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Chapter

Recent Perspectives in Biochar

Production, Characterization
and Applications
Asfaw Gezae Daful, Meegalla R. Chandraratne
and Marie Loridon

Abstract

This chapter presents the most promising features and applications of biochar
along with their optimal pyrolysis conditions. Biochars have a range of physico-
chemical properties depending on the feedstock and pyrolysis conditions, which
greatly affect their wide applications. The biochar production and its characteris-
tics, including the effect of feedstocks and different process-parameters on the
properties and yield of biochar are thoroughly examined. The higher pyrolysis-
temperature can give higher carbon-contents, pH, and surface-areas of biochars
while volatiles and molar-ratios of O/C, H/C and N/C decrease with pyrolysis-
temperature. Higher carbon-content and neutral-pH biochars have high affinity for
organic pollutants due to high surface areas, making them attractive for adsorption
and catalysis purposes. Biochars with higher-pH are preferred for soil application to
correct soil-acidity. Thus, the pyrolysis temperature should be selected as per the
final application of the biochar. Characterization of biochars of different feedstocks
and pyrolysis conditions is reviewed and presented along with their proximate and
ultimate analysis.

Keywords: biochar, pyrolysis, biomass, characterization, proximate analysis,

ultimate analysis

1. Introduction

Biochar is a porous carbonaceous solid material produced by the thermal

decomposition of biomass from plant or animal waste under oxygen-free or limited
oxygen conditions [1–3]. The International Biochar Initiative [4] defines biochar as
“a solid material obtained from the thermochemical conversion of biomass in an
oxygen-limited environment”. Biochars have a wide range of physicochemical
properties [5], which greatly affect their potential applications in various agronomic
and industrial sectors. The feedstock and the method of biochar production have a
significant impact on the biochar characteristics, such as concentrations of elemen-
tal constituents, density, porosity, and pH, which collectively impact the suitability
of the biochar for various applications [3]. Biochar is used to upgrade the soil quality
[6, 7] in agricultural areas. It slows down the rate of decomposition and release of
nutrients from the soil and hence, enhances the soil quality. In various industries,
biochar is used in waste treatment [8–10] to remove organic contaminants and

1
Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

heavy metals. Biochar can be used as a fuel in power generation because it contains
a high carbon percentage in it.
Biomass is a very potential source of renewable energy [11] materials and
chemicals [12, 13]. Agricultural residues, algal biomass, forest residues, manures,
activated sludge, energy crops, digestate, etc. are the main sources of biomass [14]
to be used as a raw material. Biomass can be converted into high-value products
using various physical, thermochemical and biochemical processes. Thermochemi-
cal conversion processes, such as pyrolysis, gasification, torrefaction, and hydro-
thermal carbonization of carbonaceous biomass are used for biochar is production,
at high temperatures ranging from 300–900°C and under O2-free conditions [15].
The physicochemical and mechanical properties of biochars depend on the pyrolysis
operating conditions and feedstock used [16]. The selection of a suitable kind of
feedstock is usually determined by the availability of that material in areas where
the biochar is likely to be produced, as this reduces the cost of transport while
decreasing the carbon footprint of the biochar technology. Biochar production from
the biomass depends upon the thermochemical process used and process parame-
ters considered. The literature on the biomass pyrolysis revealed that the production
of the biochar depends upon several factors such as type of biomass, moisture
content, and particle size, reaction conditions (reaction temperature, reaction time,
heating rate) and surrounding environment (carrier gas type, flow-rate of carrier
gas) and other factors (catalyst, reactor type) [3, 6, 8, 11, 16].
The main objective of this chapter is to show the potential use of waste biomass
for the production of biochar which is an important material with numerous indus-
trial and environmental applications. The biochar characterization is presented to
understand the physical and chemical properties of biochar, including variations of
the biochar properties as a function of production conditions and feedstocks, and to
evaluate the applicability of biochar in desired fields. This chapter exhaustively
describes the possible feedstocks for biochar production, biochar production pro-
cesses particulary slow pyrolysis process, and pyrolysis process conditions, the
properties of biochar such as biochar characterization, proximate and ultimate
analysis of biochars. Some important industrial and environmental biochar applica-
tions are discussed and finally conclusion is presented.

2. Raw materials for biochar production

The main sources of raw material for biochar production include: municipal
waste, agricultural and forest residues, energy crops, and animal waste, which are
grouped as lignocellulosic and non-lignocellulosic biomasses. Lignocellulosic bio-
mass [17–19] are abundant fibrous plant parts, non-food ‘second generation’ feed-
stock, including agro-industrial residues, forest-industrial residues, energy crops,
municipal solid waste, etc. Chemically, biomass is a complex composition of carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and small quantities of few other elements
which include alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and heavy metals, depending
upon the species or type of biomass. The proportion of these elements in the
biomass is a function of species of biomass, growing condition, and geographical
situation of the region [20]. Lignocellulosic biomass is mainly composed of cellulose
(38–50%), hemicelluloses (23–32%), lignin (15–25%) and small amounts of extrac-
tives [3, 16, 21, 22]. Among these components, cellulose and hemicelluloses are
linear and chain polysaccharides respectively, while lignin is a cross-linked phenolic
polymer. Biomass with varying contents of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin may
yield biochars with distinctive physicochemical properties. The abundant biomass
reserves and its renewability have been the main driving forces for research and

