Many studies report that, under some circumstances, amending soil with biochar can improve field capacity and plant-available water. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control these improvements, making it challenging to predict when biochar will improve soil water properties. To develop a conceptual model explaining biochar's effects on soil hydrologic processes, we conducted a...

Understanding and improving environmental quality by reducing soil nutrient leaching losses, reducing bioavailability of environmental contaminants, sequestering C, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing crop productivity in highly weathered or degraded soils, has been the goal of agroecosystem researchers and producers for years. Biochar, produced by pyrolysis of biomass, may help at...

A laboratory study was conducted to study the effects of liming and different biochar amendments on N2O and CO2 emissions from acidic tea field soil. The first experiment was done with three different rates of N treatment; N 300 (300 kg N ha-1), N 600 (600 kg N ha-1) and N 900 (900 kg N ha-1) and four different rates of bamboo biochar amendment; 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 2% biochar. The second experimen...

Biochar application to soils has been investigated as a means of improving soil fertility and mitigating climate change through soil carbon sequestration. In the present work, the invasive shrub "Eupatorium adenophorum" was utilized as a sustainable feedstock for making biochar under different pyrolysis conditions in Nepal. Biochar was produced using several different types of kilns; four sub t...

Stabilizing extracellular enzymes may maintain enzymatic activity while protecting enzymes from proteolysis and denaturation. A study determined whether a fast pyrolysis hardwood biochar (CQuest™) would reduce evaporative losses, subsequently stabilizing soil extracellular enzymes and prohibiting potential enzymatic activity loss following a denaturing stress (microwaving). Soil was incubated i...

In a proof-of-concept study, an acidic (pH 5.8) biochar was created using a low pyrolysis temperature (350 °C) and steam activation (800 °C) to potentially improve the soil physicochemical status of an eroded calcareous soil. Biochar was added at 0%, 1%, 2%, and 10% (by wt.) and soils were destructively sampled at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 month intervals. Soil was analyzed for gravimetric water con...

Coproduction of biofuels with biochar (the carbon-rich solid formed during biomass pyrolysis) can provide carbon-negative bioenergy if the biochar is sequestered in soil, where it can improve fertility and thus simultaneously address issues of food security, soil degradation, energy production, and climate change. However, increasing biochar production entails a reduction in bioenergy obtainabl...

Slow release of nitrate by charred organic matter used as a soil amendment (i.e. biochar) was recently suggested as potential mechanism of nutrient delivery to plants which may explain some agronomic benefits of biochar. So far, isolated soil-aged and composted biochar particles were shown to release considerable amounts of nitrate only in extended (>1 h) extractions ("slow release"). In this s...

Microalgal culture may have the potential as a source of raw materials for biodiesel to provide renewable energy services for regional and remote communities. However, current culturing systems face many technical hurdles to be economically feasible, such as high costs for microalgae harvesting and difficulties to make algal cell accumulating lipids. Biochar is an inherent product of biomass py...

−Three kinds of biochars (called poplar branch biochar (PBC), water hyacinth biochar (WHC), and corn straw biochar (CSC)) were prepared in a fixed-bed pyrolyzer at different pyrolysis temperature of 300-700 C. The effects of biochar species, pyrolysis temperature and biochar addition on adsorption characteristics of typical heavy metals (HMs) of Pb and Zn in vegetable soil (collected from lead-...