Effects of Biochar in Soil and Water Remediation: A Review

Abstract

In the last decades increased global environmental concerns to water and soils pollution. The main concerns are related to the contamination of the ecosystem, food security, and human health since many of the contaminants present in soil and water (residues of pesticides and antibiotics, genes of resistance to antibiotics, and heavy metals) are absorbed by plants and enter the food chain. Remediation of the contaminated water and soil to ensure sustainable water supply and food production is urgently needed. The use of biochar can have a positive effect on this remediation process. There are several studies that demonstrate the biochar’s ability to block/reduce the contaminating effect of pesticides, antibiotic residues, antibiotic resistance genes, and heavy metals. The objective of this chapter is to carry out a comprehensive review of the effect of using biochar on the availability/transmission of these contaminants to the soil and food supply chain.

Deashed Wheat-Straw Biochar as a Potential Superabsorbent for Pesticides

“…In recent years, biochar has been widely investigated as a nutrient carrier with slow-release capacity, an additive reducing soil water loss, or sorbent of various xenobiotics [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. The most important properties of biochar determining its high adsorptive potential are: large surface area, porous structure, abundance in surface functional groups, and high cation exchange capacity [ 4 ]. These features may induce chemical immobilization of contaminant molecules on biochar and as a result mitigate their leaching and bioavailability.…”