Adsorption of Pollutants from Wastewater by Biochar: A Review

Abstract

Biochar is a functional material prepared under controlled thermal decomposition of organic feedstocks from crops, forestry residues, sewage sludge, algal biomass, and poultry manure. Due to its intrinsic properties, biochar has been widely used as an adsorbent to remove vide range of pollutants such as organic pollutants, microplastics, heavy metals, and nutrients from water and wastewater. Currently, the accumulation of pollutants in the industrial, municipal and agricultural wastewater has become a major challenge to focus. This study has reviewed significant number of articles and focused on removing heavy metals, microplastics, significant nutrients and organic pollutants (fertilizer's, antibiotics, PAHs, and PCBs). The pollutants in water significantly reduce crop yield, quality of the environment and dangerous to human health. The percentage removal of heavy metals from aqueous solution (88–98%) using adsorption isotherms is found to be higher than industrial (55–60%) and municipal wastewater (80–85%). The effective removal of contaminants from wastewater samples on a field-scale is enhanced by increasing the specific surface area and pore volume of biochar granules after post-treatment.