Water Filtration

While considerable research has been conducted on soil remediation through adsorption of pollutants following biochar application, relatively little data have been published on the sorption of pollutants by biochars preceding biochar application to soil. Most of the few studies that have been published on this subject

use biochar to filter substances from surface waters that are not suitable for application to agricultural soil, such as arsenic (As), Cd, Cu, fluoride (F_), phenol (C6H5OH), uranium (U), and Zn (Table 25.2). Considering that these substances are better suited to be contained in a secure landfill than be applied on productive agricul­tural soil, further research should be conducted to deter­mine if these biochars could be as effective at reducing CH4 emissions from soil as demonstrated by Yaghoubi

(2011) .