2
Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788

utilization of biomass. Thus, such agricultural and animal waste disposal can be
reduced and converted into value-added products such as biochars using pyrolysis
processes. A review by Li and Jiang presented on non-lignocellulosic biomass char-
acteristics, thermochemical behaviors of main components (e.g., C, O, N, P, and
metals), characterization methods, conversion process, and the main applications of
non-lignocellulosic biochar [23]. Song and Guo studied the quality variations of
poultry litter biochar generated at different pyrolysis temperatures [24]. Unlike
lignocellulosic biomass, the non-lignocellulosic biomass has a greater threat to the
ecological environment because of its higher contents of heavy metals and hetero-
atom like nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur [25], which may dissolve in a water systems,
leading to water pollution and accumulation in the food chains [26].
Poultry litter (PL), a solid waste resulting from chicken rearing, is being
explored as a feedstock for biochar production and examined the effect of pyrolysis
temperature on the quality PL biochar and identify the optimal pyrolysis tempera-
ture for converting PL to agricultural-use biochar [24]. Physically, PL is a mixture
of bedding materials (e.g., wood shavings, sawdust, and peanut hull), bird excreta,
feather, feed spills, and chemical treatments like alum and sodium bisulphate.
Through pyrolysis, PL can be readily transformed into biochar [24].

3. Biochar production processes

Biomass-derived biochar production is formed via a complex process, but the

reaction mechanism of biomass pyrolysis can be described as occurring mainly
through three general steps, as depicted in Eq. (1):

heat
Biomass ! Moisture þ Dryresidues
heat
Dryresidues ! Volatile&Gases þ Pre biochar (1)
heat
Pre biochar ! Volatile&Gases þ Biochar

The first step is the removal of available moisture from the biomass, which
becomes dry feedstock by heating. Then pre-biochar and volatile compounds are
formed. In the last step, chemical compounds in the pre-biochar rearrange and form
a carbon-rich solid product known as biochar. Major thermochemical technologies
for biochar production include pyrolysis, gasification, torrefaction, and hydrother-
mal carbonization. Pyrolysis is one of the thermochemical technologies for
converting biomass into energy and chemical products consisting of liquid bio-oil,
solid biochar, and pyrolytic gas [3, 11, 20, 27–29]. Depending on the heating rate,
pyrolysis temperature, and residence time, biomass pyrolysis can be divided into
slow, intermediate, fast and flash pyrolysis mainly aiming at maximizing either the
bio-oil or biochar yields. Operating conditions of various pyrolysis processes and
product distribution (biochar, bio-oil, and gas). Thus, biochar yield greatly depends
on the type of pyrolysis used. Slow pyrolysis conducted at longer residence time and
at a moderate temperature (350–550°C) in the absence of O2 results in a higher yield
of biochar (30%) than the fast pyrolysis (12%) or gasification (10%) [3, 11,
27, 28]. Pyrolysis requires relatively dry feedstock (usually moisture content < 30
wt %, but moisture contents of ≤ 10 wt % are preferred), and grinded to different
particle sizes based on the type of pyrolysis. Feedstock with high moisture content
consumes more energy accounting for increasing heat of vaporization during the
heating of biomass towards the pyrolysis temperature. Additionally, the gases and
vapors produced in pyrolysis using a high moisture feedstock are diluted with steam

3
4

Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

Ref. Pyrolysis Pyrolysis Characteristics Proximate analysis (%) Ultimate analysis (%) Molar ratio
Temp. Time
[C]

min pH 2
Moisture Volatiles Fixed Ash C H O S N Ca Mg K Na H O ðOþN Þ ðOþNþSÞ
BET mg C C C C
(%) carbon

[1] Date RM 5.90 0.98 6.20 69.90 20.90 2.90 45.40 5.60 40.40 5.50 0.00 1.47 0.67 0.67 0.71

400 11 hr 9.50 1.99 4.80 43.20 45.00 7.10 60.90 2.50 25.60 2.20 1.20 0.49 0.32 0.33 0.35

Rhode RM 6.10 1.97 7.80 66.50 11.00 14.70 2.50 5.50 28.70 5.30 1.90 1.54 0.51 0.55 0.59

grass 400 11 hr 9.70 16.78 1.80 11.80 56.60 28.80 56.70 2.20 8.20 1.60 1.90 0.46 0.11 0.14 0.15

[31] Date RM 7.60 70.59 22.30 7.11 43.19 5.83 39.00 4.16 0.70 2.53 0.68 1.32 0.28 1.61 0.68 0.69 0.73
palm
300 240 3.29 40.08 45.49 14.42 57.99 4.08 20.82 2.14 0.54 4.85 1.53 2.18 0.40 0.84 0.27 0.28 0.29
waste
400 3.13 20.25 63.41 16.34 66.87 3.54 11.44 1.36 0.45 6.04 1.57 2.17 0.42 0.63 0.13 0.13 0.14

