Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Advances and prospects of biochar in improving soil fertility, biochemical quality, and environmental applications

This review examines how biochar, a charcoal-like material made from organic waste, can improve soil health and clean up pollutants including microplastics. Biochar's ability to absorb and trap contaminants makes it a promising tool for reducing microplastic pollution in agricultural soil. The findings suggest biochar could help limit the amount of microplastics that enter the food chain through crops grown in contaminated soil.

2023 Frontiers in Environmental Science 127 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar Acts as an Emerging Soil Amendment and Its Potential Ecological Risks: A Review

This review examines the use of biochar as a soil amendment, highlighting its benefits for improving soil properties, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing fertility. Researchers also discuss the potential ecological risks, including the presence of contaminants and the interactions between biochar and pollutants such as microplastics and heavy metals in soil. The study emphasizes that while biochar offers promise for sustainable agriculture, its long-term environmental impacts require further investigation.

2022 Energies 46 citations
Article Tier 2

Potential Role of Biochar on Capturing Soil Nutrients, Carbon Sequestration and Managing Environmental Challenges: A Review

This review summarizes how biochar, a charcoal-like material made from plant waste, can improve soil health, capture nutrients, and store carbon. Biochar is also being studied as a tool to absorb pollutants including microplastics from soil and water, making it relevant to efforts to reduce human exposure to plastic contamination in agriculture and the food chain.

2023 Sustainability 167 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar as an Environment-Friendly Alternative for Multiple Applications

This review summarizes how biochar, a charcoal-like material made from plant waste, can be used for carbon storage, improving soil health, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, biochar shows potential for reducing microplastic and heavy metal contamination in soil by binding these pollutants and preventing them from being absorbed by crops. This makes biochar a promising tool for protecting food safety in agricultural soils contaminated with microplastics.

2023 Sustainability 41 citations
Review Tier 2

Advancing modified biochar for sustainable agriculture: a comprehensive review on characterization, analysis, and soil performance

This review covers how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, can be modified to improve soil health and crop growth. While not directly about microplastics, modified biochar has been studied as a potential tool for absorbing and immobilizing microplastics in contaminated soil. Understanding how to optimize biochar properties could help develop strategies for reducing microplastic uptake by food crops.

2025 Biochar 42 citations
Article Tier 2

Remediation of emerging pollutants using biochar derived from aquatic biomass for sustainable waste and pollution management: a review

This review evaluates the use of biochar made from aquatic biomass, such as algae and aquatic plants, for removing emerging pollutants like pharmaceuticals and microplastics from contaminated environments. Researchers found that aquatic biomass-derived biochar can be an effective and low-cost adsorbent for a variety of pollutants. The study highlights the dual benefit of managing aquatic waste while creating useful materials for environmental cleanup.

2023 Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology 29 citations
Article Tier 2

Applications of biochar in the remediation of soil microplastic pollution: A review

Researchers reviewed the use of biochar as a tool for remediating microplastic-contaminated soil. The study found that biochar application shows promise for addressing soil microplastic pollution by altering soil properties in ways that can reduce microplastic mobility and mitigate their negative effects on soil structure, plant growth, and biogeochemical cycling.

2025 Soil Science Society of America Journal 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar as a Green Sorbent for Remediation of Polluted Soils and Associated Toxicity Risks: A Critical Review

This review examines biochar, a charcoal-like material made from organic waste, as a tool for cleaning up soil contaminated with heavy metals and organic pollutants. While biochar can effectively trap contaminants, the production process itself can create toxic byproducts like PAHs that may harm soil life. The research is relevant to microplastic pollution because biochar is being explored as a potential method to bind and reduce microplastic contamination in agricultural soils.

2023 Separations 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Sludge-derived biochar: Physicochemical characteristics for environmental remediation

This review examines how sewage sludge can be converted into biochar, a carbon-rich material useful for cleaning up environmental contaminants including microplastics and heavy metals from water and soil. The process turns a waste product into an effective pollution filter while reducing the volume of sludge that needs disposal. This approach is relevant to microplastics research because biochar could help remove plastic particles from contaminated water and agricultural land.

