review · Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology
Agro-waste biochar offers a low-cost solution for removing heavy metals during environmental bioremediation. Pyrolysis temperature strongly influences the physiochemical and structural traits of biochar derived from agricultural wastes, altering surface area, microporosity, pH, and ash content. Differences in biochar performance stem from variations in the moisture and lignin-cellulose compositions of raw biomasses such as rice husk and corncob. Higher processing temperatures generally improve specific surface areas, functional group enhancement, and stability, which in turn boost removal efficiency for specific toxic metals including hexavalent chromium, cadmium, and zinc. This review examines these pyrolytic mechanisms to support decision-making and production cost evaluations, while pointing to the need for further research on heavy metal immobilisation to realise the full remediation potential of biochar.
Heavy metal contamination poses growing environmental hazards, especially in rural regions of developing countries. Utilising agricultural wastes like corncob and rice husk to produce biochar turns discarded materials into low-cost remediation agents. Understanding how heating temperatures alter biochar properties allows for the optimisation of pollutant removal, supporting cleaner soil and water management.
Agro-waste biochar serves as an inexpensive adsorbent for environmental remediation, particularly applicable for communities in developing countries dealing with heavy metal pollution. Potential users include environmental remediation operators and agricultural waste processors utilising feedstocks such as rice husk and corncob. Because this review focuses on mechanistic understanding, production costs, and calls for future immobilisation studies, the work represents early-stage research rather than a finalised, near-market commercial product.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
The multifunctional properties of biochar make it a promising adsorbent of heavy metals for environmental bioremediation. Pyrolytic temperature is a key factor that impacts the properties, performance, and mechanisms of agro-wastes-derived biochar because of the physiochemical transformation of its structural composition. It has been deliberated that increased pyrolysis temperatures strongly enhance specific surface area, pH, and high microporosity as well as carbon and ash content with low cation exchange capacity and volatiles content. The reason for different properties from different pyrolysis is related to the variations in the lignin-cellulose structures as well as moistures in different agro-waste biomasses. Biochar has been considered a low-cost material that has shown its convenient applicability in rural areas of developing countries where environmental contamination of heavy metals is emerging. A wide range of pyrolytic temperatures has shown distinctive properties and characteristics of biochar from different biomass and their capacities to remove heavy metals. Higher pyrolysis temperatures can exhibit higher specific surface areas, enhanced functional groups, and stability than modified biochar. Different pyrolysis temperatures exhibited diverse adsorption capacities on biomass such as rice husk and corncob, as efficiency increases with temperatures on selective heavy metals such as hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)], cadmium [Cd(II)] and zinc [Zn(II)]. This review aimed to understand the physiochemical and structural properties, the transformation of pristine biochar that can enhance the environmental bioremediation of heavy metals. It deliberated on the mechanisms of diverse biomasses obtained from different pyrolysis for decision making process as well as production costs. The authors propose future investigations on heavy metal immobilization to unlock the full potential of biochar in environmental bioremediation.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1016/j.enceco.2024.04.002
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