500 2.96 9.31 71.00 19.68 72.30 2.11 4.50 1.02 0.42 5.81 1.93 2.23 0.48 0.35 0.05 0.05 0.06

600 2.25 6.85 72.44 20.71 72.89 1.74 3.28 0.98 0.39 7.77 1.90 2.38 0.53 0.28 0.03 0.04 0.04

700 2.12 5.47 73.49 21.05 73.42 1.14 3.19 0.85 0.35 7.65 1.92 2.69 0.50 0.19 0.03 0.04 0.04

800 2.09 3.91 74.70 21.39 74.63 0.86 2.27 0.54 0.31 8.08 2.02 2.71 0.58 0.14 0.02 0.03 0.03

[32] Bagasse 500 9.30 202.00 1.30 9.17 80.97 8.57 85.59 2.82 10.48 1.11 0.16 0.04 0.26 0.03

Cocopeat 500 10.20 13.70 2.55 14.30 67.25 15.90 84.44 2.88 11.67 1.02 0.27 0.06 2.30 1.37

Wood stem 500 9.50 316.00 1.46 12.79 83.47 2.28 89.31 2.57 7.34 0.78 0.17 0.02 0.20 0.01

Wood bark 500 9.60 13.60 0.36 18.14 68.66 12.84 84.84 3.13 10.20 1.83 1.97 0.11 0.65 0.00

[33] rice husk RM 6.40 8.50 63.78 14.73 12.99 31.39 3.39 43.40 0.35

300 60 5.30 1.52 45.49 30.80 22.19 47.15 4.52 23.98 0.65

400 90 7.70 3.92 16.54 48.60 30.94 54.33 2.06 8.11 0.64
5

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788
Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
Ref. Pyrolysis Pyrolysis Characteristics Proximate analysis (%) Ultimate analysis (%) Molar ratio
Temp. Time
[C]

500 120 8.30 2.16 7.44 60.10 30.30 57.35 1.48 8.08 0.63

300 120 4.20 4.18 46.67 31.87 17.29 46.16 4.51 27.19 0.68

400 60 5.70 3.24 22.18 45.89 28.70 52.13 2.67 12.64 0.63

500 90 7.40 2.35 12.38 53.81 31.46 58.41 1.75 5.27 0.77

300 90 4.10 3.59 43.10 30.64 22.67 46.14 3.83 23.33 0.44

400 120 7.20 2.52 16.97 49.49 31.02 54.56 2.25 9.16 0.50

500 60 8.80 1.61 8.58 57.43 32.38 56.28 1.36 7.74 0.63

[27] Geodae 300 0.49 53.34 66.19

Uksae 1
400 3.11 73.89 74.69

450 21.93 78.48 78.29

500 180.96 82.59 79.42

600 293.04 88.07 83.67

700 368.98 91.66 85.93

[34] Rice straw 300 9.00 4.50 34.54 28.06 37.40 68.72 5.22 22.78 3.28

400 10.10 21.20 18.75 35.39 45.86 75.47 4.62 16.93 2.98

500 10.50 45.80 10.61 38.72 50.67 81.43 2.34 15.13 1.10

600 10.60 84.80 6.89 39.87 53.24 87.52 2.11 7.48 2.89

700 10.60 22.50 5.88 39.52 54.60 91.15 1.26 7.01 0.58

[35] Bamboo RM 9.37 70.31 17.75 2.57 39.00 6.10 54.00 0.02 0.60
biomass
500 60 6.50 8.10 81.50 3.90 82.10 2.72 14.60 0.00 0.54
6

Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

Ref. Pyrolysis Pyrolysis Characteristics Proximate analysis (%) Ultimate analysis (%) Molar ratio
Temp. Time
[C]

[28] beech wood RM 0.19 48.45 6.12 45.08 0.02 0.15

feedstock
470 79.58 3.60 16.57 0.25

520 85.04 3.81 10.79 0.37

570 91.45 3.05 16.82 0.11

[17] Pea pod 39.32 4.75 53.3 2.4

Cauliflower 31.8 3.2 59.4 4.01

leaves

Orange peel 40.43 4.83 52.9 1.56

[36] LWB1 RM 7.41 83.82 12.48 8.25 49.31 5.61 39.88 0.62 0.56

800 0.40 13.00 73.36 13.64 75.80 2.43 7.15 0.30 0.68

[37] hinoki RM 84.75 15.09 0.16 51.88 6.21 41.76 0.16

cypress
350 7.95 41.17 58.52 0.32 75.74 5.29 18.75 0.22

400 8.24 33.45 66.10 0.45 77.85 4.90 17.06 0.20

500 8.48 21.26 78.06 0.69 85.79 3.89 10.10 0.23

600 9.66 12.45 86.73 0.83 91.56 2.96 5.11 0.38

[38] chichi 350 9.70 336.90 11.10 52.00 31.20 1.97 10.90 0.31 0.76 0.26
manure
450 10.20 30.60 14.10 53.30 27.20 1.92 11.40 0.44 0.85 0.31

