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Engineered/Modified Biochar in Agricultural Practices: Production, Properties, Agricultural and Environmental...
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Engineered/Modified Biochar in Agricultural Practices: Production, Properties, Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Biosystem and Biological Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2022) | Viewed by 5945

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Eunsung Kan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, 400 Bizzell St, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Interests: food–energy–water nexus; environmental and agricultural sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biochar is a solid material derived from thermochemical conversion of biomass under an oxygen-limited environment. Various biochars have been produced from wastes of agricultural and domestic activities (e.g., crop residues, grasses, wood, animal manure, and biosolids at wastewater treatment plants). When various biochars were incorporated into current agricultural practices, the biochar-mediated agricultural practices resulted in significantly enhancing soil fertility/health, greater crop productivity, healthy microbial communities, water quality, soil remediation, and greenhouse gas emission control.

Recently, there have been active studies to produce, characterize, and apply engineered and modified biochar for enhancing agricultural and environmental sustainability in agricultural practices. The engineered and modified biochars include chemically and microbially functionalized biochar (i.e., biochar coated with metals, nutrients, and chemical groups; biochar immobilized with microbes/enzymes/genes), activated biochar (i.e., thermally, chemically, and catalytically activated biochar), and biochar composites (i.e., biochar with silica, zeolite, chitosan, and nanoparticles). Thus, this Special Issue deals with production, properties, and applications of engineered and modified biochar for agricultural and environmental sustainability in agricultural practices. Research articles in these topics and relevant areas are highly encouraged for submission to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Eunsung Kan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biochar
  • engineered biochar
  • modified biochar
  • functionalized biochar
  • agricultural practice
  • agricultural sustainability
  • environmental sustainability

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2551 KiB  
Article
Effect of Alfalfa-Derived Biochar on Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure
by Shengquan Zeng, Riley Harris and Eunsung Kan
Agronomy 2022, 12(4), 911; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12040911 - 11 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2753
Abstract
Biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests were conducted for investigating the effects of alfalfa-derived biochar (AF-BC) on anaerobic digestion (AD) of dairy manure under various loading of AF-BC (0–10 g/L). BMP tests were performed at mesophilic temperature (37 °C) with the addition of AF-BC. [...] Read more.
Biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests were conducted for investigating the effects of alfalfa-derived biochar (AF-BC) on anaerobic digestion (AD) of dairy manure under various loading of AF-BC (0–10 g/L). BMP tests were performed at mesophilic temperature (37 °C) with the addition of AF-BC. Biogas and methane volumes and concentrations, water quality parameters (i.e., COD (chemical oxygen demand)), and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were measured during the AD process. The addition of 1 and 5 g/L of AF-BC increased the biogas yields by 15.51% and 26.09% and methane yields by 14.61% and 26.88% compared with the control without addition of AF-BC. Additionally, the addition of AF-BC (1–10 g/L) decreased the lag phase by 7.14–22.45% and the CO2 content of biogas by 13.60–32.48%, while increasing the COD removal efficiency by 19.19–35.94% in the AD of dairy manure. Moreover, the addition of AF-BC also decreased total VFAs and acetic acid concentrations in the AD process. The increase in AD performance was mainly owing to the improvement of buffering ability of the AD system and direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) among AD microorganisms resulting from the addition of AF-BC. In contrast, the addition of 10 g/L AF-BC did not show any obvious improvement in biogas and methane yields in the AD of dairy manure, possibly because of toxic effects from excessive addition of AF-BC toward the AD microorganisms. Therefore, this study supported practical feasibility of AF-BC-enhanced AD of dairy manure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineered/Modified Biochar in Agricultural Practices: Production, Properties, Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability)
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14 pages, 1712 KiB  
Article
Dairy Effluent-Saturated Biochar Alters Microbial Communities and Enhances Bermudagrass Growth and Soil Fertility
by Sarbjeet Niraula, Yong-Keun Choi, Kristen Payne, James P. Muir, Eunsung Kan and Woo-Suk Chang
Agronomy 2021, 11(9), 1794; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11091794 - 07 Sep 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2550
Abstract
Recently, biochar has been proposed for various agronomic applications including improved plant growth and soil fertility. In this study, the effects of dairy effluent-saturated (SBC) and unsaturated wood-derived biochar (UBC) on Bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) growth, soil fertility and microbial communities were investigated [...] Read more.
Recently, biochar has been proposed for various agronomic applications including improved plant growth and soil fertility. In this study, the effects of dairy effluent-saturated (SBC) and unsaturated wood-derived biochar (UBC) on Bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) growth, soil fertility and microbial communities were investigated in a greenhouse pot study. SBC and UBC were mixed with sandy loam soil at various loading rates (0, 1, 2, 4, and 8%) to grow Bermudagrass for 10 weeks. Soil physicochemical properties and plant growth measurements were taken, followed by 16S rRNA (V3-V4) amplicon sequencing of soil bacterial communities. Amendment of SBC to soil altered the soil physicochemical properties and increased the concentrations of N and P in the soil at 2 to 8% loading rates compared to UBC treated soil. The addition of SBC to soil also increased the overall plant biomass compared to UBC with more effects on aboveground biomass. Differential abundance analysis of taxa showed enrichment of Proteobacteria in UBC-amended soil, whereas Firmicutes and Nitrospirae were abundant in SBC-amended soil. Interestingly, enrichment of photosynthetic and N-fixing bacteria was observed in both SBC and UBC-amended soils after 10 weeks of treatments. However, oxidative phosphorylation and biotin metabolisms were found to be more abundant in SBC-amended soil compared to UBC-amended soil. Overall, our study suggested that amendment of SBC to soil resulted in enhanced soil nutrients, microbial capacity and Bermudagrass growth than that of UBC. Therefore, application of SBC to soil in field trials would be merited to identify sustainable and effective practices for enhancing plant growth, soil fertility and soil bacterial community. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineered/Modified Biochar in Agricultural Practices: Production, Properties, Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability)
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