Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539

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Chemosphere
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

Review

Biochar technology in wastewater treatment: A critical review

Wei Xiang a, b, Xueyang Zhang a, b, *, Jianjun Chen c, Weixin Zou d, Feng He e, Xin Hu f,
Daniel C.W. Tsang g, Yong Sik Ok h, Bin Gao b, **
a
School of Environmental Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Industrial Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Xuzhou University of Technology,
Xuzhou, 221018, China
b
Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
c
Mid-Florida Research & Education Center, University of Florida, Apopka, FL, 32703, USA
d
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Vehicle Emissions Control, Nanjing, 210093, China
e
College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, China
f
Center of Material Analysis, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China
g
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
h
Korea Biochar Research Centre & Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Biochar technologies in various

wastewater treatment are elucidated.

Feedstock pre-treatment and post-
treatment effect on biochar produc-
tion is reviewed.

Biochar as an innovative adsorbent to
remove aqueous contaminants is
discussed.

Future perspectives of biochar tech-
nology in wastewater treatment are
summarized.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Biochar is a promising agent for wastewater treatment, soil remediation, and gas storage and separation.
Received 27 January 2020 This review summarizes recent research development on biochar production and applications with a
Received in revised form focus on the application of biochar technology in wastewater treatment. Different technologies for
11 March 2020
biochar production, with an emphasis on pre-treatment of feedstock and post treatment, are succinctly
Accepted 17 March 2020
summarized. Biochar has been extensively used as an adsorbent to remove toxic metals, organic pol-
Available online 18 March 2020
lutants, and nutrients from wastewater. Compared to pristine biochar, engineered/designer biochar
Handling Editor: X. Cao generally has larger surface area, stronger adsorption capacity, or more abundant surface functional
groups (SFG), which represents a new type of carbon material with great application prospects in various
Keywords: wastewater treatments. As the first of its kind, this critical review emphasizes the promising prospects of
Engineered biochar biochar technology in the treatment of various wastewater including industrial wastewater (dye, battery
Wastewater treatment manufacture, and dairy wastewater), municipal wastewater, agricultural wastewater, and stormwater.
Production technologies Future research on engineered/designer biochar production and its field-scale application is discussed.
Modification methods
Based on the review, it can be concluded that biochar technology represents a new, cost effective, and
Carbonaceous adsorbents
environmentally-friendly solution for the treatment of wastewater.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author. School of Environmental Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Industrial Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Xuzhou University of Technology,
Xuzhou, 221018, China.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zhaxuy@163.com (X. Zhang), bg55@ufl.edu (B. Gao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126539
0045-6535/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Production technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1. Pre-treatment technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2. Thermal carbonization technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3. Post-treatment technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Biochar as an adsorbent for aqueous contaminant removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Heavy metal removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Organic contaminant removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3. Nitrogen and phosphorus removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Biochar technology in wastewater treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.1. Industrial wastewater treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2. Municipal wastewater treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3. Agricultural wastewater treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.4. Stormwater treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. Conclusions and future perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Declaration of competing interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1. Introduction shown in Fig. 1, pre-treatments vary depending on feedstock and