750 11.70 26.50 17.00 56.40 24.70 0.67 16.30 0.29 0.32 0.49

[39] corrugated RM 1.50 13.10 4.00 43.24 5.80 0.12

cardboard
350 1.20 17.20 5.00 46.84 5.70 0.11

400 1.60 27.80 5.20 51.33 4.80 0.16

450 1.60 41.80 12.30 54.17 3.70 0.18

7

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788
Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
Ref. Pyrolysis Pyrolysis Characteristics Proximate analysis (%) Ultimate analysis (%) Molar ratio
Temp. Time
[C]

[40] wood 300 10 4.50 78.00 22.00 0.30 54.10 5.90 1.30

60 5.70 6.0 42.60 57.40 0.50 71.30 4.70 0.79

450 10 6.60 4.0 21.40 78.60 1.00 82.50 3.80 0.56

60 6.70 23.0 16.80 83.20 1.20 86.30 3.50 0.49

600 10 6.70 196.0 8.20 91.80 1.20 90.00 2.60 0.35

60 9.10 127.0 6.40 93.60 1.30 92.30 2.30 0.30

750 10 10.20 128.0 2.60 97.40 1.10 92.50 1.40 0.19

60 10.40 2.60 97.40 1.10 92.50 1.10 0.15

green waste 300 10 7.4 74.3 25.7 3.6 53.2 6.2 1.41

60 8.1 48.6 51.4 6.8 69.3 5.4 0.94

450 10 9.6 25.3 74.7 11.1 78.8 4.2 0.63

60 10.0 17.0 18.5 81.5 12.0 82.9 3.5 0.51

600 10 10.4 11.5 88.5 13.2 87.7 2.3 0.32

60 11.3 46.0 8.8 91.2 13.4 88.4 2.0 0.27

750 10 11.4 3.5 96.5 13.9 87.5 1.5 0.21

60 11.6 1.9 98.1 13.4 93.2 1.3 0.16

dry algae 300 10 4.9 70.0 30.0 46.3 62.7 7.2 1.38

60 7.7 55.2 44.8 55.8 69.5 6.9 1.19

450 10 9.1 27.5 72.5 68.6 74.5 4.5 0.72

60 9.3 14.0 19.1 80.9 71.8 78.7 4.0 0.61

600 10 11.1 18.9 81.1 72.2 80.1 2.7 0.41

60 11.9 19.0 15.7 84.3 73.0 83.4 2.0 0.29

8

Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

Ref. Pyrolysis Pyrolysis Characteristics Proximate analysis (%) Ultimate analysis (%) Molar ratio
Temp. Time
[C]

750 10 12.4 10.1 89.9 74.8 86.4 1.5 0.21

60 12.5 3.9 96.1 76.4 90.6 1.4 0.19

1
lignocellulosic waste biomass
RM: raw materal and BET: Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, surface area analysis.

Table 1.
Characterization of raw biomass samples and biochar produced: Values for proximate and ultimate analysis.
Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788

and have a lower calorific value. Wet biomass, typically with 70 wt% or more water
can be converted using hydrothermal carbonization processes. The common pro-
cesses [11, 27, 28] include slow and fast pyrolysis, and the most successful approach
for high-yield biochar production is via slow pyrolysis [3].
Slow pyrolysis is a conventional type of pyrolysis which is operated at moderate
temperatures ranging from 300–550°C, slow heating rates of 0:1 °C °C
s up to 0:8 s , and
longer residence time of 5 to 30 min or even 25 to 35 h [3, 30] conducted at atmo-
spheric pressure. Slow pyrolysis is commonly used to produce biochar, with bio-oil
and syngas as co-products. The typical yields of biochar, bio-oil, and syngas are 35%,
30%, and 35% of the dry biomass feedstock, respectively [3, 24] by slow pyrolysis.
The main purpose conducting of slow pyrolysis is to maximize the biochar yield. The
longer vapor residence times in slow pyrolsis favors the secondary reactions. Biochar
produced in slow pyrolysis consists of both primary and secondary chars. The slow
heating rate with moderate pyrolysis temperatures also promotes the production of
biochar. Biochar yield usually depends on the raw material type & properties, and
pyrolysis conditions such as processing temperature, heating rate, and pyrolysis
environment [30]. The final biochar yields are decreased by increasing the process
temperature because more volatiles are produced from tars at higher temperatures,
leading to the production of more gases and bio-oils. Biomass containing more min-
erals yields less biochar [3]. The overall slow pyrolysis process can generally be
exothermic due to the extensive occurrence of secondary reactions. Slow pyrolysis
can accept a wide range of particle sizes (5–50 mm).
Pyrolysis of biomass also produces syngas and bio-oil as co-products together
with biochar. The fraction of each that is produced depends on the pyrolysis pro-
cess, but slow heating rates are recommended when biochar is the main product
desired. Furthermore, pyrolysis temperatures above 250°C are recommended for
the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass because decomposition of hemicellulose
and cellulose begins at 250°C and is maximal at around 400°C, whereas changes in
lignin structure only start to occur after heating for long durations or higher tem-
perature pyrolysis reactors. The pyrolysis conditions used for biochar productions
are related to the type of biomass and biochar quality required. Variation of these
reaction parameters finally results in a variety of physicochemical properties of the
biochars and affects their final application types and performances. Thus several
studies have been conducted to determine the suitable raw material and optimal
pyrolysis condition. The challenge is to be able to predict the quality and perfor-
mance of biochars produced from given biomass and a given pyrolysis process via
analysis of its physicochemical properties. Thus, to produce the right type of
biochar for specific applications from certain lignocellulosic biomass, elemental
composition of different biomass resources and produced biochars need to be mea-
sured. A summary of proximate analysis and ultimate analysis along with elemental
composition of different raw materials for biochar production are shown in Table 1.
Conversion of raw biomass to biochars resulted in higher contents of fixed carbon
and ash, and lower contents of moisture and volatiles. Fixed Carbon (FC) of biochar
was calculated as the sum of moisture, ash, and volatile matter subtracted from 100,
(FCð%Þ ¼ 100 moistureð%Þ ashð%Þ VMð%Þ) [41].

