Special Issue "Waste to Biochar for a Sustainable Future"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Simeng Li
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA 91768, USA
Interests: biochar; bioenergy; biomass and feedstock utilization; thermochemical conversion of biomass; desalination; wastewater reuse; climate and land use change
Prof. Dr. Ana Méndez
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28003 Madrid, Spain
Interests: biochar; carbon materials; pyrolysis; hydrothermal carbonization; hydrometallurgy; urban mining; metal recycling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the global human population continues to grow rapidly, the high demand for food to feed this large population is increasingly challenging the sustainability of our future. Each year, a tremendous amount of waste (e.g., crop residues) is inevitably generated in the agricultural sector; on the consumer end, billions of metric tons of food waste finally enter the stream of municipal solid waste, which may lead to serious environmental and public health issues if not properly managed. One of the promising solutions is to convert the organic fraction of waste into biochar. In recent years, biochar has been widely investigated as a soil amendment for improving soil health and fertility, as a potent absorbent for removing various pollutants from a contaminated environment, and as a carbon sequestrator for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. The multidimensional applications of biochar and their resulting benefits have highlighted the great potential of biochar to support a sustainable future.

This Special Issue aims to collect the most updated advances in biochar research, with a focus on the discussion about how waste-derived biochar could contribute to waste minimization, food security, water availability, and climate and land use change. Articles dealing with innovative methods of biochar production and characterization are also welcomed.

Dr. Simeng Li
Dr. Ana Méndez
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability 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 1900 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
  • biomass waste
  • agricultural residue
  • food waste
  • pyrolysis
  • soil amendment
  • pollutant adsorption
  • carbon sequestration
  • land use change
  • climate change

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Comparing Physicochemical Properties and Sorption Behaviors of Pyrolysis-Derived and Microwave-Mediated Biochar
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2359; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042359 - 22 Feb 2021
Viewed by 510
Abstract
Biochar’s ability to amend and remediate agricultural soil has been a growing interest, though the energy expenses from high-temperature pyrolysis deter the product’s use. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the pyrolysis efficiency while ensuring the quality of produced biochar. The present study [...] Read more.
Biochar’s ability to amend and remediate agricultural soil has been a growing interest, though the energy expenses from high-temperature pyrolysis deter the product’s use. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the pyrolysis efficiency while ensuring the quality of produced biochar. The present study utilized three types of feedstock (i.e., switchgrass, biosolid, and water oak leaves) to produce biochar via conventional slow pyrolysis and microwave pyrolysis at different temperature/energy input. The produced biochar was characterized and comprehensively compared in terms of their physiochemical properties (e.g., surface functionality, elemental composition, and thermal stability). It was discovered that microwave-mediated biochar was more resistant to thermal decomposition, indicated by a higher production yield, yet more diverse surface functional groups were preserved than slow pyrolysis-derived biochar. A nutrient (NO3-N) adsorption isotherm study displayed that microwave-mediated biochar exhibited greater adsorption (13.3 mg g−1) than that of slow pyrolysis-derived biochar (3.1 mg g−1), proving its potential for future applications. Results suggested that microwaves pyrolysis is a promising method for biochar production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Waste to Biochar for a Sustainable Future)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Biochars and Engineered Biochars for Water and Soil Remediation: A Review
Authors: Tariqul Islam1,2,3, Hefa Cheng2*
Affiliation: 1 School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China 2 College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China 3 Department of Agricultural Construction and Environmental Engineering, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh
Abstract: Water and soil are the two vital environmental media that have been increasingly contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutants from industrial emissions and other anthropogenic sources, which could pose potentially significant risk on ecological security, food production, and public health. Biochars (BCs) are being considered as ecofriendly and multifunctional materials with significant potential for remediation of contaminated water and soils. Moreover, engineered biochars (E-BCs) tuned through different methods (physical, chemical, biological) have higher surface areas, aromatic surface, unique surface charge and functional groups compared to the pristine BCs. This review focuses on the development and application of BCs/E-BCs for removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from contaminated water and soils. The physical and chemical properties of BCs with their driven factors, methods employed for tuning E-BCs, the removal of major types of organic (e.g., antibiotics and pesticides) and inorganic pollutants (e.g., heavy metals) by BCs/E-BCs from soils and water, and the corresponding removal mechanisms, are discussed. The physical and chemical properties of BCs, such as ash or mineral contents, aromaticity, surface structures, pH, and their functional groups (e.g., C=O, -COOH, -OH, and -NH2) depend primarily on their feedstock sources (i.e., plant, sludge or faecal) and the pyrolysis temperature. Ion exchange, precipitation, electrostatic attraction, and complexation are the main mechanisms involved in adsorption of inorganic pollutants on BCs/E-BCs, whereas hydrogen bonding, pore filling, electrostatic attraction, hydrophobic interaction, atomic attraction, and van der waals forces are the major mechanisms in the removal of organic pollutants. Despite their significant promises, more pilot and field-scale studies are necessary to demonstrate the practical applicability of BCs/E-BCs in water and soil remediation, while more applied research is also needed to make them viable for environmental remediation.

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