Properties of Biochar Prepared from Acacia Wood and Coconut Shell for Soil Amendment

Abstract

The biochar produced from the agricultural wastes was aimed to amend the extreme degraded soil. The properties of biochar prepared from Acacia wood and coconut shell were investigated by different pyrolysis conditions in order to identify the suitable initial biomass of biochar applied for sandy soil amendment. The slow pyrolysis was applied for preparing biochar under different conditions. The temperature was varied from 300, 400 and 500 oC meanwhile the pyrolysis times were varied to 1, 2 and 3 hours. The parameters indicating biochar property are SA, APD, elemental contents of C, H, O and N, pH, CEC, and WHC. The properties of Acacia biochar and coconut shell biochar were compared using paired T-test at 95% confident interval to analyze the significant difference. The results indicated that the types of the initial biomass and the pyrolysis conditions have an impact on the properties of biochar for both physical and chemical. The suitable temperature was 500 °C for 2 hours. The different types of biomass are significantly effect on the SA, C and O contents, pH, CEC and WHC of the prepared biochar (P<0.05). Properties of Acacia wood biochar indicate that it is more suitable than coconut shell biochar to be applied as sandy soil amendment due to its higher SA, higher CEC, and neutral pH. Meanwhile, coconut shell biochar also can be applied for the typical soil appropriate and increase crop yield.