RESUMO
Biochar pores in the micrometer range (1-100 µm) derive from cellular structures of the plant biomass subjected to pyrolysis or can be the result of mechanical processing, such as pelleting. In this study, synchrotron X-ray microtomography was used to investigate the internal pore structure of softwood pellet biochar produced by slow pyrolysis at 550 and 700 °C. The microtomographic data sets consisted of 2025 images of 2560 × 2560 voxels with a voxel side length of 0.87 µm. The three-dimensional reconstructions revealed that pelleting and pyrolysis significantly altered the pore structures of the wood feedstock, creating a network of connected pores between fragments that resembled the wood morphology. While higher pyrolysis temperature increased the specific surface area (as determined by BET nitrogen adsorption), it did not affect the total observed porosity. Multifractal analysis was applied to assess the characteristics of the frequency distribution of pores along each of the three dimensions of reconstructed images of five softwood pellet biochar samples. The resulting singularity and Rényi spectra (generalized dimensions) indicated that the distribution of porosity had monofractal scaling behavior, was homogeneous within the analyzed volumes and consistent between replicate samples. Moreover, the pore distributions were isotropic (direction-independent), which is in strong contrast with the anisotropic pore structure of wood. As pores at the scale analyzed in this study are relevant, for example, for the supply of plant accessible water and habitable space for microorganisms, our findings combined with the ability to reproduce biochar with such pore distribution offer substantial advantages in various biochar applications. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42773-021-00104-3.
RESUMO
This study investigated the behavior of biochars from pyrolysis (pyrochar) and hydrothermal carbonization (hydrochar) in anaerobic digestion regarding their degradability and their effects on biogas production and ammonia inhibition. A batch fermentation experiment (42°C, 63 days) was conducted in 100mL syringes filled with 30 g inoculum, 2g biochar and four levels of total ammonium nitrogen (TAN). For pyrochar, no clear effect on biogas production was observed, whereas hydrochar increased the methane yield by 32%. This correlates with the hydrochar's larger fraction of anaerobically degradable carbon (10.4% of total carbon, pyrochar: 0.6%). Kinetic and microbiota analyses revealed that pyrochar can prevent mild ammonia inhibition (2.1 g TANk g(-1)). Stronger inhibitions (3.1-6.6 g TAN kg(-1)) were not mitigated, neither by pyrochar nor by hydrochar. Future research should pay attention to biochar-microbe interactions and the effects in continuously-fed anaerobic digesters.
