Strategies for producing biochars with minimum PAH contamination

With the aim to develop initial recommendations for production of biochars with minimal contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), we analysed a systematic set of 46 biochars produced under highly controlled pyrolysis conditions. The effects of the highest treatment temperature (HTT), residence time, carrier gas flow and typical feedstocks (wheat / oilseed rape straw pellets (WSP), softwood pellets (SWP)) on 16 US EPA PAH concentration in biochar were investigated. Overall, the PAH concentrations ranged between 1.2 and 100 mg kg-1. On average, straw-derived biochar contained 5.8 times higher PAH concentrations than softwood-derived biochar. In a batch pyrolysis reactor, increasing carrier gas flow significantly decreased PAH concentrations in biochar; in case of straw, the concentrations dropped from 43.1 mg kg-1 in the absence of carrier gas to 3.5 mg kg-1 with a carrier gas flow of 0.67 L min-1; for woody biomass PAHs concentrations declined from 7.4 mg kg-1 to 1.5 mg kg-1 with the same change of carrier gas flow. In the temperature range of 350-650°C the HTT did not have any significant effect on PAH content in biochars, irrespective of feedstock type, however, in biochars produced at 750°C the PAH concentrations were significantly higher. After detailed investigation it was deduced that this intensification in PAH contamination at high temperatures was most likely down to the specifics of the unit design of the continuous pyrolysis reactor used. Overall, it was concluded that besides PAH formation, vaporisation is determining the PAH concentration in biochar. The fact that both of these mechanisms intensify with pyrolysis temperature (one increasing and the other one decreasing the PAH concentration in biochar) could explain why no consistent trend in PAH content in biochar with temperature has been found in the literature

Toxicity screening of different modified biochars on the germination and early seedling growth

Applying biochar as soil amendment improves soil physicochemical properties, carbon sequestration and plant growth. However, prior to use as amendment, BC must be investigated for both its potential positive and negative effects on soil and plants. Seed germination and early seedling growth are considered to be very sensitive to various external factors and are therefore frequently used for initial screening of different soil amendments. In this study we assessed the impact of different biochar modifications on seed germination, i.e., (germination rate and seedling growth). Ten different types of biochar representing different biochar modifications, such as physical and chemical activation, mineral (ash) enhanced biochar (Buss et.al.,2019) phosphorus-loaded biochar, and potassium-loaded biochar (Mašek et.al., 2019) were screened for their toxicity using sand with a uniform biochar application rate of 0.5% in petri dishes. The room temperature was (CRD maintained approx. 25 °C during the whole experiment period. The experiment was conducted under Complete Randomized Design). It is known that the size of a seed affects the fitness of the plant growing from it; larger seeds often have higher fitness (Kering and Zhang 2015; Giles 1990) and are therefore initially less affected by external conditions. Most past studies involving study of phytotoxic effects of biochar on seed germination have focused on a single crop and did not account for the effect of the seed size. Based on a relevant literature review and preliminary experiments, we selected seeds of different plants based on their size, such as, spring barley, white clover and cress seed. The result obtained to date show that biochar none of the biochar exhibited any significant detrimental effects on the germination of the barley seeds, however there are differences observed, depending on the type of biochar modification used and also the size of seeds selected for the tests figure 1. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Synergies between BECCS and Biochar - Maximizing Carbon Sequestration Potential by Recycling Wood Ash

Bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and biochar are key carbon-negative technologies. In this study, synergies between these technologies were explored by using ash from wood combustion, a byproduct from BECCS, as an additive (0, 5, 10, 20, and 50 wt %) in biochar production (wood pyrolysis at 450 °C). The addition of wood ash catalyzed biochar formation and increased the yield of fixed carbon (FC) (per dry, ash-free feedstock), i.e., the sequestrable carbon per spruce wood input. At the highest ash addition (50%), 45% less wood was needed to yield the same amount of FC. Since the land area available for growing biomass is becoming scarcer, our approach significantly increases biochar’s potential to sequester carbon. However, increasing the feedstock ash content results in less feedstock carbon available for conversion into FC. Consequently, the yield of FC per pyrolysis run (based on dry feedstock) in the 50% ash-amended material was lower than in the control. An economic analysis showed that the 20% ash-amended biochar brings the biggest cost savings over the control with a 15% decrease in CO₂-abatement costs. Biochar–ash composites increase the carbon sequestration potential of biochar significantly, reduce the CO₂-abatement costs, and recycle nutrients which can result in increased plant growth in turn and more biomass for BECCS, bringing synergies for BECCS and biochar deployment

Composition of PAHs in biochar and implications for biochar production

[Image: see text] The content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in biochar has been studied extensively; however, the links between biomass feedstock, production process parameters, and the speciation of PAHs in biochar are understudied. Such an understanding is crucial, as the health effects of individual PAHs vary greatly. Naphthalene (NAP) is the least toxic of the 16 US EPA PAHs but comprises the highest proportion of PAHs in biochar. Therefore, we investigate which parameters favor high levels of non-NAP PAHs (∑16 US EPA PAHs without NAP) in a set of 73 biochars. On average, the content of non-NAP PAHs was 9 ± 29 mg kg(–1) (median 0.9 mg kg(–1)). Importantly, during the production of the biochars with the highest non-NAP PAH contents, the conditions in the post-pyrolysis area, where pyrolysis vapors and biochar are separated, favored condensation and deposition of PAHs on biochar. Under these conditions, NAP condensed to a lower degree because of its high vapor pressure. In biochars not contaminated through this process, the average non-NAP content was only 2 ± 3 mg kg(–1) (median 0.5 mg kg(–1)). Uneven heat distribution and vapor trapping during pyrolysis and cool zones in the post-pyrolysis area need to be avoided. This demonstrates that the most important factor yielding high contents of toxic PAHs in biochar was neither a specific pyrolysis parameter nor the feedstock but the pyrolysis unit design, which can be modified to produce clean and safe biochar

Strategies for producing biochars with minimum PAH contamination

With the aim to develop initial recommendations for production of biochars with minimal contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), we analysed a systematic set of 46 biochars produced under highly controlled pyrolysis conditions. The effects of the highest treatment temperature (HTT), residence time, carrier gas flow and typical feedstocks (wheat / oilseed rape straw pellets (WSP), softwood pellets (SWP)) on 16 US EPA PAH concentration in biochar were investigated. Overall, the PAH concentrations ranged between 1.2 and 100 mg kg-1. On average, straw-derived biochar contained 5.8 times higher PAH concentrations than softwood-derived biochar. In a batch pyrolysis reactor, increasing carrier gas flow significantly decreased PAH concentrations in biochar; in case of straw, the concentrations dropped from 43.1 mg kg-1 in the absence of carrier gas to 3.5 mg kg-1 with a carrier gas flow of 0.67 L min-1; for woody biomass PAHs concentrations declined from 7.4 mg kg-1 to 1.5 mg kg-1 with the same change of carrier gas flow. In the temperature range of 350-650°C the HTT did not have any significant effect on PAH content in biochars, irrespective of feedstock type, however, in biochars produced at 750°C the PAH concentrations were significantly higher. After detailed investigation it was deduced that this intensification in PAH contamination at high temperatures was most likely down to the specifics of the unit design of the continuous pyrolysis reactor used. Overall, it was concluded that besides PAH formation, vaporisation is determining the PAH concentration in biochar. The fact that both of these mechanisms intensify with pyrolysis temperature (one increasing and the other one decreasing the PAH concentration in biochar) could explain why no consistent trend in PAH content in biochar with temperature has been found in the literature