Fast field cycling NMR relaxometry characterization of biochars obtained from an industrial thermochemical process

Pasquale, Claudio De; Marsala, Valentina; Berns, Anne E.; Valagussa, M.; Pozzi, Alessandro; Alonzo, G.; Conte, Pellegrino

doi:10.1007/s11368-012-0489-x

Cited by 50 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Some studies (Rondon et al, 2007;Van Zwieten et al, 2008) attributed the positive plant response to the effects of biochar on nutrients availability as well as to its capacity to increase or maintain the pH of soil, through liming. Changes in soil porosity and size aggregate distribution following biochar applications promote soil structure modifications, leading also to ameliorations of many other chemical-physical properties such as electrical conductivity (EC), CEC, pH, and water holding capacity (De Pasquale et al, 2012;Ouyang et al, 2013) that have a fundamental role in the standardization of substrate for greenhouse crops. Up to now several researches on biochar agricultural use have been focused on its application on soil, few studies were conducted in containers (Altland & Locke, 2013;Vaughn et al, 2013;Street et al, 2014;Zaccheo et al, 2014), even less regarded its utilization as growing substrate for ornamental potted plants (Tian et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2014).…”

Section: Greenhouse Facilities and Plant Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of biochar as peat substitute for growing substrates of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants

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Pasquale

Fascella³

et al. 2017

Span. j. agric. res.

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Biochar from conifers wood was used in soilless culture as growing substrate alternative to peat for ornamental crops. Potted plants of Euphorbia × lomi Rauh cv. ‘Ilaria’ were grown with different mixtures (v:v) of brown peat and biochar in order to evaluate main physical and chemical characteristics of this biomaterial as well as its effect on plant growth, ornamental characteristics and nutrients uptake. Biochar addition to peat increased pH, EC and K content of the growing substrates, as well as air content and bulk density. Biochar content of substrates significantly affected plant growth and biomass partitioning: higher number of shoots and leaves, leaf area and leaf dry weight were recorded in plants grown in 40% peat-60% biochar, with respect to plants grown in 100% peat and secondarily in 100% biochar. Leaf chlorophyll content was higher in plants grown in 60% and 80% biochar, while biomass water use efficiency was higher with 60% biochar. Plant uptake of K and Ca increased as biochar content of the substrates increased. Hence, a growing substrate containing 40% brown peat and 60% conifers wood biochar was identified as the more suitable mixture allowing to have a high-quality production of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants.

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Section: Greenhouse Facilities and Plant Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of biochar as peat substitute for growing substrates of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants

Dispenza

Pasquale

Fascella³

et al. 2017

Span. j. agric. res.

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“…Biochar is an organic-carbon-based material obtained as by-product of the bio-energy industry (De Pasquale et al 2012). It is a highly porous fine grained substance, whose appearance is similar to that of the coal produced by natural burning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As an example, biochar additions promote crop production through the increase of nutrient availability (Chan et al 2007;Warnock et al 2007). Moreover, changes in soil porosity and size aggregate distribution following biochar applications that promote soil structure modifications, thereby leading also to ameliorations of many other chemical-physical soil properties such as electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, pH and water holding capacity (Karhu et al 2011;De Pasquale et al 2012;Ouyang et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure alteration of a sandy-clay soil by biochar amendments

et al. 2014

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Purpose The aim of the present study was to investigate structure alterations of a sandy-clay soil upon addition of different amounts of biochar (f bc ). Materials and methods All the f bc samples were analyzed by high energy moisture characteristic (HEMC) technique and 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry. HEMC was applied in order to evaluate aggregate stability of biocharamended soil samples. 1 H NMR relaxometry experiments were conducted for the evaluation of the pore distributions through the investigation of water dynamics of the same samples.Results and discussion The HEMC technique revealed improvement in aggregate stability through measurements of the amount of drainable pores and the stability ratio. The latter increased as the amount of biochar was raised up. The 1 H NMR relaxometry revealed a unimodal T 1 distribution for both the sole sandy-clay soil and the biochar. Conversely, a bimodal T 1 distribution was acquired for all the different f bc samples. Conclusions Improvement in aggregate stability was obtained as biochar was progressively added to the sandy-clay soil. A dual mechanism of water retention has been hypothesized. In particular, intra-aggregate porosity was indicated as the main responsible for molecular water diffusion when f bc comprised between 0 and 0.33. Conversely, inter-aggregate porosity resulted predominant, through swelling processes, when f bc overcame 0.33.

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“…Biochar has many properties, such as a relatively structured carbon matrix, high degree of microporosity, extensive surface area, and high pH and cation exchange capacity (CEC); therefore, it may act as a surface adsorbent (Jiang et al 2012a, b). Given that it is highly recalcitrant, the beneficial effects of its application may be prolonged over a long period of time (Fellet et al 2011;De Pasquale et al 2012). Charred biomasses, on the other hand, are estimated to have mean residence times of thousands of years in soils (Lehmann et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of pruning-derived biochar on heavy metals removal and water dynamics

et al. 2014

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Biomass-derived biochar is considered as a promising heavy metal adsorbent, due to abundance of polar functional groups, such as carboxylic, hydroxyl, and amino groups, which are available for heavy metal removal. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of an orchard pruning-derived biochar in removing some heavy metals (through the evaluation of isotherms) and to study water dynamics at the solid-liquid interface as affected by heavy metal adsorption (through an innovative nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry approach). Both isotherms and NMR spectra revealed that Pb and Cr showed a good affinity for the biochar surface (Pb > Cr), while Cu was less affine. Accordingly, higher amounts of Pb and Cr were adsorbed by biochar as compared to those of Cu in the single systems. In binary systems (i.e., when two metals were applied simultaneously), Pb showed the highest inhibition of the adsorption of the other two metals, whereas the opposite was evidenced when Cu was used; the competitive adsorption was also strongly influenced by the metal residence time on biochar surface. In ternary systems (i.e., when all metals were applied simultaneously), even in the presence of high amounts of Pb and Cr, considerable adsorption of Cu occurred, indicating that some biochar adsorption sites were highly specific for a single metal.

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Fast field cycling NMR relaxometry characterization of biochars obtained from an industrial thermochemical process

Cited by 50 publications

References 32 publications

Use of biochar as peat substitute for growing substrates of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants

Use of biochar as peat substitute for growing substrates of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants

Structure alteration of a sandy-clay soil by biochar amendments

Effect of pruning-derived biochar on heavy metals removal and water dynamics

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