the purposes for biochar use, including physical (dry, crush, sieve,
Biochar is a porous carbonaceous material produced during the wash, etc.), chemical (treat with chemicals or functional materials,
thermochemical decomposition of biomass feedstock in the pres- load of precursors and functional agents, etc.), and biological
ence of little or no oxygen. Biomass feedstock can be any organic (bacterial treatment, etc.) methods. Post-treatments mainly rely on
waste materials which include crop and forest residues, wood chip, physical (ball milling, magnetization, etc.) and chemical (corrosive
algae, sewage sludge, manures, and organic municipal solid wastes treatment, etc.) methods (Zhang and Gao, 2013; Tan et al., 2016;
(Colantoni et al., 2016; Xiong et al., 2019). Methods for thermo- Usman et al., 2016). Thus far, only few review articles have
chemical decomposition include pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbon- emphasized pre-treatments in relation to feedstock decomposition
ization, gasification, torrefaction, and microwave heating, varying methods and resultant biochar properties as well as post-treatment
in thermochemical temperature and duration (Mohan et al., 2014; technologies on biochar properties and their effects on wastewater
Gonz alez et al., 2017; Fang et al., 2018). Interest in biochar is largely treatment.
based on its two distinct benefits: First, biochar production per se The overarching objective of this work is to present the first
can offset greenhouse gas emission because it stores carbon in a comprehensive review on the applications of biochar technology in
stable form, preventing the release of greenhouse gases into the wastewater treatment. After summarizing new technologies on
atmosphere from biomass degradation (Creamer and Gao, 2016; pre-treatment of feedstock, thermal carbonization process, and
Yang et al., 2018a). Second, biochar is an effective, low-cost, and post-treatment of biochar (Section 2), this review digests current
environment-friendly adsorbent (Cha et al., 2016; Inyang et al., knowledge of biochar as an innovative adsorbent for aqueous
2016), which is related to its relatively large surface area and contaminants (Section 3). Most importantly, recent advances of
abundant surface functional groups (SFG) (Wang et al., 2017a; biochar applications in wastewater treatments, including industrial
Zhang et al., 2017a). Biochar can be used for adsorbing metals/ wastewater, municipal wastewater, agricultural wastewater and
metalloids and purifying water (Agrafioti et al., 2013; Van Vinh stormwater are perspicuously and detailly elucidated (Section 4).
et al., 2015; Palansooriya et al., 2019), applied to soils for This critical review also discusses the perspectives and future
improving soil fertility and crop productivity (Yoo et al., 2018), research directions of the biochar technology in wastewater
employed for clean energy production to partially replace the fossil treatment (Section 5).
fuels (Fang et al., 2018; Cao et al., 2019), and utilized as adsorbent
and catalysts to various pollutants and reduce greenhouse gas
emission (Xiong et al., 2017). As a result, biochar becomes 2. Production technologies
increasingly important as a solution to some global problems, such
as climate change, environmental pollution, and soil degradation 2.1. Pre-treatment technologies
(Creamer and Gao, 2016).
It has been well documented that feedstock, thermochemical Pre-treatment is the first step for biochar production from
decomposition methods and their temperature and duration can different raw materials. In general, these methods can be classified
significantly affect biochar physical and chemical properties (Yu physical, chemical, and biological pre-treatment technologies
et al., 2019). Several previous review articles have discussed (Fig. 1).
decomposition methods, characterization, and applications of Physical pre-treatment technology generally includes drying,
biochar in removal of different contaminants from aqueous solu- crushing, sieving, and washing of biomass feedstock. The feedstock
tions (Mohan et al., 2014; Cha et al., 2016; Tan et al., 2016). Biochar riches in lignocellulosic/plant is usually dried to constant weight at
properties can also be affected by feedstock pre-treatments and 105  C or other temperature, ground into smaller particles using a
biochar post-treatments (Wang et al., 2017a; Yang et al., 2019). As hammer mill, and then cut into different pieces (Wang et al., 2016a;
Essandoh et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2017a). Occasionally, separate
 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539
Fig. 1. Biochar production technologies: (a) Biomass. (b) Pre-treatment technologies. (c) Thermal processes. (d) Post-treatment technologies.
drying step may be needed for some plant feedstock, because the
plant raw materials vary greatly in moisture contents. Physical pre-
treatment method for biomass feedstock is related to its own
properties. For example, dewatered sludge is often dried in an oven
overnight, crushed, sieved, and stored in sealed containers prior to
use (Agrafioti et al., 2013). Newspapers and cardboard are
commonly shredded and blended into pulp as the feedstock
(Randolph et al., 2017). Paper mill sludge is acid-washed, rinsed
with deionized distilled water to obtain mineral-free sludge (Cho
et al., 2017). Algae is alkaline, it is usually rinsed with fresh water
and then dried, granulated or flaked before pyrolysis (Roberts and
de Nys, 2016).
Chemical pre-treatment technology often relies on chemical
reactions to change the properties or compositions of feedstock
materials. One type of most commonly used chemical pre-
treatment technique is to treat feedstock biomass materials with
chemicals or functional materials to load chemical precursors or
functional agents into the feedstock. During the treatment, the
biomass feedstock is immersed into a chemical solution or a
colloidal suspension, and then dried prior to biochar production
(Tan et al., 2016). After pretreated with metal ion solutions such as
FeCl3, AlCl3, and MgCl2, biomass feedstock can be successfully
converted into biochar-based nanocomposites with metal oxy-
hydroxide (e.g. Fe3O4, AlOOH, and MgO) nanoparticles stabilized on
carbon surface with the pores of the engineered biochar (Zhang
et al., 2012a, 2013; Zhang and Gao, 2013; Son et al., 2018). On the
other hand, biomass can be pretreated with engineered nano-
particles and natural colloids including carbon nanotubes, gra-
phene and clay, which also leads to the successful production of
biochar-based nanocomposites (Zhang et al., 2012b; Yao et al.,
2014; Inyang et al., 2015). Corrosive chemicals including acid, al-
kali, and oxidant have also been applied to pretreat biomass for the
3
production of engineered biochar with enlarged surface area,
unique pore structure, enriched SFG, etc. (Zhou et al., 2017a; Zhao
et al., 2018).
Biological pre-treatment technology is a relatively new concept
that utilizing biological processes to improve biomass feedstock for
engineered biochar production (Wang et al., 2017a). Bacterial
treatment, particularly anaerobic digestion or biofuel processes, of
biomass feedstock has been proven to be an effective and product
‘biologically activated’ biochar with enhanced properties (Inyang
et al., 2010; Yao et al., 2015). In the literature, several biomass
materials including sugar beet tailings, bagasse, sludge, and animal
waste were subjected to the anaerobic digestion process first and
then the residues were converted into biochar through slow py-
rolysis (Inyang et al., 2010; Yao et al., 2011a; Tang et al., 2019). The
anaerobic digestion pre-treatment would make the obtained bio-
char have a larger specific surface area (SSA) and better adsorption
performance (Inyang et al., 2010; Yao et al., 2011a). It is recognized
that utilizing the biological pre-treatment residue materials to
produce biochar can introduce additional benefits such as reducing
waste disposal costs, and making bioenergy more eco-friendly
(Inyang et al., 2010; Yao et al., 2015). Another biological pre-
treatment method uses biomass enriched with high concentra-
tions of minerals including heavy metals through bioaccumulation
for biochar production (Yao et al., 2013b; Wang et al., 2017c). Wang
et al. (2017c) converted a heavy metal hyperaccumulating plant
into biochar and suggested that this technology not only provides a
safe solution for hyperaccumulator disposal but also produces
value-added biochar nanocomposites.
2.2. Thermal carbonization technologies
Thermal processes for biomass conversion into biochar mainly
4 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539

include pyrolysis, microwave-assisted pyrolysis, hydrothermal

carbonization and gasification (Mohan et al., 2014; Wang et al.,
2017a; Fang et al., 2018). Table 1 summaries and compares these
carbonization technologies.
Pyrolysis is a thermochemical process for decomposing biomass
in an anoxic or hypoxic environment (Cha et al., 2016). Pyrolysis
processes depend on the operating temperature, heating rate, and
residence time used, which can affect the compositions and phys-
icochemical properties of products. The yields of biochar decrease
with increasing pyrolysis temperature (Fig. 2), whereas ash and
carbon content increase (Fig. 3). It is mainly related to cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin decomposition, saline-alkali separation,
carbonization and other factors in biomass (Hossain et al., 2011; Al-
Wabel et al., 2013; Masek et al., 2013; Irfan et al., 2016). The heating
rate determines the pyrolysis speed, and it influences the charac-
teristics of biochar and the yield of bio-oil and bio-gas (Inyang et al.,
2010; Cho et al., 2017). Prolonged residence time provides more
complete biomass decomposition while decrease the biochar pro-
duction yield (Mohamed et al., 2016).
Microwave-assisted pyrolysis (MAP) is considered as a sustain-
Fig. 2. Percent yields of biochar from different feedstock at different pyrolysis tem-
able method to produce bio-energy products, including biochar, perature (data are from reference (Yuan et al., 2011; Bian et al., 2016; Colantoni et al.,
bio-oil, and bio-gas (Dai et al., 2017; Mutsengerere et al., 2019). In lez et al., 2017)).
2016; Irfan et al., 2016; Lin et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2016a; Gonza
comparison to the conventional methods, MAP technique offers
shorter processing time, lower energy requirement, more effective
heat transfer, and better selective heating (Zhang et al., 2017b;
Duran-Jime nez et al., 2018). The MAP process is mainly controlled
by the microwave power, irradiation time, etc. (Lam et al., 2017;
Duran-Jime nez et al., 2018; Nhuchhen et al., 2018; Kadlimatti et al.,
2019). The yield of biochar often decreases as the microwave power
increases, which can be attributed to the high heating rates at high
microwave power levels (Jimenez et al., 2017; Nhuchhen et al.,
2018). Biochar with high SSA was obtained in a microwave sys-
tem operated at the microwave power of 500 W, irradiation time of
3 min, and frequency of 2450 ± 25 MHz. (Dura n-Jimenez et al.,
2018). Further microwave treatment, however, resulted in a loss
of SSA, which can be attributed to the degradation of micropore
structure of the biochar after the microwave overheating (Jimenez
et al., 2017).
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is the conversion of wet
feedstock at a temperature range of 120e260  C into biochar
without pre-drying (Mohan et al., 2014; Cha et al., 2016; Fang et al.,
2018). The wet biomass is heated and pressurized (2e10 MPa) for Fig. 3. Percent of carbon and ash in biochar from different feedstock at different py-
5e240 min in a confined system (Kambo and Dutta, 2015; Fang rolysis temperature (data are from reference (Hossain et al., 2011; Al-Wabel et al.,
et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2019a). The biochar produced by HTC is 2013; Masek et al., 2013)).

