Natural bioaugmentation enhances the application potential of biochar for Cd remediation

Abstract As the reuse of agricultural and forestry waste, leaf biochar can remove heavy metals from the environment, avoid secondary pollution while creating economic and environmental benefits for society. Our research presents an innovative approach to preparing efficient adsorbents for the first time using natural bioaugmentation (decay) pretreatment of fallen leaves biomass followed by pyrolysis to biochar. Compared with the pristine biochar derived from leaf (BC), the natural bioaugmentation biochar (NBC) characterization showed that the enhancement of microstructure increased the specific surface area, the change of surface composition increased the oxygen-containing functional groups and active adsorption sites, and the increase of porosity improved the mass transfer rate, resulting in a 2-fold increase of Cd(II) fixation capacity. Langmuir and pseudo-second-order models demonstrated that Cd(II) adhered to the NBC core sites through chemical reaction sites by a spontaneous process. The release of nutrients and changes in soil pH after NBC addition to contaminated soil enhanced the stability of the ecosystem and promoted plant growth. This study illustrates for the first time the great potential of natural bioaugmentation (decay) leaf-derived biochar for heavy metal adsorption and provides a new idea to explore the reuse of cellulose waste resources.