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Biochar Mediated Mercury Transport from a Spiked Soil
Citation:
Millard, G., Aaron R. Betts, S. Plunkett, Mark G. Johnson, Chris S. Eckley, AND Todd P. Luxton. Biochar Mediated Mercury Transport from a Spiked Soil. SETAC 2022 North America 43rd Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, November 13 - 17, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
Biochar (BC) is a term applied to a broad category of pyrolyzed carbonaceous material. As a soil amendment, BC has been shown to improve soil fertility for revegetation efforts at contaminated sites as well as potentially sequester organic and inorganic contaminants.
Description:
Biochar (BC) is a term applied to a broad category of pyrolyzed carbonaceous material. As a soil amendment, BC has been shown to improve soil fertility for revegetation efforts at contaminated sites as well as potentially sequester organic and inorganic contaminants. The careful selection of biochar would be particularly important at mercury contaminated sites as organic carbon has been shown to either sequester or increase transport of inorganic mercury. A remediation strategy that enhances transport may cause downstream methylation and be counterproductive as methylmercury strongly bioaccumulates and biomagnifies. Using batch reactors, we examine the effects of four different feedstocks (white oak, wheat straw, swine solids and poultry litter) and four pyrolysis temperatures (300°C, 500°C, 700°C and 900°C) on mercury transport from a Hg(II)-acetate spiked garden soil into water.