Table 1
Summary of common thermal carbonization technologies (Cha et al., 2016; You et al., 2017; Mutsengerere et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2019b).

Thermal carbonization Key parameters Temperature/ Residence Desired Advantages

technologies power range time product

Pyrolysis temperature; 300e850  C 1e3 h Biochar Simple, robust, and cost-effective; applicable to small scale and farm-based
heating rate; biochar production
residence time
Microwave-assisted microwave power; 400e500 W 1e10 min Biochar and volumetric, fast, selective, and efficient heating
pyrolysis microwave biofuel
irradiation time
Hydrothermal temperature; 120e260  C 1e16 h Hydrochar More suitable for feedstock with high moisture content
carbonization residence time;
pressure;
water-to-biomass
ratio
Gasification temperature; ＞800  C 10e20 s Syngas Biochar yield of gasification is less than pyrolysis, but the biochar contains a
particle size; high level of alkali salts (Ca, K, Si, Mg, etc.).
residence time;
pressure;
gasification agent/
biomass ratio
 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539
usually called hydrochar. Reaction temperature is identified as the
governing parameter during the HTC (Kambo and Dutta, 2015).
With the increase of temperature, hydrochar contains abundant
acidic functional groups on its surface, which can benefit the
contaminant adsorption capability (Zhou et al., 2017a; Saha et al.,
2019). Increasing holding temperature and holding time can in-
crease the porous structure of the hydrochar, which increases the
possibility of the application of hydrochar as an adsorbent (Shao
et al., 2019).
Gasification is the process converting the biomass to gas fuel
using gasification agents. Gasification temperature is generally
higher than 800  C (You et al., 2017). The biochar produced during
gasification usually contains high levels of alkali salts and alkaline
earth mineral (Kambo and Dutta, 2015; Zhang et al., 2019b), which
can precipitate many heavy metal contaminants and thus be used
directly as a remediation agent in problem soils (Yang et al., 2018b;
Yu et al., 2019). Deal et al. (2012) reported that problem soils
amended with gasifier-produced biochar had higher maize yields,
and the soluble ash content of the biochar had the greatest influ-
ence on soil productivity.
2.3. Post-treatment technologies
Biochar are often post-treated by either physical or chemical
modification methods to increase its SSA, pore volume, surface
chemistry, and functional agents including SFG and composited
nanoparticles (Van Vinh et al., 2015; Tan et al., 2016; Dai et al.,
2017). In the literature, there are several good reviews that have
provided comprehensive summaries of various post-treatment
technologies for biochar modifications (Tan et al., 2016; Wang
et al., 2017a). This review thus only slightly discusses three post-
treatment technologies including magnetic, ball milling, and cor-
rosive (i.e., acid, alkali, or oxidation) treatment (Mohamed et al.,
2016; Usman et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017a), which either are
current research hotspots or have not reviewed intensively in the
literature.
Magnetization is the method that converts biochar into a
magnetic material where magnetic iron oxides including Fe3O4, g-
Fe2O3, or CoFe2O4 particles are loaded into biochar (Zhang et al.,
2013; Wang et al., 2015b; Tan et al., 2016; Shengsen Wang et al.,
2019). Thus, magnetic modified biochar can easily be recovered
from the aqueous solution (Zhang et al., 2013; Mohan et al., 2014;
Wang et al., 2015b; Son et al., 2018). Magnetic zero-valent iron
biochar derived from peanut hull at 800  C has a higher removal
rate for Cr6þ, which is mainly due to its high SSA, pore volume, and
loaded reductive iron (Liu et al., 2019b). Another method for pre-
paring magnetic biochar composites is directly chemical co-
precipitate Fe3þ/Fe2þ on biochar surface (Tan et al., 2016). Mag-
netic switchgrass biochar prepared by the precipitation of iron
oxide using an aqueous Fe3þ/Fe2þ solution has the highest
adsorption capacity for metribuzin (205 mg/g, pH ¼ 2) (Essandoh
et al., 2017).
Ball milling is a simple and efficient method which uses the
kinetic energy by moving balls to break chemical bonding, chang-
ing the particle shape and producing nanoscale particles (Lyu et al.,
2017). After ball milling, the characteristics of biochar were
enhanced including SSA, pore volume, negative zeta potential,
oxygen-containing functional groups, and the adsorption capacity
(Wang et al., 2017a; Lyu et al., 2018a, 2018b; Xiang et al., 2020). Ball-
milled bagasse biochar has higher Ni2þ removal efficiency than
pristine biochar, and the adsorption capacity of Ni2þ and aqueous
methylene both increased (Lyu et al., 2018b). This is mainly due to
the fact that ball milling can increase the external and internal
surface areas of the biochar and expose its graphitic structure and
oxygen-containing functional groups (Lyu et al., 2018a). Nitrogen-
5
doped biochar has been successfully synthesized by simply ball
milling pristine biochar with ammonium hydroxide, these N groups
improve the adsorption performances of the biochar on acidic
carbon dioxide and anionic reactive red (Xu et al., 2019). Ball-
milling technology is thus an effective engineering method to
produce novel engineered biochar. The ball-milled biochar shows
enhanced physicochemical and adsorptive properties, and can be
used in various environmental applications.
Corrosive treatments such as acid, alkali, and oxidation treat-
ments are commonly used chemical modification techniques,
which alter the surface chemistry of the biochar. The corrosive
chemicals, such as HCl, HNO3, KOH, NaOH, KMnO4, and H2O2 have
been applied to modify biochar for different purposes (Wang et al.,
2015a, 2017a; Cha et al., 2016; Zheng et al., 2019). The chemical
modified biochar has higher SSA, more microporous, more func-
tional groups, and enhanced sorption capacity (Yang et al., 2019).
Alkali (NaOH)-acid (HNO3) combined modification shows an
obvious increased BET surface area, porosity and oxygen-
containing functional groups of municipal sewage sludge biochar,
which enhances tetracycline adsorption, up to 286.9 mg/g (Tang
et al., 2018). KMnO4 and KOH treatment increase the SSA of bio-
char derived from waste peanut shell, resulting in increased
adsorption sites for Ni2þ (An et al., 2019). H2O2 is another strong
oxidant for modifying biochar (Xue et al., 2012). H2O2-modified
manure biochar can eliminate heavy metals efficiently, due to the
increased oxygen and carboxyl group content (Wang and Liu, 2018).
Post-treatment of biochars represent a new area of research. It
modifies existing biochars by increasing biochars’ SSA, pore vol-
ume, negative zeta potential, oxygen-containing functional groups,
and the adsorption capacity. Such modified biochars can be cost-
effective and environmentally-friendly carbon materials with
great application potential in many fields.
3. Biochar as an adsorbent for aqueous contaminant removal
Biochar can be used as an adsorbent to remove different pol-
lutants in water and wastewater. Here, we mainly discuss its use for
removal of heavy metals, organic contaminants, nitrogen and
phosphorus.
3.1. Heavy metal removal
Heavy metals in wastewater can adversely affect human beings,
animals, and plants. Long term exposure to heavy metals in the
aqueous phase can cause serious health threats even at low con-
centration (Ahmed et al., 2016). Increased evidence suggests that
biochar obtained from plants and animal residues can effectively
adsorb heavy metals in water and wastewater (Higashikawa et al.,
2016; Inyang et al., 2016; Tan et al., 2016; Dai et al., 2017; Zhou
et al., 2017a). Table 2 summarizes biochar adsorption of heavy
metals in aqueous phase.
Arsenic is an extremely toxic metal and occurs in wastewater as
well as drinking water. The adsorption capacity of As3þ is enhanced
from 5.7 mg/g to 7.0 mg/g through the surface modification of bio-
char by Zn(NO3)2 impregnation (Van Vinh et al., 2015). Biochar
produced from paper mill sludge was applied to adsorb As5þ and
the maximum adsorptive capacity was 34.1 mg/g (Cho et al., 2017).
Biochars produced separately from sugarcane straw, rice husk,
sawdust, and chicken manure were mixed with sawdust and used
to remove Cd2þ in water. Results show that increased pyrolysis
temperature from 350  C to 650  C triggers the increasing tread in
percentage removal of Cd2þ (Higashikawa et al., 2016). Biochars are
also effective in removal of Pb2þ. The removal efficiencies of Pb2þ by
biochars produced from fresh and dehydrated banana peels are
359 mg/g and 193 mg/g, respectively (Zhou et al., 2017a). Table 2
6 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539

