The potential of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications

Shiv Bolan, Deyi Hou, Liuwei Wang, Lauren Hale, Dilfuza Egamberdieva, Priit Tammeorg, Rui Li, Bing Wang, Jiaping Xu, Ting Wang, Hongwen Sun, Lokesh P Padhye, Hailong Wang, Kadambot H M Siddique, Jörg Rinklebe, M B Kirkham, Nanthi Bolan

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

91 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Biochar can be an effective carrier for microbial inoculants because of its favourable properties promoting microbial life. In this review, we assess the effectiveness of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications. Biochar is enriched with organic carbon, contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium as nutrients, and has a high porosity and moisture-holding capacity. The large number of active hydroxyl, carboxyl, sulfonic acid group, amino, imino, and acylamino hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups are effective for microbial cell adhesion and proliferation. The use of biochar as a carrier of microbial inoculum has been shown to enhance the persistence, survival and colonization of inoculated microbes in soil and plant roots, which play a crucial role in soil biochemical processes, nutrient, and carbon cycling, and soil contamination remediation. Moreover, biochar-based microbial inoculants including probiotics effectively promote plant growth and remediate soil contaminated with organic pollutants. These findings suggest that biochar can serve as a promising substitute for non-renewable substrates, such as peat, to formulate and deliver microbial inoculants. The future research directions in relation to improving the carrier material performance and expanding the potential applications of this emerging biochar-based microbial immobilization technology have been proposed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number163968
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume886
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2023

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