) in a manner similar to that previously reported for granular activated carbon (GAC). Although the biochars investigated were 1000 t...

Biochar land application can potentially be used for carbon sequestration, improving soil quality, and reducing non-point source pollution. Understanding biochar mobility is important because its transport in soil greatly influences its stability, the dynamics of soil microbial communities and organic matter, and the movement of biochar-associated contaminants. Here, the transport of biochar pa...