Challenge 5. Viability of reusing carbon-rich materials for the remediation of contaminated waters and soils
The presence of pollutants in the environment may require the design of remediation actions to reduce their mobility in the soil-water system, such as those based on the use of effective sorbent materials. Our research team has a wide expertise in the characterization of organic and inorganic materials and in the evaluation of their viability and capacity for the retention of pollutants by applying sorption and leaching studies. Nowadays, carbon-rich materials such as biochar seem to be an excellent option for further investigations. Biochars are sustainable materials obtained from the reuse of biomass waste through a process of pyrolysis, in the absence of oxygen, and the research group has demonstrated their high sorption capacity for heavy metals and some organic pollutants that, in some cases, was equal to that of commercial activated carbons. The effectiveness of biochars in the sorption of pollutant is highly dependent of the interaction mechanisms involved and it is required to obtain information of these mechanisms to assess the potential use of biochar in certain remediation actions. In this sense, future investigations of the group will focus on polluted scenarios of current environmental relevance such as the leaching of rare-earth elements or NOR in soil exploitations by industrial activities or the leaching of nitrates from the application of slurries in agriculture. The use of biochar in these situations might help to mitigate the impact of these leachates.
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