Assessment of Biochar Produced from Aquatic Plants for Environmental and Agricultural Applications by Multi-Analytical Characterizations

Abstract

Biochar obtained through the processes of pyrolysis has become carbon-rich eco-friendly aromatic material and can be used as sorbents and soil amendment for organic and inorganic contaminants. This study investigated biochar’s physical and chemical characteristics produced from commonly growing eight different aquatic plants. All biochars were obtained at 500 °C and characterized in detail to evaluate their appropriateness for agricultural and environmental utilization as well as applied to Cd-contaminated soil to assess the fixation of Cd to use as soil amendment. Herein, characteristics of biochars were described with multi analytical techniques, like Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG), respectively. Among the biochars, there were considerable variations in elemental composition, micrmorphology and surface area. Overall results indicate that biochars obtained from aquatic plants could be useful as soil amendment as well as fertilizer due to their higher content of mineral elements, highly porous structure and presence of aromatic and hydroxy functional groups and adsorption capacity of cadmium which are dominating in all biochars. All biochars produced from aquatic plants are better way to set out waste biomass to avoid eutrophication and have remarkable properties for environmental and agricultural applications.