Physico–chemical characterization of Biochar products from different biomass feedstock as soil amendment
- Publication Type
- Contribution to conference
- Authors
- Karaj, S; Munder, S; Meissner, K; Müller, J
- Year of publication
- 2015
- Conference name
- International Conference on Soil
- Conference location
- Tirana, Albanien
- Conference date
- 4 - 6 May 2015
- Keywords
- corn, corn residue, digesta, Jatropha, olive pomace, physical-chemical properties
The continues pressure on agriculture land use due to rising world population and the demand for food and raw material is leading to excessive land use change and degradation. Thermochemical conversion processes offer the possibility to transform biomass into stable and energy-rich products. Thereby these processes enable the diverse use and storage of bio-energy. Agricultural residues are being slush and burn as a technique for soil enrichment but many disadvantages occurs during this process such as hummus distraction, micro fauna and micro flora are destroyed, organic matter is oxidized, sulphur and nitrogen is loosed due to volatilisation and instant mineralization of organic matter. The objective of this study was to investigate the physical and chemical parameters of biochar produced from different biomass feedstock such as Jatropha curcas L. shells, press cake and solid biogas digestate, corn waste biomass and pomace olive residues as soil amendment. Biochar apparatus was constructed at Universität Hohenheim and via muffle oven pyrolysis process experiments with different biomass feedstock were conducted. The biochar from different substrates were investigated for their physico-chemical characteristics like: pH, electrical conductivity, specific gravity, bulk density, porosity, moisture content, ash content, volatile matter fixed carbon, surface area, ion exchange capacity, solubility in water and the nutrients sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus and iodine number. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) pictures for surface morphology examination were conducted for each biochar substrate before and after pyrolysis. Physico-chemical characteristic and SEM pictures showed the pore formation and potential use of biochar in agriculture and forest soil. In addition to the detection of the yield, the calorific value and the chemical composition of the products, TGA measurements and FT-IR spectroscopy have been performed.