Research and Application of Biochar in Europe

Structure alteration of a sandy-clay soil by biochar amendments

The aim of the present study was to investigate structure alterations of a sandy-clay soil upon addition of different amounts of biochar (f bc ). All the f bc samples were analyzed by high energy moisture characteristic (HEMC) technique and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry. HEMC was applied in order to evaluate aggregate stability of biochar-amended soil samples. 1H NMR relaxometry experiments were conducted for the evaluation of the pore distributions through the investigation of water dynamics of the same samples. The HEMC technique revealed improvement in aggregate stability through measurements of the amount of drainable pores and the stability ratio. The latter increased…

Effect of Heating Time and Temperature on the Chemical Characteristics of Biochar from Poultry Manure

Poultry manure (PM) chars were obtained at different temperatures and charring times. Chemical-physical characterization of the different PM chars was conducted by cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) (13)C NMR spectroscopy and thermal analysis. CPMAS (13)C NMR spectra showed that the chemical composition of PM char is dependent on production temperature rather than on production duration. Aromatic and alkyl domains in the PM chars obtained at the lowest temperatures remained unchanged at all heating times applied for their production. The PM char obtained at the highest temperature consisted only of aromatic structures having chemical nature that also appeared invariant with hea…

Mechanisms of Water Interaction with Pore Systems of Hydrochar and Pyrochar from Poplar Forestry Waste

The aim of this study was to understand the water-surface interactions of two chars obtained by gasification (pyrochar) and hydrothermal carbonization (hydrochar) of a poplar biomass. The two samples revealed different chemical compositions as evidenced by solid state (13)C NMR spectroscopy. In fact, hydrochar resulted in a lignin-like material still containing oxygenated functionalities. Pyrochar was a polyaromatic system in which no heteronuclei were detected. After saturation with water, hydrochar and pyrochar were analyzed by fast field cycling (FFC) NMR relaxometry. Results showed that water movement in hydrochar was mainly confined in very small pores. Conversely, water movement in py…

Preliminary identification and quantification of steroid hormones in the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus

In the present preliminary study, we used a gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) method to identify and quantify steroid hormones, their precursors and metabolites in whole body of red palm weevil (RPW) R. ferrugineus adults. We identified a total of seven steroids by single ion monitoring mode (SIM) analysis and compared them to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library. The steroids include: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), estrone, estradiol-17β, testosterone, progesterone, cortisol and cholesterol, whereas pregnenolone, pregnan-20-one-17-hydroxy and corticosterone were not detected. This study shows that some invertebrate groups seem to use partially or tot…

Designing biochar properties through the blending of biomass feedstock with metals: Impact on oxyanions adsorption behavior

Metal-blending of biomass prior to pyrolysis is investigated in this work as a tool to modify biochar physico-chemical properties and its behavior as adsorbent. Six different compounds were used for metal-blending: AlCl3, Cu(OH)2, FeSO4, KCl, MgCl2 and Mg(OH)2. Pyrolysis experiments were performed at 400 and 700 °C and the characterization of biochar properties included: elemental composition, thermal stability, surface area and pore size distribution, Zeta potential, redox potential, chemical structure (with nuclear magnetic resonance) and adsorption behavior of arsenate, phosphate and nitrate. Metalblending strongly affected biochars' surface charge and redox potential. Moreover, it incre…