Desiccation Cracks Mitigation Using Biomass Derived Carbon Produced from Aquatic Species in South China Sea

Abstract: Greenhouse gasses generated from the degradation of solid waste pass through landfill covers and participate in climate change. The formation of desiccation cracks in surface soil leads to direct interaction of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. In current study, attempts were made to reduce crack damage and water evaporation of a sandy soil amended with intrusive aquatic biomass derived carbon (water hyacinth and dry algae) also known as biochar. The results show that, the addition of water hyacinth biochar (WHB) and algae biochar (AB) reduced the evaporation rate of densely compacted soil and increases the water retention capacity of soil at 5% and 10% application rate. Furthermore, WHB produced at high temperature has more potential in reducing cracks than that produced at lower temperature. WHB showed better performance than AB at any temperature (i.e. 300 °C, 400 °C and 700 °C) due to its highly porous structure. The current study concludes that biochars from aquatic weeds can be utilized for soil remediation (i.e., minimizing cracking and evaporation rate), which is useful in both waste management and agricultural applications. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].