Graduate student Fernanda Oliveira’s paper on “Environmental Application of Biochar: Current Status and Perspectives” was one of the Bioresource Technology journal’s 25 most downloaded papers within the past 90 days. The paper was co-authored by her mentor, Molecular Biosciences and Biological Engineering Associate Professor Samir Khanal and former CTAHR post doctoral researcher Anil Patel. It explains the unique properties of biochar that make it an efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly material for the removal of diverse contaminants. The review highlights the vital role that the surface architecture of biochar plays in different environmental applications, particularly pollutants’ interaction with surface functional groups of biochars.
Oliveira, who is from Brazil, joined Khanal’s environmental engineering and resource recovery lab as a PhD student in 2016 and works on hydrogen sulfide removal using biochar. Colleagues from the University of Delaware, Auburn University, and China’s Sun-Yat Sen University also contributed to the article.