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Glossary of terms used in biochar research (IUPAC Technical Report)

Published/Copyright: January 20, 2025
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Chemistry International
From the journal Chemistry International Volume 47 Issue 1

Fotis Bilias, Divine Damertey Sewu, Seung Han Woo, Ioannis Anastopoulos, Frank Verheijen, Johannes Lehmann, Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira, Dionisios Gasparatos, Kathleen Draper and Dimitrios Kalderis

Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2014

Vol. 96, no. 11, 2024, pp. 1541-1572

https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2021-0106

Biochar is the solid carbonaceous product of biomass pyrolysis. The properties of biochar depend on the biomass feedstock as well as the pyrolysis temperature and time. Therefore, biochars with different properties and functionalities can be produced. Biochar research has been intensive in the past 15 years, focusing mainly on soil applications, wastewater treatment, and contaminant remediation. However, a formal definition of biochar and related terms is missing, which hinders the standardization of scientific results worldwide and the scaling-up of research at the industrial level. Furthermore, an official terminology may promote the development of a harmonized legal framework for biochar production and applications, both at regional and national levels. This glossary of terms consists of 178 scientifically sound definitions of the most commonly used terms in biochar research. The definitions of this glossary are interconnected, allowing the reader to further explore the synergies between terms. The distribution of terms reflects the multidisciplinarity of biochar research: chemistry, material science and engineering, and soil science are the main disciplines represented here. The list of terms is by no means exhaustive and the strategic objective of this effort is to develop a dynamic document in which more terms will be added in the future, and the existing ones will be refined, as biochar research evolves.

https://iupac.org/project/2015-056-3-600/

Published Online: 2025-01-20
Published in Print: 2025-01-01

©2025 by IUPAC & De Gruyter

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2025-0120
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead - Full issue pdf
  2. President’s Column
  3. The IUPAC-Soong Prize for Sustainable Chemistry—the first IUPAC presidential prize
  4. Features
  5. Hazard Information Profiles
  6. Global Conversation on Sustainability
  7. Scientists Reviewed 7,000 Studies on Microplastics.
  8. IUPAC Wire
  9. Standard atomic weights of three technology critical elements revised
  10. IUPAC-Soong Prize for Sustainable Chemistry
  11. Green Chemistry for Life grants presented to Top Young Scientists
  12. Election of IUPAC Officers, Members of the Executive Board and Science Board
  13. 2025 IUPAC International Award for Advances in Harmonized Approaches to Crop Protection Chemistry—Call for Nominations
  14. 2025 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists—Call for applicants
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  16. In memoriam: Morton Z. Hoffman
  17. Project Place
  18. Advanced methods for assessment of risks of false decisions in analytical chemistry (testing) laboratories—basic concepts and associated terms
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  20. Molecular Machine Terminology
  21. Terminology and Classification of Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
  22. Chemistry Entrepreneurship
  23. Multilingual Encyclopedia Polymer Science—Improving Communication in Science and Education
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  36. Global Gathering of Chemistry Experts: IUPAC 2025 Comes to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!
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