Characteristics of biochar: physical and structural properties
2015
The process parameters that are used in biochar manufacture have a signifi cant effect on
its physical and structural characteristics.
These characteristics, in turn, will affect biochar’s interaction with soil systems. Soils are
highly complex, multi-component systems
that exhibit their own distinctive physical
properties. The addition of biochar to soils
can thus lead to unique interactions that infl uence soil physical properties such as porosity,
particle size distribution, density and packing.
As a result, these combined biochar-soil properties will then impact plant yield through, for
example, the availability of water and air in the
vicinity of the plant root. (Other interactions,
such as chemical or biological interactions,
will also occur between biochar particles and
soil particles, but these will not be considered
in this chapter.)Whilst there have been many studies of
the physical properties of biochars in anthropogenically produced soils, the pyrolysis process parameters involved are, unsurprisingly,
unknown (Glaser et al, 2000; Schaefer et al,2004; Chia et al, 2012). As such, the focus of
this chapter will be on the physical and structural properties of biochars derived from
known feedstocks under controlled process
parameters, particularly the relationship
between feedstock structure, processing conditions and biochar structure.
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