Chapter 23 - Bioremediation of organic pollutants soil and water through biochar for a healthy ecosystem

Abstract

Water and soil pollution issues have grown significantly during the previous few decades. The principle environmental pollutants that harm soil and aquatic life demand the development of efficient mitigation strategies, especially organic pollutants. Although some traditional approaches, such as physical and chemical treatments are used to address soil and water contamination, biochar represents a reliable and sustainable approach that exhibits significant potential to be used as a globally applicable material for bioremediation purposes because it can handle a wide range of toxic organic pollutants from contaminated environments. Due to their large surface area, surface functional groups, pore size distribution and high ability to bind to these pollutants in soil and water environments, biochars and their derived constructs can remediate organic pollutants from environmental matrices. To shed light on this delicate issue of soil and water pollution, the present chapter focuses on the fundamentals of biochar assisted organic pollutants bioremediation process, applications of biochar in organic pollutants remediation as well as various mechanisms involved in organic pollutants removal using biochar, along existing obstacles and prospects.