Biochar is fast becoming an innovative, emerging practice in the stormwater industry as a green infrastructure- bioretention amendment for pollutant treatment, enhanced water holding capacity and soil health to better support and expedite vegetative growth. Biochar is a carbonaceous material synthesized through pyrolysis or gasification of different biomass sources (plant or animal waste). Biochar can adsorb and neutralize pollutants, significantly increase soil water-retention capacity, retain and slowly release non-soluble nutrients for plant uptake, and help improve and sustain microbiota in soil and plants atop; all these attributes contribute towards the binding and elimination of harmful contaminants in stormwater treatment systems. Biochar-amended biofiltration systems (depending upon the biochar properties) have been found to efficiently remove a wide range of pollutants such as total nitrogen (32 – 94%), total phosphorus: (45 – 99%), heavy metals (27 – 100%), organics (54 – 100%) and microbial pollutants (log10 removal: 0.78 – 4.23) from urban runoff.
Biochar properties are affected by several technological parameters, mainly pyrolysis or gasification temperature, feedstock, and activation. Resultant differentiation can lead to products with a wide range of pH values, surface area sizes, pore volumes, Cationic Exchange Capacity (CEC), volatile matter, ash and carbon contents. Biochars are also considered to be carbon negative because the thermochemical processes (e.g., gasification, pyrolysis) negatively sequester the feedstock carbon into highly stable fixed carbon content ranging from 30+% to 80+%, depending upon the feedstock. Therefore, biochar amendments can greatly enhance performance for green infrastructure practices with the additional benefits of CO2 equivalents that can qualify for carbon credits, while supporting reduced GHGs and beneficial reuse of biomass waste streams, and consequently growing a climate-friendly “circular economy”.
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