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Recent Advances of Biochar in Wastewater Treatment
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Recent Advances of Biochar in Wastewater Treatment

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 463

Editors

Dr. Joanna Kończyk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science & Technology, Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, Armii Krajowej 13/15, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; environmental chemistry; adsorption; solvent extraction; heavy metals; atomic spectrometry; ion chromatography
Dr. Iwona Zawierucha

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland
Interests: polymer inclusion membranes; water and wastewater treatment; membrane technologies; separation processes; removal of metal ions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, biochar has emerged as a crucial material in water and wastewater treatment technologies. Its high porosity, the ability to precisely tailor its surface chemistry, and its thermal and chemical stability make it an effective sorbent, catalyst, and carrier of active phases in processes aimed at eliminating various inorganic and organic contaminants. At the same time, the production of biochar from waste biomass and other low-value feedstocks aligns with the principles of the circular economy, resource recovery, and carbon sequestration.

This Special Issue seeks to compile the current state of knowledge and the latest achievements that are related (but are not limited) to the following topics:

  • Design, production, and characterization of new biochar-based materials and composites;
  • Studies on sorption and reaction mechanisms, as well as process modeling for the removal of various contaminant groups;
  • Applications of biochar in wastewater treatment at laboratory, pilot, and full technical scales, including hybrid processes;
  • Regeneration, reuse, and durability of biochars.

We kindly invite you to submit your work and contribute to this Special Issue.

Dr. Joanna Kończyk
Dr. Iwona Zawierucha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biochar
  • wastewater treatment
  • adsorption
  • hybrid treatment
  • sorbent
  • catalyst
  • composite
  • heavy metals
  • nutrients
  • pharmaceuticals
  • circular economy
  • life cycle assessment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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26 pages, 846 KB  
Perspective
Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Optimized and Sustainable Biochar Water Treatment
by Qingyang Liu and Bing Bai
Molecules 2026, 31(13), 2349; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules31132349 - 3 Jul 2026
Viewed by 256
Abstract
Biochar water treatment stands at a decisive crossroads, where the promise of large-scale application meets the reality of laboratory trial-and-error. This study contends that the fundamental bottleneck to progress lies in the field’s persistent reliance on empirical experimentation and black-box data models. We [...] Read more.
Biochar water treatment stands at a decisive crossroads, where the promise of large-scale application meets the reality of laboratory trial-and-error. This study contends that the fundamental bottleneck to progress lies in the field’s persistent reliance on empirical experimentation and black-box data models. We therefore propose a conceptual research paradigm that aims to deeply integrate physics-informed machine learning (PIML) with life cycle assessment (LCA). The novelty of this framework lies in three dimensions: (i) the bidirectional information flow between PIML and LCA, enabling simultaneous material design and sustainability assessment; (ii) the embedding of fundamental physical laws (adsorption isotherms, kinetics, thermodynamics) directly into learning architectures to ensure physical consistency; and (iii) the extension to a water–energy–soil–food closed-loop system for holistic resource management. While the individual components of this framework have been demonstrated in other domains, their integrated application to biochar water treatment remains in early development stages. This perspective outlines potential pathways and identifies critical research gaps that must be addressed to realize this vision. The focus is on charting future directions rather than reporting established achievements. Through critical evaluation, we assess current integrated models under small-sample constraints and explicitly pinpoint explainability and cross-scale generalization as two indispensable gaps that industrial deployment demands be bridged. Building on this foundation, we outline a blueprint for a closed-loop system coupling water, energy, soil, and food, and present a three-phase roadmap for future research. This study seeks to offer a constructive perspective with the hope of supporting biochar technology toward more sustainable implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances of Biochar in Wastewater Treatment)
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