4. Biochar quality

The quality of biochar varies with feedstock used and production conditions.
Some of the commonly measured quality parameters of biochar include pH, volatile
compound content, ash content, bulk density, organic carbon content, nutrient
content, elemental composition, surface area, porosity, surface functional groups,

9
Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

cation exchange capacity, iodine number, C stability, water holding capacity

(WHC), moisture content, heavy metals, electrical conductivity, polycyclic aro-
matic hydrocarbons (PAH) and sorption properties. The European Biochar
Certificate [42] defines biochar as a “heterogeneous substance rich in aromatic
carbon and minerals. It is produced by pyrolysis of sustainably-obtained biomass
under controlled conditions with clean technology and is used for any purpose that
does not involve its rapid mineralisation to carbon dioxide and may eventually
become a soil amendment.” This definition differentiates biochar from other forms
of carbonaceous materials such as char and charcoal considering the sources of
biomass for the production of biochar need to be renewable and sustainable [3].
The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) [4] considers several parameters
relevant for assessing and comparing different biochars. These include proximate
analysis, elemental composition analysis, pH, porosity, and BET surface area. In
this study, proximate analysis and ultimate analysis of biochars produced from
different feedstock under different pyrolysis reaction conditions are presented
along with other biochar characteristics and component molar ratios of its
constituent elements.
The major constituent components of lignocellulosic biomass [43], cellulose,
hemicellulose, and lignin play important roles for most of the physical and chemical
property modifications during the pyrolysis process. The mechanisms of pyrolysis
of these polymers are chemically different from biomass species to species due to
the differences in their compositions. The thermal decompositions of cellulose and
hemicellulose polymers occur over a narrower temperature range whereas lignin
degrades over a wider temperature range compared to those of cellulose and hemi-
cellulose. The lignocellulosic biomass may contain some minor components other
than the aforementioned polymers including some inorganic compounds and
organic extractives together with substantial quantities of free and bound water
[3, 31, 37, 44]. The inorganic compounds of lignocellulosic biomass which consti-
tute less than 10% by weight of biomass, form ash in the pyrolysis process. The
organic extractives of biomass refer to the nonstructural components that can be
extracted by polar or nonpolar solvents including fats, waxes, proteins, terpenes,
simple sugars, gums, resins, starches, alkaloids, phenolics, pectins, glycosides,
mucilages, saponins, and essential oils [23, 31, 37, 44].
The biochar properties that could affect its final application will depend on the
type of feedstock material characteristics and pyrolysis reaction conditions used for
its production [3]. Pyrolysis temperature is the main process parameter that deter-
mines the degree of devolatilisation of the biomass. Water content of the biomass,
both free and bound, is the first constituent removed in heating of biomass to
temperatures up to 160°C. Thermal decomposition of biomass begins with
devolatilisation or decomposition of extractives at temperatures about ≤ 220°C.
Hemicellulose is the least stable polymer and break down first at temperatures of
220–315°C. Cellulose has a high degree of polymerization and exhibits higher ther-
mal stability and it decomposes in the temperature range 315–400°C. Lignin is the
most difficult component to pyrolyse which decomposes in a wide temperature
range from 160–900°C [45].
Biochar characterization methods are always independent of production feed-
stocks, methods, conditions, and properties of the final product [27]. Several
chemical characterizations of biochar ranging from biochar surface analysis to
elemental composition and physical properties such as the surface area, pore size,
and pore volume are commonly analyzed. The quality of biochar varies with the
feedstock type and pyrolysis process conditions. Pyrolysis parameters such as
heating rate, residence time, and final temperature greatly influence biochar
quality [11]. Pyrolysis temperature has a critical role in biochar properties such as

