Biochar interactions with organic pollutants and pesticides (REIDU14EE)

This project is a collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and draws together supervisors who are at the forefront of biochar research in China and the UK. The studentship will be hosted by UEA with CAS supporting a research visit of up to 6 months to its Institute of Urban Environment in Xiamen, China.

Biochar has received a great deal of interest on account of its projected potential to make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation. The underpinning of this potential comes from the fact that biochar, because of its recalcitrant properties and resistance to degradation, represents as very stable store of carbon. The carbon in biochar owes it origin to atmospheric CO2 that is sequestered into biomass; this biomass is then converted to biochar. When this biochar is buried in the soil the carbon that was once in the atmosphere is in effect transferred to the soil where it persists for hundreds of years. In this way biochar affords the possibility of long-term carbon storage.

Having been deposited in the soil biochar has cascading interactions with the soil’s mineral particles, its organic matter, its nutrients, other chemicals and its biota. One area that has emerged as of interest is the implications for biochar to interact with organic chemicals within soil.

Research has indicated that biochar changes the partitioning and availability of organic chemicals in soil. As a consequence there is a pressing need to establish the mechanism through which organic pollutants and pesticides interaction with biochar. On one hand chemical sequestration could be seen as a beneficial outcome as it will reduce exposure to non-target receptors - for example, soil biota, plants/crops and groundwater. Biochar application to soil therefore has the potential to provide environmental protection by reducing chemical mobility. On the other hand the sequestration of pesticides in biochar-amended soils would be expected to impair the efficacy of soil-applied pesticides. This, in turn, could potentially decrease crop yields.

This PhD project aims to establish the efficacy of biochar to: i) ameliorate contaminated land, ii) act as a barrier material to prevent the movement of organic pollutants and pesticides to non-target receptors, and iii) to reduce the transfer of organic pollutants and pesticides from soil to crop plants.

The research will involve a combination of laboratory and field work. Laboratory work will consider sorption dynamics in batch equilibration experiments and column transport studies. Field sites in Norfolk have already been prepared with contrasting loadings of biochar; this research will make use of this resource.

This project has been shortlisted for funding by the newly-created ENV East Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) – a collaboration led by the University of East Anglia, with the Universities of Essex and Kent, and twenty other partners. Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed as part of the Studentship Competition. Interviews will take place on 6 June 2014 at one of the three Universities listed above.