Biological, Physico-Chemical and Morphological Analyses of Four Biochars Derived from Agricultural Waste

Abstract

Around the world, the increasing population and consumption are placing huge demands on food. Agriculture is considered one of the important sectors in the world and the force to feed humanity. While under these circumstances, which stand out by successive years of drought, degradation of soil, climate change, and global warming, this sector has multifaceted a major issue that goes beyond threatening food security. Thus, Morocco characterized by an arid and semi-arid climate is one example of countries that suffered from those problems. Due to lack of rain, the water resources of some Moroccan arable lands are consumed highly as well as the quality of its soils is now degraded. This issue calls for new approaches to amending the degraded soils in these regions and sustain water supplies. Indeed, biochar can be a remedy for these poor soils; in fact, it has an incredible sequester carbon on soil, a benefit on the environment as well as on plant growth. Despite its virtues, certain biochars contain phytotoxic compounds. In this study, four biochars prepared from banana waste, peanut hull, almond shells, and walnut shells were tested on three plant species (cress to test (HAP), barley for assessing heavy metals, and lettuce to assess salinity) before any field application. The chemical and physical analysis was done for the four biochars and the sandy soil, the four biochars were also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for identifying the morphology of each biochar. The results showed that the four biochars enhanced water holding capacity (WHC), they also revealed the existence of heavy metals especially for almond shells biochar and walnut shells biochar. While for the morphology of each biochar, banana waste biochar (BC-BW) and peanut hull biochar (BC-PeH) had more pores than almond shells biochar (BC-Alm) and walnut shells biochar(BC-WS). Concerning the phytotoxic tests, the lettuce was germinated in all biochars treatments except for the 8% biochar banana treatment, for the cress and barley, all the treatments were grown.

Effect of Banana-Waste Biochar and Compost Mixtures on Growth Responses and Physiological Traits of Seashore Paspalum Subjected to Six Different Water Conditions

“…When compared to carbonate, oxalate may be less successful at neutralizing acidic soils [19]. The calcite formed, as a result, contributed to the alkalinity of the banana-waste biochar investigated, as seen by their high pH values of 9.30 [9]. In addition, the FTIR technique's results can be utilized as an effective tool for controlling biochar quality in production circumstances, and, as a result, its impacts on plant growth.…”

“…This result was surprising for us; in fact, the increase in the two-fluorescence activity can be explained by amending with banana-waste biochar and compost mixtures. When banana-waste biochar was studied with a scanning electron microscope in a prior study, it revealed a number of pores [9]. Indeed, the porosity of the studied biochar helped soils to maintain more water and nutrients even in harsh conditions.…”

“…Furthermore, the soil pH was 8.62. Biochar was prepared from banana-waste feedstock at 201 • C, having pH 9.3, and detailed physicochemical properties of banana-waste biochar were reported previously [9]. The same commercial compost was used for the two experiments.…”

Limiting the Hurtful Oxidative Stress and Seasonal Physiological Adaptations in Seashore Paspalum through the Use of Banana Waste Biochar and Compost Mixtures

“…The waste feedstock of banana leaves was pyrolyzed in a Moroccan pyrolysis process heater based on a model by Prof. Claudia Kammann (Bouqbis et al 2016). The detailed physicochemical properties of banana waste biochar have previously been reported (Fetjah et al 2021a). In turn, compost was purchased from Agadir.…”

Effect of Banana Waste Biochar on Physiological Responses and Growth of Seashore Paspalum

“…The banana waste biochar was produced at 201 °C according to the method elaborated by Bouqbis and Fetjah [Bouqbis et al, 2016;Fetjah et al, 2021].…”