Table 2
Biochar adsorption of heavy metals in aqueous solutions.

Biochar Pre-treatment Thermal Post treatment Pyrolysis Biochar Adsorption Heavy Initial Adsorption Removal mechanism Ref.
feedstock process temperature dose (g/ pH metals concentration capacity
( C) L) (mg/L) (mg/g)

Bamboo Oven dried Pyrolysis HNO3þ nZVI 600 2 e Agþ 200 584 Innersphere Wang et al.
wood treated complexation and (2017b)
electrostatic attraction
by outer-layer Fe oxides
under oxic conditions
Bamboo Oven dried Pyrolysis H2O2þ nZVI 600 2 e Agþ 200 1217 Innersphere Wang et al.
wood treated complexation and (2017b)
electrostatic attraction
by outer-layer Fe oxides
under oxic conditions
Pomelo Dried þ H3PO4 Pyrolysis Pristine 250 2 6 Agþ 50 137.4 Chemical adsorption Zhao et al.,
peel impregnated with oxygenic (2018)
functional groups
Pine wood Oven dried and Pyrolysis Ni/Fe-LDH 600 2.5 7.5 As3þ 20 4.38 Electrostatic attraction Wang et al.
milled modified and surface (2016b)
complexation with
hydroxyl groups
Pine wood Ni/Fe-LDH Pyrolysis Pristine 600 2.5 7.5 As3þ 20 1.56 Electrostatic attraction Wang et al.
modified and surface (2016b)
complexation with
hydroxyl groups
Paper mill Oven dried and Pyrolysis Pristine 720 1 2.7e10.4 As5þ 26.7 34.1 Chemisorption or Cho et al.,
sludge acid washed chemical reaction (2017)
process between
available adsorption
sites and adsorbate
Sewage Stirred and Pyrolysis Pristine 300 4 e As5þ 0.05 e Chemical sorption Agrafioti
sludge heated et al.,
(2013)
Sewage Stirred and Pyrolysis Pristine 300 4 e Cr3þ 0.2 e Chemical sorption Agrafioti
sludge heated et al.,
(2013)
Rice husk Washed Pyrolysis Polyethylenimine 450e500 1 e Cr6þ 100 435.7 Introduction of amino Rajapaksha
modified group facilitate chemical et al.,
reduction of Cr6þ and (2016)
increase sorption
capacity
Green Dried Pyrolysis HCl modified 600 2 3e8 Cd2þ 5.6 6.72 Chemisorption Zhang et al.,
waste (2018)
2þ
Peanut shell Washed, dried Pyrolysis Hydrated 400 0.2 6.5 Cd 10 10 Nonspecific outer- Wan et al.,
and milled manganese oxide sphere surface (2018)
treated complexation provided
by oxygen-containing
groups, specific
innersphere
complexation offered by
the impregnated HMO
Marine FeCl3 Pyrolysis Pristine 500 16.7 e Cu2þ e 69.37 Oxygen-containing Son et al.,
macro- immersed functional groups as (2018)
algal potential adsorption
sites
Banana Oven dried Pyrolysis Pristine 600 2.5 e Cu2þ 200 75.99 Electrostatic attraction, Ahmad
peels partial of physisorption, et al.,
ion exchange and (2018)
precipitation
Cauliflower Oven dried Pyrolysis Pristine 600 2.5 e Cu2þ 150 53.96 Electrostatic attraction, Ahmad
leaves partial of physisorption, et al.,
ion exchange and (2018)
precipitation
Pomelo Dried þ H3PO4 Pyrolysis Pristine 250 2 6 Pb2þ 50 88.7 Precipitated by Zhao et al.,
peel impregnated phosphorous functional (2018)
groups
Peanut shell Washed, dried Pyrolysis Hydrated 400 0.2 6.5 Pb2þ 20 36 Nonspecific outer- Wan et al.,
and milled manganese oxide sphere surface (2018)
treated complexation provided
by oxygen-containing
groups, specific
innersphere
complexation offered by
the impregnated HMO
Banana Oven dried Pyrolysis Pristine 600 2.5 e Pb2þ 600 247.1 Electrostatic attraction,
peels partial of physisorption,
 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539 7

