Municipal solid waste management and landfilling technologies: a review

Biochar is used for soil conditioning, remediation, carbon sequestration and water remediation. Biochar application to water and wastewater has never been reviewed previously. This review focuses on recent applications of biochars, produced from biomass pyrolysis (slow and fast), in water and wastewater treatment. Slow and fast pyrolysis biochar production is briefly discussed. The literature on sorption of organic and inorganic contaminants by biochars is surveyed and reviewed. Adsorption capacities for organic and inorganic contaminants by different biochars under different operating conditions are summarized and, where possible, compared. Mechanisms responsible for contaminant remediation are briefly discussed. Finally, a few recommendations for further research have been made in the area of biochar development for application to water filtration.

Increased urbanization worldwide has resulted in a substantial increase in energy and material consumption as well as anthropogenic waste generation. The main source for our current needs is petroleum refinery, which have grave impact over energy-environment nexus. Therefore, production of bioenergy and biomaterials have significant potential to contribute and need to meet the ever increasing demand. In this perspective, a biorefinery concept visualizes negative-valued waste as a potential renewable feedstock. This review illustrates different bioprocess based technological models that will pave sustainable avenues for the development of biobased society. The proposed models hypothesize closed loop approach wherein waste is valorised through a cascade of various biotechnological processes addressing circular economy. Biorefinery offers a sustainable green option to utilize waste and to produce a gamut of marketable bioproducts and bioenergy on par to petro-chemical refinery.