Potential of Novel Biochars Produced from Invasive Aquatic Species Outside Food Chain in Removing Ammonium Nitrogen: Comparison with Conventional Biochars and Clinoptilolite

Abstract

Previous studies for removal of ammonium from wastewater were mainly conducted using biochars produced from agricultural residue. Feedstock type (agricultural residue, wood, animal waste, and aquatic waste), as well as pyrolysis temperature, can significantly influence biochar properties and hence its adsorption capacity. Such studies are useful in decision making for selecting biochar depending on feedstock availability and pyrolysis temperature. This study aims to explore the effects of different types of biochar (laboratory prepared novel water hyacinth and algae biochar, conventional cedar wood, rice straw, and pig manure biochar) on the adsorption kinetics for ammonium removal from wastewater. The adsorption kinetics of biochars were compared to that of commercially available clinoptilolite and interpreted with their respective physicochemical properties (SEM, FTIR, XRD). Batch tests were performed to evaluate the effects of biochars on adsorption of ammonium nitrogen at different concentrations (10 mg/L and 100 mg/L). The tests reveal that clinoptilolite has the highest adsorption capacity. Among biochars, pig manure (animal based) biochar has a higher adsorption capacity in comparison to conventional agricultural residues based biochars. The capacity of pig manure biochar under highly concentrated ammonium solution (100 mg/L) is merely 20% lower than that of clinoptilolite. Both water hyacinth and algae biochar produced at higher temperature (600 °C) show higher sorption rate and capacity (depending on the initial concentration of ammonium) for ammonium in comparison to that produced at a lower temperature (300 °C). This is likely due to an increase in porosity at higher temperatures of pyrolysis.

Influence of feedstock type and particle size on efficiency of biochar in improving tensile crack resistance and shear strength in lean clayey soil

“…In this study, plant and animal-based biochar (WB and PMB) have been used. Biochars were produced by heating respective feedstock (water hyacinth for WB and pig manure for PMB) up to 400°C in an oxygen-limited condition under slow pyrolysis condition (Song et al., 2019). Feedstock for both biochars was collected from the local farm located in Nanning city of China.…”

Invasive Water Hyacinth: Ecology, Impacts and Prospects for the Rural Economy

“…According to some reports, water hyacinth has been used as a raw material for bio-based building materials such as thermal insulators [ 126 , 127 ] and concrete mixture [ 128 , 129 ]. It has also been used in the production of high-value chemicals such as furfurals and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), biopolymers and enzymes, as reviewed by Ilo et al [ 13 ] and the production of biochars used in agriculture and low-grade energy sectors [ 130 , 131 ]. Water hyacinth has other potential bioenergy uses, having been extracted for its phenalenone compounds and sterols for pharmacological purposes [ 132 ] and used for water treatment purposes through phytoremediation [ 133 ].…”

Biochar alters hydraulic conductivity and inhibits nutrient leaching in two agricultural soils

“…affinity is supported by higher Qmax values throughout published sorption experiments, inconsistencies can still be found. Qmax values lower than 2 mg NH4 + g -1 are commonly observed, for biochars produced from a broad range of temperatures and feedstocks (Hale et al, 2013b;Paramashivam et al, 2016;Song et al, 2019;Tian et al, 2016;Uttran et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2015;Yin et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2017). While most reported Qmax values are less than 20 mg NH4 + -N g -1 (Zhang et al, 2020), values as high as 93.6 mg NH4 + g -1 (Yin et al, 2018) and 243.3 mg NH4 + g -1 have been observed (Gao et al, 2015).…”