(2021) Chemical Engineering Journal_Biochar in water and wastewater treatment - a sustainability assessment

Kamali M., Appels L., Kwon E.E., Aminabhavi T.M., Dewil R.

(Elsevier B.V.) Chemical Engineering Journal ISSN: 13858947 Vol.420 Issue. Article No.129946 DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.129946

Innovation of sustainable materials that are efficient, economic, environmentally friendly, and socially acceptable for real-scale environmental applications is currently a trend in the scientific community. Recently, biochar as one of the main pyrogenic products from thermo-chemical process of ligno-cellulosic biomass has been widely studied to deal with water pollutants and wastewaters. Thus, there is an urgent need for the assessment of developed technologies to promote commercialization of the most sustainable technologies in order to identify the existing technical gaps. This review aims to identify current trends in the literature in order to evaluate the technology against sustainability considerations, emphasizing on the recently published reviews as well as the highly cited papers. The existing gaps and recommendations for future studies are discussed. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Mohammadreza Kamali holds a postdoctoral research grant awarded by the Research Council of KU Leuven [ PDM/19/104 ].