CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 238Soil Carbon and Nitrogen DynamicsThermochemical Biomass Conversion ProcessesFire effects on ecosystems

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 89 of the 90 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Effects of temperature and processing conditions on biochar chemical properties and their influence on soil C and N transformations

Zhang, H., Voroney, R.P., Price, G.W.·2015·Soil Biology and Biochemistry
DOI 10.1016/j.soilbio.2015.01.006
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

There have been limited studies of how the pyrolysis process and activation conditions affect the chemical properties of biochar and how these properties alter soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) transformations when used as an amendment. This study compared the chemical properties of biochars produced through slow pyrolysis at 200, 400 and 600 °C, in the presence or absence of steam and CO2 activation at 800 °C. Quantitative solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and elemental analysis were used to evaluate processing condition effects on biochar chemical properties. Biochars were added at a rate of 0.75% by weight and soils were incubated for 28 d, during which soil inorganic N and CO2 and N2O emissions were determined. Thereafter, adsorption of ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3−)−N were investigated further. While constituents of biochar feedstock were not altered at pyrolysis temperature of 200 °C, NMR data showed that biochars produced at 400 and 600 °C converted >82% of labile C constituents to aromatic C structures, which increased their recalcitrance. Also the later pyrolysis temperatures increased biochar cation exchange capacity (CEC) and pH, however, exposure to steam and CO2 activation decreased their CEC. Compared to unamended soil, amendment with biochar produced at 200 °C significantly increased cumulative CO2 and N2O emissions by more than 3 fold, whereas those produced at 400 °C had no effect on CO2 emissions but had a similar effect on cumulative N2O emissions. Biochar produced at 600 °C had no effect on either CO2 or N2O emissions. In contrast, activation of biochar significantly decreased cumulative CO2 emissions by 18%. Amendment with biochars produced at 400 and 600 °C and activated biochars significantly decreased soil inorganic N, which was attributed to their increased adsorptive capacity for NH4+ by 62–81%. This study highlights the importance of production conditions for designing biochars for use as amendments to sequester soil C and N, by promoting the formation of stable soil organic matter and by increasing retention of soil inorganic N. From a soil amendment perspective, this study suggests that activation of biochar did not benefit soil C and N transformations.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.soilbio.2015.01.006

Cites

89 of 89 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 90 references

1 of the 90 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 201–238 of 238

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Zhang, H., Voroney, R. P., & Price, G. W.
Affiliations
  • University of Guelph (CA)
  • Dalhousie University (CA)
Corresponding author
Voroney, R.P.
ORCID
Venue
Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-04
Volume
83
Pages
19-28
ISSN
0038-0717 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.soilbio.2015.01.006
OpenAlex
W1986895839
Cited by
238
References
90
Citations by year
2026: 25 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 4
FWCI
21.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
Soil Biology and Biochemistry (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
  • Chinese Scholarship Council (2009635099)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Fuel Technology › Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Processes
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
Keywords
biochar, pyrolysis temperature, steam activation, CO2 activation, soil carbon sequestration, soil nitrogen retention, nitrous oxide emissions, CO2 emissions, ammonium adsorption, nitrate adsorption, cation exchange capacity, aromatic carbon, soil amendment, soil mineral nitrogen, soil organic matter stability, solid-state 13C NMR

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review