10
Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788

elemental composition, particle size, specific surface area, pore size distribution,
thermal capacity, and electrical conductivity.
Certain biochar quality parameters are more important than others depending
on the expected final use or application of the biochar. For agricultural application
in crop production, the important quality parameters of biochar include pH, volatile
compound content, ash content, water holding capacity, bulk density, pore volume,
and specific surface area [24]. Carbon stability of biochar is a critical quality
parameter in carbon sequestration and soil fertility enhancement. The other impor-
tant quality parameters in soil fertility enhancement include surface area and nutri-
ent content. The molar ratio of hydrogen to carbon (H/C) is another important
characterization parameter of biochar which is an indicator of the degree of car-
bonization and the stability of biochar. The higher values of molar H/C ratio greater
than 0.7 indicate the lower biochar quality and pyrolysis deficiencies. Molar oxygen
to carbon (O/C) ratio is also relevant for characterizing biochar and differentiating
it from other carbonization products [42] with values greater than 0.4 indicating
lower biochar stability. Literatures show that the molar H/C and O/C ratios of
lignocellulosic biomass are approximately 1.5 and 0.7, respectively. During pyroly-
sis, the biomass undergoes devolatilization and the solid portion gets enriched in
carbon. The H and O are preferably removed over C and the H/C and O/C ratios
tend to decrease as biomass undergoes its transformation into biochar. The H/C and
O/C ratios are used to assess the degree of aromaticity and maturation [46]. The
characterization of biochar produced from different feedstock and their feedstock
are discussed in the next section.

5. Biochar characterization

A summary of the characterization of raw biomass samples and their biochars

produced at different temperatures and other pyrolysis reaction conditions along
with their values for proximate and ultimate analysis is shown in Table 1. The
carbon and ash contents of biochar increase on increasing pyrolysis temperature
while the contents of volatiles decrease with temperature [1, 37]. Pyrolysis temper-
ature influences the structure of biochar due to the release of volatiles, thus
increasing the pyrolysis temperature leads to a decreased content of volatile matter.
This was observed because the increasing temperature resulted in further cracking
of the volatile fractions into low molecular weight liquids and gases instead of
biochar [1, 31, 34, 37, 40]. The fixed carbon and elemental carbon content of
biochar increase with increasing the pyrolysis temperature, as depicted in Table 1.
Lee et al. [27] studied characteristics of biochar produced from slow pyrolysis of
Geodae-Uksae and showed the increment of the carbon content of biochar at higher
temperatures. The increase in elemental carbon content of biochar at higher pyrol-
ysis temperature implies that the biochar became increasingly carbonaceous at high
temperatures, releasing hydrogen and oxygen contents. A similar trend, an increase
of carbon content with pyrolysis temperature, is obtained for different raw mate-
rials, date palm waste [31], rice husk [33], rice straw [34], beechwood feedstock
[28], hinoki cypress [37], corrugated cardboard [39], chicken manure, Coffee husk,
and sugarcane bagasse [38], pinewood, wheat straw, green waste and dry algae
[40]. As one of the purposes of biochar production is to improve carbon contents in
soil, thus, the high carbon content of biochar is beneficial in terms of maximizing
the amount of carbon storage. Higher temperature pyrolysis is preferred for biochar
production if the biochar application is to improve soil fertility. Several studies
indicate that the yield of biochar is highly dependent on the pyrolysis conditions
such as temperature, heating rate and heating time and is also greatly influenced by

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Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

chemical, physical and biological properties of the biomass. Table 1 shows that the
temperature of pyrolysis plays an important role in the yields of the characteristic
properties of biochar. The physicochemical properties of biochars depend not only
on the nature of the starting biomass but also, to a very large extent, on the
condition of preparation. Pyrolysis at lower temperatures would result in a large
amount of biochar, indicating at high temperature large part of the biomass is lost as
volatile matters.
The proximate analysis of biochar produced at different temperatures shows the
fixed carbon and ash contents increase on increasing pyrolysis temperature, while
the volatile contents decrease with temperature. The proximate analysis of date
palm waste driven biochar [31] shows that the fixed carbon and ash contents
increase from 45.49% to 74.7% and 14.42% to 21.39%, respectively while volatile
contents decrease from 40.08% to 3.91% on increasing pyrolysis reaction tempera-
tures from 300–800°C. Park et al. [34] reported the proximate analysis of biochar
produced from rice straw at different temperatures ranging from 300C to 700. The
volatile contents decrease from 34.54% to 5.88% upon increasing the aforemen-
tioned temperature range, while the fixed carbon and ash contents increase from
28.06% to 39.52% and 37.4% to 54.6%, respectively. A similar trend is also observed
by different authors [27, 32, 33, 37, 40] using different raw material and different
pyrolysis temperatures.
The ultimate analysis indicates that pyrolysis temperature is the most influential
parameter to determine the elemental composition of biochar samples as shown in
Table 1. It is observed that carbon content of date palm waste driven biochar [31]
increases from 57.99% to 74.63% on increasing pyrolysis temperature from 300–
800°C. On the other hand Oxygen and Hydrogen contents decrease from 20.8% to
2.27% and 4.08% to 0.86%, respectively for the same pyrolysis temperature
increase. Similarly, the ultimate analysis for metallic contents of Ca, Mg, K, and Na
increase from 2.53% to 8.08%, from 0.68% to 2.02%, from 1.32% to 2.71% and from
0.28% to 0.58%, respectively for the same increment of pyrolysis temperature.
Vieira et. el. [33] also reported the trend of increasing the carbon contents from
47.15–56%, from 46.14% to 58.4% and from 46.16% to 57.35% on increasing tem-
perature from 300–500°C for pyrolysis reaction times of 60 min, 90 min and
120 min respectively, for biochar produced from rice husk. Moreover, a decrease of
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen contents of the biochar is observed on increasing
the pyrolysis temperature. Lee et al. [27] showed the increment of the carbon
content from 66.19% to 85.93% on increasing temperature from 300–700°C, for
biochars produced from Geodae-Uksae 1. Several other researchers also reported
the increment of carbon content and decrement of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen
contents with temperature for biochars produced from rice straw [34], beech wood
[28], and hinoki cypress [37].
The molar ratios of Hydrogen, Oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur to carbon are
observed to decrease with temperature, as more volatile components are removed
at higher temperatures making the biochar rich in carbon [31, 38].
pH of biochar is a guiding parameter to define the application of biochar as fuel
or as soil fertility enhancing chemical and is correlated with the formation of
carbonates and the contents of inorganic alkalis. Biochar is used in the soil as an
acidity-correcting agent [47], so it is recommended that the pH conditions of the
biochar should be basic because it can replace CaO due to such features. Soil acidity
neutralization provides the most favorable conditions for microorganism prolifera-
tion and soil fertilization [9, 48]. Thus, the pH of biochar has been associated with
having a liming effect on soil acidity, thus increasing the soil pH following the
addition of biochar. Biochar can also be used as fuel, the use of acid biochar as fuel
can lead to corrosion in the combustion equipment. Biochar having basic pH can

