A data synthesis on the biochar properties and implications for air,soil, and water quality in Brazil

Biochar has been intensively researched worldwide. In Brazil, there is a variety of feedstock production that can be turned into soil amendments of high performance through biochar conversion, especially solid wastes. However, advances in biochar research in Brazil have not been systematically evaluated to indicate possible gaps and suggest future research for eco-friendly applications. Thus, in this work we evaluated biochar properties and effects on air, water, and soil quality based on data gathered from researches performed in Brazil. Biochar has been mainly evaluated as soil conditioner (37%), material characterization (17%), water treatment (12%), and greenhouse gases emissions (9%). Based on the data synthesis of 68 feedstocks used for biochar production, we observed that the pyrolysis temperature profoundly affects biochar properties. Meta-analysis indicated benefits of biochar addition to soils for chemical, physical, microbiological and biochemical attributes that have resulted in increases in root growth (+30%), and plant shoots (+45%). Pyrolysis temperature and feedstock are key choices to design biochar properties aiming to retain dyes, aromatic hydrocarbon, pesticides, and metals in water and wastewater treatment. It was also observed an increase in CO₂ and a decrease in N₂O emissions after biochar application to soils in short-term experiments. Although there is a growing interest in the development of electrochemical sensors and biochar-based fertilizers, technological applications of biochar are still incipient in Brazil. Future research should prioritize long-term and mechanistically evaluations of biochar under field conditions and the development of eco-friendly technological applications.     

Enhanced biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal from sewage driven by fermented glycerol: comparative assessment between sequencing batch- and continuously fed-structured fixed bed reactor

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The nutrient biological removal from sewage, especially from anaerobic reactor effluents, still represents a major challenge in conventional sewage...     

Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Exopolysaccharides Produced by Bacillus anthracis PFAB2 and Its Biocidal Property

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Nowadays when control of environmental toxicity is a matter of concern, the focus of the researchers is to find an eco-friendly process. Considering the...     

Material cycle realization by hazardous phosphogypsum waste,ferrous slag,and lime production waste application to produce sustainable construction materials

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The article presents data from new compositions of construction materials developed from three types of Kazakhstan enterprises’ industrial...     

Pyrolysis biochar systems for recovering biodegradable materials: A life cycle carbon assessment

A life cycle assessment (LCA) focused on biochar and bioenergy generation was performed for three thermal treatment configurations (slow pyrolysis, fast pyrolysis and gasification). Ten UK biodegradable wastes or residues were considered as feedstocks in this study. Carbon (equivalent) abatement (CA) and electricity production indicators were calculated. Slow pyrolysis systems offer the best performance in terms of CA, with net results varying from 0.07 to 1.25tonnes of CO(2)eq.t(-1) of feedstock treated. On the other hand, gasification achieves the best electricity generation outputs, with results varying around 0.9MWhet(-1) of feedstock. Moreover, selection of a common waste treatment practice as the reference scenario in an LCA has to be undertaken carefully as this will have a key influence upon the CA performance of pyrolysis or gasification biochar systems (P/GBS). Results suggest that P/GBS could produce important environmental benefits in terms of CA, but several potential pollution issues arising from contaminants in the biochar have to be addressed before biochar and bioenergy production from biodegradable waste can become common practice.     

Environmental, land-use and economic implications of Brazilian sugarcane expansion 1996–2006

Governments are promoting biofuels and the resulting changes in land use and crop reallocation to biofuels production have raised concerns about impacts on environment and food security. The promotion of biofuels has also been questioned based on suggested marginal contribution to greenhouse gas emissions reduction, partly due to induced land use change causing greenhouse gas emissions. This study reports how the expansion of sugarcane in Brazil during 1996–2006 affected indicators for environment, land use and economy. The results indicate that sugarcane expansion did not in general contribute to direct deforestation in the traditional agricultural region where most of the expansion took place. The amount of forests on farmland in this area is below the minimum stated in law and the situation did not change over the studied period. Sugarcane expansion resulted in a significant reduction of pastures and cattle heads and higher economic growth than in neighboring areas. It could not be established to what extent the discontinuation of cattle production induced expansion of pastures in other areas, possibly leading to indirect deforestation. However, the results indicate that a possible migration of the cattle production reached further than the neighboring of expansion regions. Occurring at much smaller rates, expansion of sugarcane in regions such as the Amazon and the Northeast region was related to direct deforestation and competition with food crops, and appear not to have induced economic growth. These regions are not expected to experience substantial increases of sugarcane in the near future, but mitigating measures are warranted.     

Worker size-related task partitioning in the foraging strategy of a seed-harvesting ant species

Messor bouvieri is a seed-harvesting ant species in which workers forage in trails from the nest to a search area. A previous observation of seed transfer events between workers returning to the nest suggested potential task partitioning. In this study, we describe seed transportation and analyze the role of task partitioning in the foraging strategy of this species in terms of seed intake efficiency in relation to costs and benefits based on transport speed and task reliability. We assess the harvesting efficiency of task partitioning by comparing cooperative seed transport (CST) and individual seed transport (IST) events. Our results show task partitioning in the form of a sequence of transfer events among workers going from the search area to the nest. Importantly, and despite the weak worker polymorphism of this species, this sequence involved workers of different sizes, with seeds usually being passed along from smaller to larger workers. In addition, we show that small workers are better at finding seeds (spend less time finding a seed), and large workers are better at transporting them (were faster when walking back to the nest and lost fewer seeds). However, we failed to demonstrate that workers of different sizes are specialized in performing the task in which they excel. Overall, sequential CST in M. bouvieri results in a greater seed intake because seed search time decreases and task reliability increases, compared to IST. The determinants and adaptive benefits of CST are discussed.