Sustainable Biochar-A tool for climate change mitigation, soil management and water and wastewater treatment

Abstract

Global threats including climate change, land degradation, environmental contamination, and water shortages lead to economic, social and environmental damage. These need to be addressed to overcome the major disaster occurring now and in near future. Sustainable Biochar (BC) from biomass and wastes can be an environmentally-friendly option for carbon sequestration, soil fertility improvement, pollution remediation and agricultural by-product/waste recycling. Pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass to bio fuels and other value-added products including biochar has attracted considerable attention since the mid-1970s due to petroleum price spikes, climate change and increasing energy demand [1]. Fast and slow pyrolyses are promising routes to renewable liquid fuels, biochars and chemicals. Fast pyrolysis is a promising route to recover renewable liquid fuels. Fast pyrolysis employs short residence time (<3 s) at 400-500°C in absence of oxygen to generate biooil or pyrolytic oil, bio-char and gas[1, 2] .