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Biochar stability assessment by incubation and modelling: Methods, drawbacks and recommendations
- Source :
- The Science of the total environment. 664
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Biochar produced from pyrolysis of biomass is a candidate with great potential for climate change mitigation by carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) emission in soil. Its potential depends considerably on biochar properties. Biochar stability or biochar C recalcitrance is decisive to its carbon storage/sequestration potential in soil. Three groups of methods including: I) biochar C structure or composition analyses, II) biochar oxidation resistance determination, and III) biochar persistence assessment by incubation & modelling, have been developed for evaluation of biochar stability. Amongst, incubation & modelling is the most commonly used one and is the basis of the other two assessment methods. However, the strategies for incubation experiment designing and data modelling significantly influence the biochar stability results. Drastic differences were observed for stability results obtained from different studies partly because of the large flexibility of the incubation & modelling method. Biased biochar stability would be obtained if the method was used improperly. The present review aims to provide comprehensive information on method strategies used for incubation and modelling, followed by discussions on the key issues such as what kind of biochar to use, how the experiment should be designed, how to determine biochar C mineralization, how the mineralization data should be expressed, and what model should be used, for an accurate biochar stability evaluation. In general, incubating biochar at long-term duration, modelling incubation data with double-exponential model, using C isotopic technology for CO2 evolution determination with C mineralization data express as percentage of total organic carbon mineralized, applying biochar in the field are favorable to biochar stability assessment. Other strategies such as the use of standard (reference) biochar materials may be effective to improve the assessment.
- Subjects :
- Carbon Sequestration
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Climate Change
Biomass
010501 environmental sciences
Carbon sequestration
01 natural sciences
Greenhouse Gases
Soil
Biochar
Environmental Chemistry
Charcoal
Waste Management and Disposal
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Minerals
Soil organic matter
Mineralization (soil science)
Carbon Dioxide
Pulp and paper industry
Pollution
Carbon
Models, Chemical
Greenhouse gas
visual_art
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Environmental science
Environmental Pollutants
Pyrolysis
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18791026
- Volume :
- 664
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Science of the total environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b87291e1b15f436701de9ea25b55229d