12
Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788

cause fouling due to its mineral composition and, consequently, higher ash content
than the raw biomass feed. Moreover, the pH of the biochar directly impacts the
adsorption process when the carbon is used in filtration process. Therefore, a
neutral pH is generally preferred [49]. Most of biochar products have alkaline pH.
Some studies have indicated that ash content of feedstock in conjunction with
pyrolysis severity could influence the final pH of biochar samples suggested that a
large proportion of the ash in high-ash feedstock contains carbonates which could
cause a liming effect [15]. The pH values of biochars produced from rice husk [33] is
observed to increase with temperature, ranging from 5.3 to 8.8 for temperature
range from 300–500°C with a reaction time of 60 min, and from 4.2 to 8.3 for the
same temperature range with a reaction time of 120 min. Yu et al. [37] reported the
pH of biochars produced from hinoki cypress at temperatures ranging from
350–600°C and their pH increases from 7.95 to 9.66. Similarly, Domingues et al.
[38] reported the pH of biochars produced from chicken manure at temperatures
ranging from 350–750°C and their pH increases from 9.70 to 11.7. The pH of biochar
produced from different feedstock is observed to increase with temperature [40].
Thus, biochar with desirable properties can be deduced from both its proximate
and ultimate analysis. The lower the O/C and H/C ratios, the higher is the loss of
oxygen and hydrogen during the combustion process producing a product richer in
higher elemental carbon. The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) recommends a
maximum value of 0.7 for the molar H/C ratio [17] to distinguish biochar from
biomass that has not been or only somewhat thermochemically altered. Thus suit-
able working conditions and technologies must be selected in order to produce
biochar of high quality. The pH of biochar from different biomass is around 10 and
2
the microscopic surface structure of biochars ranges from around 3 mg for rice husk
2
biochar to around 500 mg for biochar from wood [20]. Biochar produced from
different feedstock showed in increasing surface areas on increasing pyrolysis tem-
perature [27, 34, 39].

6. Biochar applications

Biochar is considered as a multifunctional material related to carbon sequestra-

tion, contaminant immobilization by adsorption, greenhouse gas reduction, soil
fertilization, and waste-water and industrial effluent treatments. Biochar is widely
used in heat and power generation, in soil fertility enhancement to improve the
physical properties of soil, especially in soils with bad soil structure or high bulk
density [3, 47, 50], in adsorption and filtration processes in different industrial
effluent treatments [3] and in catalysis or as a catalyst support [51].
Biochar is an economical adsorbent [10] removing various organic contaminants
such as agrochemicals, antibiotics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
polychlorinated biphenyls, volatile organic compounds, and various inorganic con-
taminants like heavy metals, ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, sulfide, etc. The high
adsorption capacity, high specific surface area, microporosity, and ion exchange
capacity of biochar are important characteristics for its applications. The feedstock
types and pyrolysis conditions used during the biochar production greatly change
its physicochemical properties such as surface area, polarity, atomic ratio, elemental
composition and pH, giving the overall surface property of the biochar [8, 9]. These
varieties in biochar qualities have significant implications on its suitability and
efficacy in the remediation of targeted pollutants. Applications of biochar in soil
improves the physicochemical and biological properties of the soils [5], which
contribute to soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction.

