Factors Determining the Potential of Biochar As a Carbon Capturing and Sequestering Construction Material: Critical Review

Abstract

Biochar is relatively well understood as a soil enhancement. Recently, it has been explored as a construction material. While works had been conducted on deploying biochar for road construction, there is an emerging trend of using biochar as concrete admixture. In comparison, using biochar this way will reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than if carbon is captured and sequestered through mineralization and deployment in construction. The use of biochar-containing construction materials to capture and then lock atmospheric carbon dioxide in buildings and structures can potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 25%. In this review, attention was focused on evaluating biochar’s capability for carbon adsorption, which depends on factors such as pyrolysis conditions (specifically, pyrolysis temperature, heating rate, and pressure) and activation methods (and without surface modification). Gaps in the current literature were identified and important areas for future research proposed.