Electro-active biochar: scalable bioelectrodes to ‘power’ circular resource recovery and soil carbon sinks (e-Biochar)

The use of biochar and the re-use of spent bioelectrodes as amendment in agricultural soil opens a new perspective of research on soil microbiology and biogeochemistry: electro-fertilization (e-fertilization). The project: in WP1, we will firstly study the electrochemical properties of commercial biochar, furnished from different stakeholders of the pyrolysis sector (see engagement letters). Secondly, we will aim at enhancing biochar’s electroactive properties, playing with pyrolysis process, surface chemistry and biomaterials design. In WP2, new composite bioelectrodes based on e-Biochar will be developed. e-biochar-based bioelectrodes will be applied at lab-scale in innovative designs of microbial recycling cells, where agro-food wastewater are treated to recycle plant nutrients (N,P,K,Ca,Fe, etc.) to agricultural soil. These new bioelectrodes will be coupled to established technologies based on METs, such as i-METlands and e-BioPond, to improve their nutrients recycling capacity. In WP3, we will introduce a lab-scale study of e-fertilization: what role biochar’s electro-active properties (as-it-is or enriched with plant-nutrients) may play in influencing microbial and biogeochemical soil processes? In addition, we will have the chance of collecting field-data in biochar-amended maize cultivation trials (thanks to the synergy with an already on-going project: INFOCHAR, PSR, Lombardy Region), looking at the electroactive microbial communities of the rhizosphere/rhyzoplan. In WP4, we will evaluate these points as a new circular resource-recovery scheme, with life cycle assessment and economic tools, to simulate possible large-scale application of such concepts.