Table 2 (continued )

Biochar Pre-treatment Thermal Post treatment Pyrolysis Biochar Adsorption Heavy Initial Adsorption Removal mechanism Ref.
feedstock process temperature dose (g/ pH metals concentration capacity
( C) L) (mg/L) (mg/g)

ion exchange and Ahmad

precipitation et al.,
(2018)
Cauliflower Oven dried Pyrolysis Pristine 600 2.5 e Pb2þ 200 177.8 Electrostatic attraction, Ahmad
leaves partial of physisorption, et al.,
ion exchange and (2018)
precipitation
Maple Dried Pyrolysis H2O2 modified 500 5 7 Pb2þ 50 43.3 Complexation by Wang et al.,
wood oxygen functional (2018)
groups
Pecan Dried and MAP Pristine e 2 3 Pb2þ 500 80.3 Ion-exchange by Jimenez
nutshell milled calcium ions on the et al.,
material surface (2017)
Banana Dehydrated HTC Pristine 230 0.25 7 Pb2þ 200 359 Ions exchange and Zhou et al.
peels and grinded surface complexation. (2017a)
Banana H3PO4 soaked HTC Pristine 230 0.25 7 Pb2þ 200 193 Ions exchange and Zhou et al.
peels surface complexation. (2017a)
2þ
Peanut hull Dried HTC Pristine 300 2 e Pb 50 0.88 Complexation with Xue et al.,
carboxyl surface (2012)
functional groups
Peanut hull Dried HTC H2O2 modified 300 2 e Pb2þ 50 22.82 Complexation with Xue et al.,
carboxyl surface (2012)
functional groups

also shows biochar adsorption of Cr3þ, Ni2þ and Cu2þ. Biochar
prepared from sewage sludge adsorbed approximately 70% of Cr3þ
from the aqueous solution (Agrafioti et al., 2013). The maximum
adsorption capacity of Ni2þ from water by chicken manure mixed
with sawdust-derived biochars was 11 mg/g at 650  C
(Higashikawa et al., 2016). Marine macro-algae magnetic biochars
are rich in oxygen-functional groups, which attributes to their high
selectivity and adsorption capacity to Cu2þ (69.37 mg/g for kelp
magnetic biochar and 63.52 mg/g for hijikia magnetic biochar) (Son
et al., 2018).
3.2. Organic contaminant removal
Organic contaminants are another major type of pollutants in
aquatic environment, which include pesticides, herbicides, and
antibiotics etc.. Table 3 summarizes biochar adsorption of some
organic contaminants in aqueous phase. Organic pollutants are
toxic and can reduce dissolved oxygen in water and cause harm to
the aquatic ecosystem and human health (Ahmed et al., 2016).
Switchgrass biochar (SGB) and magnetic switchgrass biochar
(MSGB) were employed to remove metribuzin herbicide from
aqueous solutions. The low solution pH value is beneficial to bio-
char for the metribuzin adsorption compared to the high solution
pH value. Metribuzin adsorption onto both SGB and MSGB is un-
affected by temperature increase (Essandoh et al., 2017). Biochars
can also remove antibiotics, such as sulfonamides and tetracyclines
(Yao et al., 2012a; Sun et al., 2018). The mechanism underlying the
removal of sulfonamides and tetracyclines is probably due to the
electron donor-acceptor interactions and associated with the
attracting groups on surface area rings (Peiris et al., 2017). Sulfa-
methoxazole (SMX) is one of the typical sulfonamide antibiotics
widely used for both human and animals. SMX adsorption onto the
digested bagasse biochars is mainly controlled by p-p interaction
and effected by the solution pH value (Yao et al., 2018). Iron and zinc
doped sawdust biochar shows high simultaneous removal of
tetracycline from aqueous solution. The predominant adsorption
mechanisms include site recognition, bridge enhancement, and site
competition (Zhou et al., 2017b).
In addition, several studies have also suggested biochar’s ap-
plications for adsorption of organic matter for water treatment, and
the effectiveness is closely related to the aromaticity index, polarity
index, SSA, and the quantity of oxygen functional groups (Mohan
et al., 2014; Cha et al., 2016; Braghiroli et al., 2018).
3.3. Nitrogen and phosphorus removal
Biochar can also absorb nutrients, such as nitrogen and phos-
phorus in aqueous phase (Zhang et al., 2012a, 2014; Yao et al.,
2013b; Zhang and Gao, 2013; Xue et al., 2016). Ammonium, ni-
trate and phosphate are the common forms of reactive nitrogen and
phosphorus in wastewater, and can lead to eutrophication (Yao
et al., 2012b; Yang et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2018). Table 4 lists the
adsorptions of nitrogen and phosphorus on various biochars in
aqueous phase. The adsorption capacity of modified biochars for
nitrogen and phosphorus is significantly higher than pristine bio-
chars, because the modified biochars have higher SSA, more reac-
tion activity and SFG.
Post-treatment of biochars have significant effects on ammo-
nium adsorption. Oxidized maple wood biochar has higher
ammonium adsorption capacity than maple wood biochar (Wang
et al., 2016a). Additionally, pyrolysis temperatures affect ammo-
nium adsorption. Biochars produced from pine sawdust at 300  C
shows the highest NHþ 4 adsorption capacity based on the higher H/
C and O/C ratios and presence of more functional groups on the
surface of it (Yang et al., 2017). This study demonstrates that
chemical bonding and polar interaction between NHþ 4 and SFG are
likely mechanisms for enhanced NHþ 4 adsorption.
Pre-treatment of feedstock show pronounced effects on
adsorption of phosphorus. The digested sugar beet tailing biochar
shows the highest phosphate removal ability with a removal rate
around 73% (Yao et al., 2011a). This is probably because the large
amount of colloidal and nano-sized periclase on its surface, which
has a strong ability to bind phosphate in aqueous solution. Pre-
treatment can be performed during plant growth. For example,
the biochar derived from tomato plants that enriched with Mg
during their growth, which shows increased adsorption of phos-
phate in aqueous solution, reaching more than 100 mg/g (Yao et al.,
2013b). Additionally, biochars produced from wood waste pre-
treated with magnesium oxides (Mg-biochar) was used to recover
ammonium and phosphate (Xu et al., 2018). The struvite
8 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539

Table 3
Biochar adsorption of organic contaminants in aqueous solutions.

