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Both Sides of Coin: Benefits and Potential Negative Consequences of Biochar in Sediment Remediation

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Abstract

Biochar has been widely used for in situ remediation of sediments in recent years because of its advantages including suitable surface area, pore structure, and abundant surface oxygen-containing functional groups. Nevertheless, leaching of some hazardous components of biochar, e.g., potentially toxic elements (PTEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, persistent free radicals, dioxins-like compounds, etc., can pose ecological risks to the water–sediment system. In this review, the applications and associated mechanisms of biochar in the remediation of PTEs- and organic pollutants contaminated sediment systems have been illustrated and critically discussed. Additionally, the potentially hazardous constituents in biochar were summarized and the effects of biomass and production conditions on their bioavailability were reviewed. Furthermore, the effects of biochar addition on water/sediment eutrophication, phytotoxicity, benthic damage, and microbial community changes were discussed. On this basis, the monitoring and assessment measures of the potential risks of biochar were summarized, and the corresponding avoidance strategies for different risks were proposed. This paper aims to provide a baseline reference and guidance implications for the biochar selection, toxicity detection, and evaluation in the field of sediment remediation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51508366), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20201450), Jiangsu Qing Lan Project, Foundation of Foshan Nanhai Suzhou University of Science and Technology Environmental Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Yuwei Pan & Chongjun Chen

  2. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Yuwei Pan & Chongjun Chen

  3. Agronomy College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Hanbo Chen

  4. School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia

    Nanthi Bolan

  5. The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia

    Nanthi Bolan

  6. Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, 5095, Australia

    Binoy Sarkar

  7. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, China

    Hailong Wang

  8. Key Laboratory of Soil Contamination Bioremediation of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, Zhejiang, China

    Hailong Wang

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  1. Yuwei Pan
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Contributions

YP: Original Draft, Methodology, Writing-review & Editing, Data curation. HC: Conceptualization, Discussion. NB: Conceptualization, Discussion. BS: Conceptualization, Discussion. HW: Discussion. CC: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing-review & editing.

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Correspondence to Chongjun Chen.

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Pan, Y., Chen, H., Bolan, N. et al. Both Sides of Coin: Benefits and Potential Negative Consequences of Biochar in Sediment Remediation. Reviews Env.Contamination (formerly:Residue Reviews) 261, 4 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44169-023-00028-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44169-023-00028-y

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