Chapter 11 - Biochar: a sustainable solution for organic waste management a way forward towards circular economy

Abstract

Biochar (carbon-rich solid) is a practical, sustainable solution for organic solid waste management and a valuable application in material conversion technology. With the era of the dense population correlated with growing solid wastefulness, integrated technology will help the human race with a circular economy. Various types of biochar can be generated from different sources with unique properties, which will be very useful in industrial applications and processes. Agricultural wastes to human faecal wastes are used as biochar due to their recalcitrance, carbon sequestration and nutrient content. Despite the advantages, implementing biochar in large-scale industries requires economic, technical, ethical, environmental, and social considerations due to the source and nature of the biochar. Additionally, preliminary field studies are getting severe attention due to their critical results corresponding with real-time large-scale production processes. For generating optimistic biochar, various factors should be considered, including temperature gradient, time, pre-treatment/modification, air pressure, and so forth. Thus, a critical assessment is required to analyse the technical gaps in the implementation of sustainable technology globally. This study mainly discussed on evaluation of the feasibility of implementing biochar technology in various applications of organic waste management. This initiative will pave the way for developing sustainable practices in waste management.