Biochar Treatment/ Pyrolysis Biochar Organic Initial Adsorption Removal mechanism Ref.
feedstock Modification temperature dose (g/ contaminants concentration capacity (mg/
( C) L) (mg/L) g)

Switchgrass Magnetization 425 1 Metribuzin 100 39.6 Electrostatic attraction and hydrogen bonds Essandoh
herbicide et al.,
(2017)
Switchgras Pristine 425 1 Metribuzin 100 38.2 Electrostatic attraction and hydrogen bonds Essandoh
herbicide et al.,
(2017)
Bagasse Anaerobically 600 2 Sulfamethoxazole 10 1.6 p-p EDA interaction Yao et al.,
digested (2017)
Bagasse Anaerobically 600 2 Sulfapyridine 10 3.2 p-p EDA interaction Yao et al.,
digested (2017)
Bamboo Graphene 600 1 Sulfamethazine 10 6.5 p-p EDA interaction, pore-filling, cation exchange, Huang
sawdust oxide-coated hydrogen bonding interaction and electrostatic et al.,
interaction (2017)
Bamboo Pristine 600 1 Sulfamethazine 10 3.1 p-p EDA interaction, pore-filling, cation exchange, Huang
sawdust hydrogen bonding interaction and electrostatic et al.,
interaction (2017)
Sawdust Iron and zinc 600 / Tetracycline 150 86 Site recognition, bridge enhancement, and site Zhou et al.
doped competition (2017b)
Sawdust Iron and zinc 600 / Tetracycline 100 53.8 Site recognition, bridge enhancement, and site Zhou et al.
doped competition (2017b)
Peanut Magnetization 800 2 Trichloroethylene 9.2 4.6 Hydrophobic partitioning, pore-filling and reductive Liu et al.
shell degradation. (2019b)
Reed Magnetization 600 0.5 Florfenicol 20 5.3 Hydrogen bonding, pore-filling effect and p-p EDA Zhao and
interaction Lang,
(2018)
Reed Pristine 600 0.5 Florfenicol 20 2.6 Pore-filling effect and p-p EDA interaction Zhao and
Lang,
(2018)
Crab shell calcium-rich 800 1 Chlortetracycline 100 70 Cation bridging, electrostatic interaction, hydrogen Xu et al.,
biomass hydrochloride bonding and p-p interaction (2020)
Crab shell calcium-rich 800 1 Chlortetracycline 2000 1975 Adsorption and flocculation Xu et al.,
biomass hydrochloride (2020)

precipitation on the surface of biochar is the dominant mechanism
for the removing ammonium and phosphate. Other reports have
also shown modified biochars for removing the nitrate (NO 3 ), total
Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphates (TP),
and phosphate (PO34 ) from aqueous solutions (Mohan et al., 2014;
Usman et al., 2016; Sun et al., 2017; Vikrant et al., 2017). A general
conclusion is that the modifications change biochar surface
chemistry, thus resulting in enhanced nutrients sorption capacity
compared with pristine biochars.
4. Biochar technology in wastewater treatment
As discussed above, biochars are effective adsorbents for
removal of various contaminants due to its special properties, such
as large SSA and abundant SFG. Thus, biochars have become
increasingly important as a solution to remediate pollutants in the
industrial and agricultural sectors for improving environmental
quality (Wang et al., 2017a). Wastewater has been a global issue,
which is a byproduct of domestic, industrial, commercial or agri-
cultural activities. Biochars have great potential to be used for
wastewater treatment. This section mainly focuses on discussing
biochar’s applications in treatment of industrial wastewater,
municipal wastewater, agricultural wastewater and stormwater
(Fig. 4).
4.1. Industrial wastewater treatment
The industrial wastewater comes from various sources including
mining, smelting, battery manufacturing, chemical industry,
leather manufacturing, dyes, and others. And the pollutants are
mainly heavy metals and organic pollutants in industrial
wastewater. Biochars have been applied in the treatment of in-
dustrial wastewater.
A biochar mixed with chitosan after cross linking can be casted
into membranes, beads, and solutions. It can be effectively utilized
as an adsorbent for heavy metals adsorption in industrial waste-
water. The ratio of biochar and chitosan would affect the adsorption
of copper, lead, arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals in in-
dustrial wastewater (Hussain et al., 2017). Gliricidia biochar is a
promising material for crystal violet (CV) removal from an aqueous
environment in dye-based industries. The CV sorption process is
governed by the pH value, surface area and pore volume of biochar
(Wathukarage et al., 2017). Bagasse biochar was used to adsorb lead
from the battery manufacturing industry effluent. The maximum
adsorption capacity can reach 12.7 mg/g and the adsorptive process
is related to medium pH value, contact time and dosage (Poonam
and Kumar, 2018). Biochar was also used to recapture nutrients
from ammonium and phosphate-based dairy wastewater. Biochar
can adsorb 20e43% of ammonium and 19e65% of phosphate in
flushed dairy manure within 24 h (Ghezzehei et al., 2014). Thus far,
most of the experiments on biochar application in removal of
contaminants from industrial wastewater were conducted in lab-
oratory setting, further research and implementation in real-world
conditions is needed.
4.2. Municipal wastewater treatment
Biochar can be directly used or combined with biofilter and
other technologies for municipal wastewater treatment, which
result in recovery of labile nitrogen and phosphorus (Cole et al.,
2017). Engineered biochar loaded with aluminum oxyhydroxides
(AlOOH) was applied to recycle and reuse phosphorus from
 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539 9

Table 4
Biochar adsorption of nitrogen and phosphorus in aqueous solutions.