2023 Applied Physics Reviews 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Challenges in safe environmental applications of biochar: identifying risks and unintended consequence

This review examines the overlooked risks of biochar, a charcoal-like material often added to soil for environmental benefits. When biochar breaks down, it can release pollutants including microplastics, heavy metals, and other harmful chemicals into the environment. The authors stress that the environmental and health risks of biochar need careful evaluation before it is widely used in agriculture and land management.

2025 Biochar 57 citations
Article Tier 2

Combined effect of biochar and soil moisture on soil chemical properties and microbial community composition in microplastic‐contaminated agricultural soil

Biochar was applied to microplastic-contaminated agricultural soil under different moisture conditions, with results showing that biochar improved soil chemical properties and shifted microbial communities in ways that partially offset microplastic-induced degradation. The study suggests biochar as a practical soil amendment to mitigate microplastic impacts in farming systems.

2022 Soil Use and Management 49 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar-based adsorption technologies for microplastic remediation in aquatic ecosystems

This review examines the use of biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, as a tool for removing microplastics from water. Biochar can effectively adsorb microplastic particles due to its porous structure and surface chemistry, and it can be produced cheaply from agricultural waste. The technology shows promise as an affordable and sustainable approach to reducing microplastic contamination in waterways, though challenges remain in scaling it up for real-world water treatment.

2025 AIP Advances 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Turning trash into tools: agricultural waste-derived biochars and composites for microplastic removal from wastewater

This review examined the use of agricultural waste-derived biochars and biochar composites as sustainable sorbents for microplastic removal from wastewater. Researchers summarised how engineered biochars produced from crop residues and other agricultural biowaste can be functionalized to achieve efficient microplastic remediation, offering a circular economy approach to both waste valorisation and pollution control.

2025 RSC Sustainability
Article Tier 2

Role of biochar toward carbon neutrality

This review examines how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from plant waste, can help fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions across agriculture, energy, and construction. While not directly about microplastics, biochar is also used as an environmental cleanup tool that can adsorb pollutants from soil and water, including plastic particles.

2023 Carbon Research 170 citations
Article Tier 2

How biochar works, and when it doesn't: A review of mechanisms controlling soil and plant responses to biochar

This comprehensive review synthesizes 20 years of research on biochar, a charcoal-like material made from organic waste that can improve soil health and reduce pollution. Biochar can reduce plant uptake of heavy metals by 17-39% and increase nutrient availability, making it potentially useful for cleaning up microplastic-contaminated soils. While not directly about microplastics, the findings are relevant because biochar could help mitigate the effects of soil pollutants that microplastics carry and concentrate.

2021 GCB Bioenergy 872 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar's Effects and Operations on Microbial Life within the Soil Ecosystem- A Review

Not directly relevant to microplastics — this review examines how biochar additions to soil affect microbial community structure, enzymatic activity, and contaminant transformation, without a specific focus on microplastics.

2023 International Journal of Plant & Soil Science
Article Tier 2

Trends in the applications of biochar for the abatement of microplastics in water

This review examines how biochar can be used to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from water, summarizing recent advances in biochar modification strategies that improve adsorption capacity and minimize secondary pollution risks.

2025 Bioresource Technology Reports
Article Tier 2

Addressing the Microplastic Dilemma in Soil and Sediment with Focus on Biochar-Based Remediation Techniques: Review

This review examines how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, can be used to remediate microplastic-contaminated soils and sediments. Researchers found that biochar can adsorb microplastics and reduce their mobility, while also improving overall soil health and microbial activity. The study highlights biochar-based approaches as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly strategy for addressing microplastic pollution in terrestrial environments.

2023 Soil Systems 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Adsorptive behavior of micro(nano)plastics through biochar: Co-existence, consequences, and challenges in contaminated ecosystems

This review examines how biochar can adsorb micro- and nanoplastics with over 90% removal efficiency in aqueous systems, while also discussing their combined effects on soil properties, microbial communities, and plant growth.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 138 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in biochar technology for aquatic pollution control: a critical review of applications, barriers, and future opportunities

Researchers reviewed two decades of research on biochar — a charcoal-like material made from organic waste — as a low-cost tool for removing pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, microplastics, and nutrients from water, achieving up to 80% pollutant removal. While promising, challenges in regeneration and scaling up production remain barriers to widespread use.

2025 Discover Sustainability 8 citations