Land Applications of Biochar: An Emerging Area

In recent years, there has been increasing interest on land application of biochar for improved carbon sequestration, pollutants removal, and soil amelioration. The biomass conversion into biochar and subsequent land application of biochar significantly stabilizes the ecosystem via GHG emission reduction and carbon sequestration, thus leading to the climate change mitigation. Biochar properties (e.g., surface area, microporosity, and pH) significantly improve the soil physiochemical (e.g., water-holding capacity, O-2 content, moisture level, nutrient adsorption/desorption, pollutants immobilization), and biological properties (e.g., microbial abundance and activity) improves the soil health. Current research mainly aims to exploit biochar to recover nutrients from waste matters and utilize the resulting nutrient-enriched biochar as a source of micronutrients especially in nutrient-depleting soils to sustain the crop productivity. This chapter compiles the recent advances of biochar in land application, focusing important physiochemical attributes and mechanisms pertinent to soil amelioration and plant growth promotion. Moreover, biochar application rate and methods of land applications are also outlined.