Abstract
Landfill of waste biomass not only poses a threat to environmental protection but also leads to a great waste of biomass resources. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has been considered a promising method to convert the wet biomass into hydrochar, a high-value-added product with multiple application potentials. The cabbage waste, typical wet waste biomass with a huge production per year, was hydrothermally carbonized under 190 °C and 260 °C, respectively. The results indicated that the majority of nutrients from feedstock were dissolved in spent liquor during HTC, with only a few amounts retained on hydrochar. Temperature showed a more significant impact on hydrochar properties than retention time, which enables hydrochar to be potentially used as a soil conditioner. Particularly, the hydrochar produced at 190 °C could improve plant nutrition in the short term, while that produced at 260 °C may benefit in C sequestration. Moreover, the hydrochar dominated by meso/macropores (> 90%) would be conducive to the storage of plant-available water. But both BTX and VOCs may release during hydrochar application; thus, further field experiments are needed to test the environmental risks of hydrochar when applied as a soil amendment.
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The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available on reasonable request.
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This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42107032, 41371243).
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Qimei Lin and Jinhong Zhang contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, investigation, data curation, and formal analysis were performed by Xuejiao Chen and Jinhong Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xuejiao Chen. Guitong Li, Xiaorong Zhao, and Qimei Lin commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Chen, X., Zhang, J., Lin, Q. et al. Dispose of Chinese cabbage waste via hydrothermal carbonization: hydrochar characterization and its potential as a soil amendment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 4592–4602 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22359-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22359-4