Departamento de Producción Agraria. E.T.S.I. Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
School of Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2018 Sep;25(26):26461-26469. doi: 10.1007/s11356-018-2703-x. Epub 2018 Jul 10.
Gasification and torrefaction have both gained significant interest as bioenergy techniques. During biomass gasification together with fuel gas, carbon-rich solid substances are produced, whereas torrefaction process is mainly used to prepare a final product with higher calorific value and carbon content than the feedstock, through a low temperature pyrolysis. Both materials (carbon wastes from gasification and torrefied product) could be classified as alternatives to biochar obtained from slow pyrolysis of biomass. The use of biochar, typically from the slow pyrolysis of biomass, as soil amendment and, more recently, as growing media components has been widely researched. However, to our knowledge, no studies have compared the use of biochar from gasification and torrefaction as growing media component for growing media formulation. The objective of this work was to study the effect of two biochars on peat-based growing media: a pinewood gasification biochar (BG) and a biochar (BT) obtained by torrefaction of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Growing media mixing PT (peat) with 50%vol of BG or BT were prepared and characterized according to their chemical, thermal and hydrophysical properties. Phytotoxic experiments and growth of Lolium perenne were also performed. Results indicated that peat substitution in growing media by BG and BT at a 50%vol ratio improved their hydrophysical properties. Specifically, bulk density increased more than 50%, air space increased by 43%, the increment of the total porosity was 20%, and, finally, the water holding capacity increased by 18.3%. Significantly, a positive effect on plant biomass production (yield increment: 274%) was observed after addition of BT, whereas no significant differences were observed after addition of BG biochar. Therefore, it can be concluded that both BT and BG could be used as peat substitutes in growing media formulation.
气化和热解都作为生物能源技术得到了广泛关注。在生物质气化过程中，会产生富含碳的固体物质，而热解过程主要用于通过低温热解制备比原料具有更高热值和碳含量的最终产品。这两种材料（气化的碳废物和热解产物）都可以归类为生物质慢速热解得到的生物炭的替代品。生物炭通常由生物质慢速热解得到，作为土壤改良剂，最近又作为生长介质成分得到了广泛研究。然而，据我们所知，尚未有研究比较气化和热解生物炭作为生长介质成分用于生长介质配方。本工作的目的是研究两种生物炭对基于泥炭的生长介质的影响：松木气化生物炭（BG）和通过城市固体废物有机部分热解得到的生物炭（BT）。制备了将泥炭（PT）与 50%vol 的 BG 或 BT 混合的生长介质，并根据其化学、热和水物理性质进行了表征。还进行了植物毒性实验和黑麦草的生长实验。结果表明，BG 和 BT 在 50%vol 比例下替代生长介质中的泥炭可以改善其水物理性质。具体来说，堆积密度增加了 50%以上，空气空间增加了 43%，总孔隙率增加了 20%，最后，持水能力增加了 18.3%。值得注意的是，添加 BT 后对植物生物量生产（产量增加：274%）有积极影响，而添加 BG 生物炭后则没有观察到显著差异。因此，可以得出结论，BT 和 BG 都可以用作生长介质配方中泥炭的替代品。
