Biochar: Fundamentals and Applications in Environmental Science and Remediation Technologies

Ajit K Sarmah is currently an Associate Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Earlier, he worked as Senior Research Scientist at Landcare Research, a Crown Research Institute (CRI) in Hamilton, NZ. He obtained BSc.Ag.Eng (Distinction) from the University of Allahabad, India, followed by MEng (Soil and Water) from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Sarmah worked at the University of Queensland, St. Lucia and obtained a MAgSc (Soil Physics) and completed his PhD from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, investigating the fate and transport modelling of herbicide in highly alkaline soils of Southern Australian wheat growing regions. Following his PhD, Dr. Sarmah spent a year at the University of Western Australia, as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He then took a joint appointment as a Visiting Scientist for few years at the School of Civil Engineering and School of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. At Purdue, Dr. Sarmah worked on a USEPA funded project investigating occurrences and environmental fate of endocrine disrupting chemicals and veterinary antibiotics in the environment. His research interests/expertise includes fate modelling and validation of organic chemicals, exposure modelling, biochar production, characterisation and application in construction and building sector, geotechnical research, composite manufacturing, and novel functional materials from waste coal for roading and paving materials. He served as Associate Editor for Science of the Total Environment (Elsevier) and currently is an Associate Editor for Environmental Management (Springer) and Editorial Board Member for Elsevier’s “Trends in Analytical Chemistry” and two Springer Journals: Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineers and BIOCHAR. He has published 130 journal articles; 8 book chapters and his work has been cited ~10000 times and has h-index of 45. Ajit has supervised 14 PhD and several MEng students to completion to date and maintains a strong scientific network of scientists/engineers working in multi-disciplinary fields across the globe.

• PrefaceAjit K. Sarmah1. Biochar amalgamation with clay: Enhanced performance for environmental remediationThilakshani Atugoda, Ahmed Ashiq, S. Keerthanan, Prabuddhi Wijekoon, Sammani Ramanayaka and Meththika Vithanage2. Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil: Role of biocharLina Gogoi, Rumi Narzari, Rahul S. Chutia, Bikram Borkotoki, Nirmali Gogoi and Rupam Kataki3. Application of biochar for emerging contaminant mitigationElsa Antunes, Arun K. Vuppaladadiyam, Ajit K. Sarmah, S.S.V. Varsha, Kamal Kishore Pant, Bhagyashree Tiwari and Ashish Pandey4. Role of biochar as a cover material in landfill waste disposal system: Perspective on unsaturated hydraulic propertiesSanandam Bordoloi, Janarul Shaikh, Ján Horák, Ankit Garg, S. Sreedeep and Ajit K. Sarmah5. Effects of modified biochar on As-contaminated water and soil: A recent updateJingzi Beiyuan, Yiyin Qin, Qiqi Huang, Hailong Wang, Daniel C.W. Tsang and Jörg Rinklebe6. Biochar for modification of manure propertiesSören Thiele-Bruhn and Anastasiah N. Ngigi7. Biochar role in improving pathogens removal capacity of stormwater biofiltersRenan Valenca, Annesh Borthakur, Huong Le and Sanjay Mohanty8. A relationship paradigm between biochar amendment and greenhouse gas emissionsMohd Ahsaan, Pratibha Tripathi, Anupama and Puja Khare9. Biochar for sustainable agriculture: Prospects and implicationsKumar Raja Vanapalli, Biswajit Samal, Brajesh Kumar Dubey and Jayanta Bhattacharya10. Structure and function of biochar in remediation and as carrier of microbesKim Yrjälä and Eglantina Lopez-Echartea11. Influence of process parameters for production of biochar: A potential tool for an energy transitionBiswajit Samal, Kumar Raja Vanapalli, Brajesh Kumar Dubey and Jayanta Bhattacharya