Biochar Ecotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture and Environment

Table of Contents

Part 1: Biochar for waste management, circular economy, & carbon neutrality
1. An overview of biochar production and its multifaceted applications for sustainable agriculture and environmental benefits
2. Biochar production to support circular bioeconomy: From waste biomass to a valuable product
3. A practical approach of biochar production and application towards sustainable agricultural waste management and achieving carbon neutrality
4. Biochar production and use among smallholder farmers in rural Uganda: challenges and opportunities for circular economy

Part 2: Biochar production: Techniques & process
5. Transforming contaminated biomass from phytoremediation into biochar
6. Biochar production methods and their diverse applications in improving plant production system to achieve agricultural sustainability
7. Factors influencing biochar properties and relationships with soil applications

Part 3: Biochar for enhancing soil fertility, functioning, & plant responses
8. Recent trends in multifarious benefits of biochar application to soil
9. Biochar for climate change mitigation and soil health management
10. Biochar as an emerging green and sustainable solution for amendment of degraded soil
11. Stability and reactivity of biochar in regulating nutrient dynamics and its supplies in agricultural ecosystems
12. Prospects of biochar for boosting crop productivity and soil sustainability
13. Biochar's potential for enhancing soil functions, nutrient balance and crop productivity in Mediterranean and tropical regions

Part 4: Biochar in managing biogeochemical cycles & greenhouse gases
14. Biochar soil application for sustainable carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation
15. Mechanistic insights into biochar's influence on nitrogen cycle homeostasis, microbial dynamics, and crop productivity in fertilized agroecosystems
16. Investigation into pyrolysis impact on biochar traits, soil microbial community interaction, and nutrient dynamics: Emission and leaching implications
17. Biochar augmentation on soil biotic processes and microbial structure and functions in fertilized tropical cropland

Part 5: Nanotechnological approach for developing biochar-fertilizer
18. Biochar modification methods: Property engineering for diverse value-added applications
19. Engineered biochar-mineral complex as a slow-release fertilizer
20. Biochar-based slow-release fertilizers for sustainable agriculture: A mechanistic overview on process development
21. Mineral-enriched biochar nutritional nanocomposites for enhanced soil properties, biogeochemical cycle and sustainable crop production?: A mechanistic overview
22. Nanotechnological aspects in producing biochar-mineral fertilizer for sustainable and intensive agricultural production: Pre-or Post-pyrolysis biochar modification

Authors

Abhay Kumar Department for Innovation in Biological, Agri-food and Forestry Systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia Viterbo, Italy.

Abhay Kumar is a Researcher at the University of Tuscia's Department of Innovation in

Biological, Agri-food, and Forestry Systems (DIBAF) in Viterbo, Italy. He earned his doctorate in Plant Sciences from the University of Hyderabad in India and spent more than five years as a visiting scientist at the Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center in Israel. In addition, he was involved with two other science-led organizations in Norway, Standard Bio AS and Capturebank AS. He conducts multifaceted and cross-disciplinary environmental and agricultural research on the interactions of Biochar-Soil-Plant-Environment, as well as remediation and recovery of trace heavy metals from contaminated areas. His research efforts are focused on generating carbon-negative, resource-circular biochar and biochar-containing products from diverse agricultural and environmental aspects. These include soil fertility, soil organic matter, carbon sequestration, crop production, key physiological, biochemical, and metabolic processes, abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants, and pollutant cleanup from contaminated locations. His aptitude towards research have resulted in several articles in major journals and books. This honor is bolstered by his work with some journals as a review/guest editor as well as his extensive peer-reviewed record in high-impact journals.

Majeti Narasimha Vara Prasad Emeritus Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India.

Majeti Narasimha Vara Prasad is Emeritus Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the

University of Hyderabad in India. He received his PhD in Botany from Lucknow University,

Lucknow. In past he worked as Lecturer at North Eastern Hill University, Lecturer & Reader at University of Hyderabad. He is also serving as reviewer in many scientific journals. He is professional member of National Institute of Ecology New Delhi, India, Bioenergy Society of India, New Delhi, Indian Network for Soil Contamination Research, New Delhi. He also completed 20 research projects. He has published 179 articles in peer review journals in which contributed as author/co-author. He supervised 17 PhD and 7 M.Phil students, all students received award in his supervision. Pallavi Kumari Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.

Pallavi Kumari is currently employed as a Researcher at the Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She earned her doctorate from the Central University of Jharkhand in India in 2017, and she began her scientific career in the field of Material Science and Nanotechnology. She moved to the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi in India, to pursue her postdoctoral research on the synthesis and nanotechnological characterization of bio-based materials for industrial and agricultural application, and then to the Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center in Israel. Pallavi has also worked as a researcher for the Norwegian firm Capturebank AS, exploring nanotechnological application of developing biochar and biochar-based products for agricultural, agro-industry, and environmental applications. Dr. Kumari's research has given her independent thinking, multidisciplinary research skills, and a good profile in material chemistry, nanotechnology, and polymer science, specifically the synthesis of bio-based nanocomposites materials, and the current book proposal effectively integrates these cross-disciplinary aspects.

Manoj Kumar Solanki University of Silesia, Poland.

Manoj Kumar Solanki is currently employed as a scientist in the Institute of Biology, Biotechnology, and Environment Protection of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. In 2006, he received his master's degree in microbiology from Barkatullah University, and in 2013, he received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Rani Durgawati University in India. He also served as a research associate in a DBTfunded project at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India. He received a visiting scientist fellowship from the Guangxi Academy of Agriculture Sciences in China from 2013 to 2015, as well as a visiting scientist fellowship from the Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization in Israel from 2016 to 2020. He has been involved in numerous research activities on plants-microbes interaction, soil microbiology, plant disease management, enzymology, and microbial genome analysis during his research career, and has published a number of publications in prestigious peer-reviewed international journals and books. He is also expanding his knowledge of agriculturally significant microorganisms, with a focus on soil and crop health management, among other things as well as worked as associate/guest editor for various journals and has sound expertise in editing books and reviewing articles.