TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of biochar as an additive in organic waste composting
AU - Sanchez-Monedero, M. A.
AU - Cayuela, M. L.
AU - Roig, A.
AU - Jindo, K.
AU - Mondini, C.
AU - Bolan, N.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness for supporting research project CTM2015-67200-R (MINECO/FEDER) under which this work was financed.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
PY - 2018/1
Y1 - 2018/1
N2 - The use of biochar in organic waste composting has attracted interest in the last decade due to the environmental and agronomical benefits obtained during the process. Biochar presents favourable physicochemical properties, such as large porosity, surface area and high cation exchange capacity, enabling interaction with major nutrient cycles and favouring microbial growth in the composting pile. The enhanced environmental conditions can promote a change in the microbial communities that can affect important microbially mediated biogeochemical cycles: organic matter degradation and humification, nitrification, denitrification and methanogenesis. The main benefits of the use of biochar in composting are reviewed in this article, with special attention to those related to the process performance, compost microbiology, organic matter degradation and humification, reduction of N losses and greenhouse gas emissions and fate of heavy metals.
AB - The use of biochar in organic waste composting has attracted interest in the last decade due to the environmental and agronomical benefits obtained during the process. Biochar presents favourable physicochemical properties, such as large porosity, surface area and high cation exchange capacity, enabling interaction with major nutrient cycles and favouring microbial growth in the composting pile. The enhanced environmental conditions can promote a change in the microbial communities that can affect important microbially mediated biogeochemical cycles: organic matter degradation and humification, nitrification, denitrification and methanogenesis. The main benefits of the use of biochar in composting are reviewed in this article, with special attention to those related to the process performance, compost microbiology, organic matter degradation and humification, reduction of N losses and greenhouse gas emissions and fate of heavy metals.
KW - Aeration
KW - Humification
KW - Methane
KW - N losses
KW - Nitrous oxide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85031681642&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.09.193
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.09.193
M3 - Review article
C2 - 29054556
AN - SCOPUS:85031681642
SN - 0960-8524
VL - 247
SP - 1155
EP - 1164
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
ER -