Biochar feedstock Treatment/ Pyrolysis Biochar Nutrient Initial Adsorption Removal mechanism Ref.
Modification temperature dose (g/ concentration capacity (mg/
( C) L) (mg/L) g)

Pine sawdust Pristine 300 3 NHþ

4 100 5.38 Chemical bonding and electrostatic Yang et al.,
interaction of NHþ4 with the surface functional (2017)
groups.
Wheat straw Pristine 550 3 NHþ
4 100 2.08 Chemical bonding and electrostatic Yang et al.,
interaction of NHþ4 with the surface functional (2017)
groups.
Wood waste MgO modified 600 2 NHþ
4 8203 47.5 Struvite precipitation Xu et al.,
(2018)
Sugarcane harvest MgO particle- 550 1.25 NHþ
4 200 22 Struvite crystallization, electrostatic Li et al.,
residue impregnated attraction, and p-p interactions (2017)
Wheat straw MgeFe layered 600 2 NO
3 45 24.8 Surface adsorption and interlayer anion Xue et al.,
double hydroxides exchange (2016)
(LDH)
Peanut shells MgCl2 solution 600 2 NO
3 20 94 Surface adsorption Zhang et al.
immersed (2012a)
Hickory wood chips Aluminum salt 600 2.5 Phosphorus 6.4 8.346 Electrostatic attraction Zheng et al.
treated (2019a)
Wheat straw Acid wash and 500e560 12.5 Phosphorus 25 1.06 Adsorption and surface precipitation Dugdug
water wash et al.,
(2018)
Hardwood Acid wash and 500e550 12.5 Phosphorus 25 1.2 Adsorption and surface precipitation Dugdug
water wash et al.,
(2018)
Willow wood Acid wash and 500e550 12.5 Phosphorus 25 1.93 Adsorption and surface precipitation Dugdug
water wash et al.,
(2018)
Wood waste MgO modified 600 2 PO3-
4 318.5 116.4 Struvite precipitation, surface adsorption Xu et al.,
(2018)
Bamboo MgeAl layered 600 2 PO3-
4 50 13.11 Interlayer anion exchange and surface Wan et al.,
double hydroxides adsorption (2017)
(LDH)
Anaerobically Pristine 600 2 PO3-
4 61.5 25 Surface adsorption by colloidal and nano- Yao et al.
digested sugar sized MgO particles (2011b)
beet tailings
Cottonwood AlCl3 solution 600 2 PO3-
4 1600 135 Adsorption by unique nanostructure Zhang and
immersed Gao,
(2013)
Sugar beet tailings MgCl2 solution 600 2 PO3-
4 1600 835 Surface adsorption Zhang et al.
immersed (2012a)
Tomato leaves Mg enriched 600 2 PO3-
4 588.1 100 Precipitation, surface deposition Yao et al.
(2013a)
Cottonwood HTC þ LDH 180 2 PO3-
4 2000 386 Surface adsorption Zhang
et al.,
(2014)

