Biochar in water and wastewater treatment-a sustainability assessment

Innovation of sustainable materials that are efficient, economic, environmentally friendly, and socially acceptable for real-scale environmental applications is currently a trend in the scientific community. Recently, biochar as one of the main pyrogenic products from thermo-chemical process of ligno-cellulosic biomass has been widely studied to deal with water pollutants and wastewaters. Thus, there is an urgent need for the assessment of developed technologies to promote commercialization of the most sustainable technologies in order to identify the existing technical gaps. This review aims to identify current trends in the literature in order to evaluate the technology against sustainability considerations, emphasizing on the recently published reviews as well as the highly cited papers. The existing gaps and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Automated summary

Innovation of sustainable materials is a current trend in the scientific community, with biochar being widely studied for water treatment. Assessing developed technologies for commercialization and identifying technical gaps are urgent tasks. This review aims to evaluate current trends in sustainable materials and technologies, emphasizing recent reviews and highly cited papers, while discussing existing gaps and recommendations for future studies.