Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Production, characterization, activation and environmental applications of engineered biochar: a review

  • Review
  • Published:
Environmental Chemistry Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Increased industrial and domestic activities have induced pollution, global warming and resources depletion, calling for advanced remediation techniques. For instance, biochar synthesized from waste materials is an ecofriendly and low-cost material for the remediation of contaminants, yet raw biochar is poorly efficient. Therefore, biochar properties can be improved by ultrasonication, metal impregnation, surfactant modification, microwave, electrochemical and plasma treatment techniques. Biochar properties include adsorption capacity, active surface area, uniform distribution of pores, chemical attributes and mechanical stability. Engineered biochar thus exhibits high contaminant removal efficiency of 90–99%, tolerance to wide range of pH of 3–9 and high specific surface area of more than 400 cm3/g. For example, modified cornstalk biochar displays mercury adsorption capacity of 269.4 mg/g. The usage of magnetic biochar allows a β-estradiol adsorption capacity of 98.8 mg/g. Engineered biochar can act as an ecofriendly soil amendment and a highly efficient tool to recover contaminants from water systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank freepik.com for providing source of diagrams.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kannappan Panachamoorthy Gopinath.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Akhil, D., Lakshmi, D., Kartik, A. et al. Production, characterization, activation and environmental applications of engineered biochar: a review. Environ Chem Lett 19, 2261–2297 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-020-01167-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-020-01167-7

Keywords

Navigation