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Effects of Corn Cob Produced Biochars on Urea Recovery from Human Urine and Their Application as Soil Conditioners
Author(s) -
Zhang Yang,
Li Zifu,
Mahmood Ibrahim Babatunde
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
clean – soil, air, water
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1863-0669
pISSN - 1863-0650
DOI - 10.1002/clen.201400489
Subject(s) - sorption , biochar , freundlich equation , pyrolysis , adsorption , chemistry , langmuir , urea , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , environmental chemistry , nuclear chemistry , chromatography , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering
The sorption of urea to biochars produced by pyrolysis of corn cob (CC) with different pyrolytic temperatures was investigated to understand its related sorption mechanisms. Biochar samples were studied by elemental analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform IR spectroscopy. Batch sorption experiments revealed that the Freundlich isotherm model ( R 2 = 0.999) fitted better with the sorption process than the Langmuir and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models. Furthermore, the sorption mechanisms of biochars derived from CC changed from adsorption‐dominant at low pyrolysis temperatures (300 and 400°C) to partitioning‐dominant at higher pyrolysis temperatures (500 and 600°C). Column study indicated that CC‐300 has the highest urea sorption capacity with 20.9 mg g −1 followed by CC‐400, CC‐500, and CC‐600. A germination test was also conducted and the results showed that the exhausted biochar positively influenced the plant growth and can be potentially used as soil conditioner.