13
Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

Biochar produced at low temperatures may be suitable for controlling fertilizer

nutrients release, while high temperatures would yield material similar to activated
carbon [52]. Because of the high aromaticity, the carbon in biochar is highly recal-
citrant in soils with very long residence times. Thus, biochar incorporated in soil
represents a potential terrestrial carbon sink and also a means of mitigating CO2
emissions. In addition, biochar has a significant potential to mitigate greenhouse gas
emissions from agriculture, both by storing carbon in soils and through mitigating
N2O emissions [48]. Furthermore, biochar can reduce the amount of fertilizer
required and the emission of N2O and CH4 from the soil, thus the amount of carbon
emissions prevented by biochar can be significant [27, 34]. Biochar application
significantly reduced the leaching of applied N fertilizers. Biochar would not only
enhance soil fertility but also sequester carbon from the atmosphere further
research findings revealed that biochar has an affinity for organic compounds and
may sorb toxic by-products from the wastewater treatment process. DAP (di-
ammonia phosphate)-based fertilizer is used and studies have shown a large pro-
portion ( > 85%) of N applied as NH4+, N was lost through NH3 volatilization
within one week after application [53]. Therefore biochar application can increase
nutrient retention capacity and N use efficiency [48, 54, 55]. Several researchers
demonstrated the benefits of biochar for soil, for example, wood biochar applied
into a Colombian savanna Oxisol increased available Ca and Mg concentrations and
pH, and reduced toxicity of Al [56, 57], moreover, biochar improved soil structure
[58], created a carbon sink in soil [59], and reduced CH4 emissions [60].
In addition to being used as a soil conditioner and carbon sequestration regent,
biochar has attracted much attention in wastewater treatment fields. Recent works
of literature show biochar as a highly efficient, environmentally friendly, and low-
cost adsorbent [61–63]. Biochar characteristic or quality plays a critical role in
contaminant removal, which is usually governed by pyrolysis temperature and
feedstock type. Fully carbonized biochar produced at a higher pyrolysis tempera-
ture ( > 500 °C) has higher affinity for organic contaminants due to high surface
area [20], microporosity, hydrophobicity carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio [17, 31,
38], and pH [9, 15, 33, 37, 38, 40]. Partially carbonized biochars that are produced at
lower pyrolysis temperatures have higher content of O-bearing functional groups
like hydroxyl and carboxyl compounds and lower porosity making them more
appropriate for removal of inorganic pollutants [9].
Biochar is used as an electrode as well for various electrochemical devices,
including lithium-ion and Li-S batteries [64], supercapacitors [65], and microbial
fuel cells [66], etc. Such biochar, namely activated biochar, are found to ne more
sustainable than their fuel-based counterparts owing to its high surface area and
porosity, efficient electrical and thermal conductivity, high stability, low economi-
cal cost, and availability [66, 67].
The unique chemical structure of biochar with a large surface area and tailored
surface functional groups can be easily prepared by activation or functionalization
and shows great potential to be used as a versatile catalyst or catalyst support in
many chemical processes [51, 68–70].

7. Conclusion

Biochar is considered as a multifunctional material related to carbon sequestra-

tion, contaminant immobilization by adsorption, greenhouse gas reduction, soil
fertilization, and waste-water and industrial effluent treatments. The most promis-
ing feature of biochar is the fact that it represents a low cost and sustainable
products with a spectrum of applications. Biochars have a tremendous range of

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Recent Perspectives in Biochar Production, Characterization and Applications
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99788

physical and chemical properties, which greatly affect their wide applications. The
feedstock and the method by which the biochar is produced has a significant impact
on biochar characteristics, including concentrations of elemental constituents, den-
sity, porosity, and pH, which collectively impact the suitability of the biochar for
various applications. This chapter examines in detail the production and character-
istics of biochar resulting from slow pyrolysis process, including the effect of feed-
stock type and different pyrolysis process parameters on the properties and yield of
biochar has been thoroughly studied. The selection of a specific type of feedstock is
to a great extent determined by its in a place where the biochar is likely to be
produced, as this reduces the cost of transport while decreasing the carbon footprint
of the biochar technology. The pyrolysis temperature affects the biochar quality,
higher carbon contents of biochars can be obtained at higher temperature while
volatiles and molar ratios of O/C, H/C and N/C decrease with pyrolysis tempera-
ture. Biochars of higher carbon contents are preferable for most applications.
Biochars produced at low pyrolysis temperature are suitable for controlling fertil-
izer nutrients release, while high temperatures would yield material similar to
activated carbon. The pH of biochar is also another important parameter that
determines its application. More basic, higher pH, biochar is preferred for soil
application usually to correct soil acidity. Neutral pH biochar is also most preferable
for adsorption processes for the removal of pollutants and contaminants from
industrial effluents. Biochars produced at higher pyrolysis temperature have high
affinity for organic pollutants due to high surface areas. In addition, neutral pH
biochar is used as energy sources because acidic biochars cause corrosion and basic
biochars cause fouling problems. Thus, the pyrolysis temperature should be selected
as per the final application of the biochar.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Higher Colleges Technology office of
Applied Research for financial support.

Author details

Asfaw Gezae Daful*, Meegalla R. Chandraratne and Marie Loridon

Department of Chemical Engineering, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]; [email protected]

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

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Recent Perspectives in Pyrolysis Research

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