Iron-doped biochar, an agricultural and environmentally beneficial fertilizer.

The utilization of agricultural waste to create value-added goods has benefited waste management while resolving cost-effectiveness and food shortage problems. Returning biochar produced from agricultural waste to the agricultural field is a sustainable method of enhancing crop production while lowering the environmental effect of typical fertilizers. It also enhances soil condition by modulating pH, soil organic carbon, water retention capacity, and soil ion exchange potential. The current work concentrated on the production of iron oxide-loaded biochar from banana peels. Pyrolysis was carried out at temperatures ranging from 400 to 500 °C. The co-precipitation technique was utilized to impregnate Fe3O4 nanoparticles on biochar, and it showed to be an effective and trustworthy method. Loading was done in situ. Characterization techniques such as XRD, FTIR, CHNS, and TGA were employed to characterize synthesized materials. Swelling ratio, water retention, absorbance, and equilibrium water content percentage were used to study the adsorption capabilities of Fe3O4-loaded biochar, soil, and raw biochar. As a consequence, Fe3O4-enriched biochar was shown to have better adsorption capability than raw biochar, which in turn showed better adsorption properties than soil. Iron-loaded biochar was employed as a fertilizer in Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra), and the results showed that it is a cost-effective, environmentally friendly fertilizer.

Sequestration of cyanide ions from aqueous medium by physio-chemically fabricated biochar of peels of banana and grape fruit in ecofriendly way.

Pakistan is an agricultural country producing plenty of fruits, like: mango, banana, apple, peaches, grapes, plums, variety of citrus fruits including lemon, grapefruit, and oranges. So far the peels of most of the fruits are usually wasted and not properly utilized anywhere. In this work, the peels of banana and grapefruit are converted into biochar by slow pyrolysis under controlled supply of air and used for sequestering cyanide ions from aqueous medium after chemical modification with ZnCl2 and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The modified biochar was characterized by various instrumental techniques, like: SEM, FTIR, TGA, and CHNS. Different parameters, like: time, temperature, pH, and dose of adsorbent affecting the adsorption of cyanide ions, onto prepared biochar were optimized and to understand the adsorption phenomenon, kinetic and thermodynamic studies were performed. Concentration of cyanide ions was estimated by employing standard ion selective electrode system and it is found that Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate treated biochar of banana peels shown more adsorption capacity, i.e.,: 17.080 mg/g as compared to all samples. Present work revealed that the biochar produced from the fruit waste has sufficient potential to eliminate trace quantities of cyanide from water, especially after treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate.

An industrial area in Asian and African countries where mining is done using traditional techniques is the major cause of cyanide toxicity in wastewater streams. So, here chemically fabricated biochar made by peels of banana and grape fruit is employed for removal of cyanide ion for controlling aquatic pollution using local resources in green way. Favorable results indicated the feasibility of this process, which is cost effective, convenient, ecofriendly, and sustainable.