Biochar (BC) has exhibited a great potential to remove water contaminants due to its wide availability of raw materials, high surface area, developed pore structure, and low cost. However, the application of BC for water remediation has many limitations. Driven by the intense desire of overcoming unfavorable factors, a growing number of researchers have carried out to produce BC-based composite materials, which not only improved the physicochemical properties of BC, but also obtained a new composite material which combined the advantages of BC and other materials. This article reviewed previous researches on BC and BC-based composite materials, and discussed in terms of the preparation methods, the physicochemical properties, the performance of contaminant removal, and underlying adsorption mechanisms. Then the recent research progress in the removal of inorganic and organic contaminants by BC and BC-based materials was also systematically reviewed. Although BC-based composite materials have shown high performance in inorganic or organic pollutants removal, the potential risks (such as stability and biological toxicity) still need to be noticed and further study. At the end of this review, future prospects for the synthesis and application of BC and BC-based materials were proposed. This review will help the new researchers systematically understand the research progress of BC and BC-based composite materials in environmental remediation.

The adsorption properties of rice wine lees for acid red 73 in aqueous solution were studied in order to explore the recyclability of rice wine lees and to solve the pollution of dye-contaminated wastewater. Hence, the azo dye acid red 73 was selected as the model pollutant. Effects of parameters including pH, rice wine lees dosage, and initial concentration of acid red 73 on the adsorption activity were investigated to determine the optimal conditions for removal of acid red 73. The experimental results showed that acid red 73 removal by rice wine lees decreased with increasing pH and initial concentration of acid red 73 and increased with increasing rice wine lees dosage. The adsorption reaction was consistent with pseudo-first-order kinetic models, and the adsorption process was physisorption. The adsorption isotherm could be described well with the Freundlich equation, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 18.74 mg·g−1.

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The coupling use of the heterogeneous Fenton-like process (zero-valent iron (Fe0)/H2O2) and weak magnetic field (MWF) for bisphenol A (BPA) abatement was systematically investigated in this study. Though both the Fe0/H2O2 and WMF-Fe0/H2O2 processes are sensitive to pH, WMF remarkably enhanced BPA removal under the pH range of 3.0–6.0 by 0.5–9.5 times. The characterization of Fe0 confirmed the role of WMF in promoting the corrosion of Fe0. Radicals, rather than Fe intermediates, were responsible for BPA degradation. Due to the presence of Cl– as the background ions and its reactivity towards HO•, reactive chlorine species (RCS, i.e., Cl• and Cl2•−) were produced and considerably contributed to BPA degradation. In addition, ~37% and 54% of degraded BPA was ascribed to RCS in the presence of 2 and 100 mM of Cl−, respectively. However, 1.9 mg/L of ClO3− was detected in the presence of 2 mM of Cl− in the WMF- Fe0/H2O2 process. HCO3− could diminish ClO3− generation significantly through transforming RCS. The concentration of ClO3− decreased by 74% and 82% with dosing 1 and 10 mM HCO3−, respectively. The results of this study suggest that the WMF-Fe0/H2O2 process is a promising approach for BPA removal.