secondary treated wastewater (Zheng et al., 2019a). The adsorption
mechanism of phosphorus is mainly through electrostatic attrac-
tion. Phosphorus adsorbed on engineered biochar can be utilized as
a slow-release fertilizer for crop production.
Biochar produced from digested sludge was used as an adsor-
bent for ammonium removal from municipal wastewater. Biochar
derived at 450  C has the highest ammonium removal capacity
attribute to its higher surface area and functional group density,
and the process is controlled by chemisorption (Tang et al., 2019).
Biochar derived from waste sludge was used as catalysts to ozonate
refinery wastewater and shows high removal rate of the total
organic carbon. Because the biochar contains functional carbon
groups, Si/O structures, and metallic oxides, it can promote oxida-
tion through the formation of hydroxyl radicals and mineralized
petroleum contaminants (Chen et al., 2019).
Municipal wastewater can be treated with biochar, produced
from municipal biowaste, at the biofiltration stage. Biochar has a
high porous surface area that allows it to act as a biofilter in
municipal wastewater treatment. The COD, TSS, TKN and TP of
wastewater reduce 90%, 89%, 64%, and 78%, respectively, after being
passed through the biochar biofilter (Manyuchi et al., 2018).
Wastewater from residential units not connected to any municipal
sewage treatment plant was treated with biochar in on-site sewage
treatment facility (OSSFs) (Blum et al., 2018). The addition of bio-
char obviously increases the removal rate of some polar and hy-
drophilic compounds. OSSFs thus can be upgraded with low-cost
biochar adsorbents.
4.3. Agricultural wastewater treatment
Agricultural contamination is becoming increasingly serious
due to the rapid development of agricultural industry, more and
more pesticides or toxic heavy metals are discharged into farm-
lands (Wei et al., 2018). Many researchers have applied biochar and
its modified forms to treatment of agricultural wastewater
contamination.
Pentachlorophenol and atrazine are two most common pesti-
cides in agriculture. Rice straw biochar and phosphoric acid
modified rice straw biochars show significantly high adsorption for
imidacloprid and atrazine from agricultural wastewater (Mandal
and Singh, 2017). Soybean and corn straw biochar both show
high atrazine removals and the adsorption capacities are mainly
10 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539
Fig. 4. Biochar application in wastewater treatment.
due to the pore volume and pH value of biochar (Zhao et al., 2013;
Liu et al., 2015). Steam-activated biochar can effectively remove
sulfamethazine and the removal rate is pH value dependent
(Rajapaksha et al., 2015). Zero valent iron magnetic paper mill
sludge biochar (ZVI-MBC) was used for removal of pentachloro-
phenol (PCP) from the effluent (Devi and Saroha, 2014). The ZVI-
MBC can simultaneously adsorb and dechlorinate the PCP in the
effluent and achieve the complete removal of PCP. The removal of
glyphosate, diuron and carbaryl from agricultural wastewater by
biochar have been also investigated. The adsorption capacity of
biochar to pesticides are related to biochar feedstock, functional
materials, and target contaminants (Wei et al., 2018).
The toxic heavy metals in agricultural wastewater is another
pervasive problem. The common concerned toxic metals include
As, Cr, Cu and Pb (Table 2). The adsorption capacity of Cu2þ and As5þ
in agricultural wastewater by biochar can reach 69.4 mg/g and
34.1 mg/g, respectively; and the adsorption quantity of Cd2þ and
Pb2þ are ranged from 0.4 mg/g to 12.3 mg/g, and 36 mg/g to 35 mg/
g, respectively (Higashikawa et al., 2016; Cho et al., 2017; Zhou
et al., 2017a; Son et al., 2018). For the heavy metals in agricultural
wastewater, the possible adsorption mechanisms usually involve
electrostatic interactions, surface complexation, ion exchange,
intermolecular interaction, cation-p bonding, and p-p interactions
(Wei et al., 2018).
The adsorption behavior of biochars for various agricultural
contaminants differs widely (Wei et al., 2018). In general, the
adsorption capacities are closely correlated with nano-material
content, SSA, SFG, and porous structures (Cha et al., 2016;
Braghiroli et al., 2018; Son et al., 2018; Wan et al., 2018; Yao et al.,
2018). In addition, the adsorption mechanism by biochars are
affected by inner-sphere complexes, p-p interaction, hydrophobic
effect, precipitation, ion exchange, and so on (Yuan et al., 2011; Cha
vre et al., 2018; Wei et al., 2018; Yao et al., 2018).
et al., 2016; Lefe
4.4. Stormwater treatment
With the development of urbanization, urban stormwater
runoff has been widely concerned due to its influence on water
quality. Stormwater runoff can significantly contribute to the
degradation of natural water quality and requires treatment before
discharge, which is mainly due to increased concentrations of
metals, organic matter and biological pollutants (Mohanty et al.,
2014; Gray, 2016; Tian et al., 2016; Ulrich et al., 2017; Ashoori
et al., 2019).
Bioretention and biofiltration are commonly used for storm-
water treatments, but the purification of stormwater contaminants
by these two systems is not ideal (Gray, 2016; Lau et al., 2016; Ulrich
et al., 2017). Biochar and its modified forms, as the effective media,
have been applied to stormwater treatment systems (Fig. 5). A
recent study shows that an aluminum-impregnated biochar can
effectively remove As5þ and other runoff pollutants, such as Pb2þ,
Zn2þ, Cu2þ, and PO3 4 , in a polluted urban water runoff (Liu et al.,
 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539
Fig. 5. Biochar application in stormwater treatment: (a) Potential functions of biochar at different region of bioinfiltration system (Mohanty et al., 2018). (b) Schematic diagram of
the enhanced stormwater contaminants removal by biochar-amended biofilters (Lu and Chen, 2018).
2019a). A biochar-based filtration medium has been effectively
deployed to remove copper and zinc in stormwater runoff, and the
remove rate reached more than 85% and 95%, respectively. But the
biochar filtration media need to be carefully tested and designed to
meet the requirements of stormwater treatment (Gray, 2016).
Biochars have been integrated with biofilters for removing
bisphenol A (BPA) from stormwater. Wood dust biochar shows a
high adsorption efficiency and increased capacity of BPA attribute
to its high SSA and pore volume, which also promotes phragmites
australis growth, increases E. coli, TOC, TSS, nitrogen and phos-
phorus removal rates (Ashoori et al., 2019). Biochar amendment has
improved the removal of contaminant in stormwater biofilters,
particularly the toxic trace organic contaminants (TOrCs) that have
been poorly removed in conventional systems. Biochar-amended
biofilter columns can maintain more than 99% TOrC removal rate
compared to the unamended biofilter columns. Meanwhile,
biochar-amended biofilter can increase the removal of TOC, TN, and
TP greater than 60% (Ulrich et al., 2017).
Poultry litter biochars (PLB) pyrolyzed at 500  C were applied to
adsorb ammonium in stormwater treatment systems. There is a
significant positive correlation between NHþ 4 sorption and biochar
CEC. The ion competition in stormwater adsorption experiments
suggests that NHþ 4 adsorption is dominated by cation exchange
(Tian et al., 2016). Zn-activated sewage sludge-based activated
carbon can remove PO4eP and NO3eN effectively from leachate
made from stormwater. And the removal rates of PO4eP and
NO3eN decrease with increasing pH value (Yue et al., 2018). Biochar
and zero valent iron (ZVI) amending bioretention cells can increase
the NO-3 removal performance in stormwater system, which pro-
vides an important prospect for increasing nitrate removal effi-
ciency in bioretention systems (Tian et al., 2019).
Biofilters/bioretention system with biochar can also effectively
remove microorganisms from stormwater (Mohanty et al., 2014;
Lau et al., 2016). Biofilters amended with 5% biochar can retain up
to 3 orders of magnitude more E. coli, and prevent their mobiliza-
tion during successive intermittent flows. This indicates that
amending biofilters with biochar can improved the removal of
bacteria from stormwater (Mohanty et al., 2014). H2SO4-modified
wood biochar can be an effective bioretention filter medium for
E. coli removal from stormwater. It improves E. coli retention and
reduces remobilization. The results indicate that the transport of
E. coli is governed by the morphology structures and hydropho-
bicity of the biochars (Lau et al., 2016).
11
In general, biochar has been used as filter media in stormwater
treatment. Various removal capacities of contaminants in storm-
water depend on biochar properties, pollutant characteristics, and
aqueous chemistry (Mohanty et al., 2018). Biochar is more feasible
and promising than other materials used in stormwater treatment,
because it is inexpensive and readily available and has many
beneficial functions in stormwater treatment systems.
5. Conclusions and future perspectives
Biochar is an efficient and low-cost adsorbent, which can be
produced from a variety of biomass materials including agricultural
crop residues, forestry residues, sewage sludge, manures, solid
organic municipal wastes, and thus has been used in wastewater
treatment. This article reviews the current technologies for biochar
production with an emphasis on feedstock pre-treatment, thermal
conversion, and post treatment technologies. It summarizes the
biochar application in wastewater treatment including industrial
wastewater, municipal wastewater, agricultural wastewater and
stormwater. Mechanisms underlying the biochar adsorption of
contaminants are discussed.
The main conclusions of this review are as follows: (1) Biochar
properties are related to the type of feedstock, feedstock pre-
treatment technology, thermal process, and post-treatment of
biochars. The modifications of biochars by increasing the SSA, re-
action activity or by forming functional groups, become increas-
ingly important as a new and exciting area of engineered biochar
research and its application for improving environmental quality.
(2) Largely due to the modifications, engineered biochar as an
adsorbent to remove aqueous contaminant, such as heavy metals,
organic contaminants, nitrogen and phosphorus is controlled by
various mechanisms, mainly including ion exchange, adsorption,
surface precipitation, surface complexation etc. (3) The potential of
biochar for removal of pollutants from industrial wastewater,
municipal sewage, agricultural sewage, and stormwater has been
well demonstrated in laboratory. Its application for onsite appli-
cation requires further investigation. Although number of re-
searches have been done on production and application of biochar
in wastewater treatment, there are still knowledge gaps that need
to be filled.
Additional studies are still need to: (1) develop the new low-cost
and high-efficiency modification technology of biochar, (2) increase
the practical application of biochar in wastewater treatment,
12 W. Xiang et al. / Chemosphere 252 (2020) 126539
especially in industrial wastewater and municipal wastewater
treatment, and (3) further improve the adsorption capacity of
biochar on heavy metals, organic contaminants, nitrogen and
phosphorus.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
W.X and X.Z. would like to acknowledge the support of the
Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education In-
stitutions of China (Grant No. 18KJA610003), Key R & D Projects of
Xuzhou (Grant No. KC18150, KC16SS091), Xuzhou University of
Technology (Grant No. XKY2018136), and the Project of Ministry of
Housing and Urban-Rural Development (Grant No. 2013-K4-27).
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