Sustainability considerations of biochar production in biowaste management

Large volumes of biowastes including municipal solid waste, agricultural residues, animal manure, and biosolids are generated continually with the growth of global population. These biowastes can pose a huge threat to the ecosystem and human health if managed inappropriately. Commonly, conventional strategies for biowastes management such as burning, open dumpling, and landfilling can cause a lot of environmental issues like greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water, and soil pollutions that are hazardous to all living beings including humans. However, these biowastes can be considered as valuable resources if they are handled responsibly that will not only reduce the problem of biowastes management, but also generate value-added products and bioenergy to meet the ever-increasing resource and energy demands. The conversion of biowastes to biochar with the production of bio-oil as byproducts has been considered as a potential alternative for biowastes management, which is economically viable and environmentally sustainable. This chapter focuses on sources of biowastes, the comparison of environmental impacts of biowaste management between biochar productions and the conventional management methods, as well as technologies for the sustainable biochar production from biowastes. Furthermore, environmental benefits of biochar production from biowastes are discussed in this chapter as well. Future perspectives on commercial biochar production from biowastes are discussed. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.