SMART biochar technology—A shifting paradigm towards advanced materials and healthcare research

• Biochar applications range from soil fertility improvement to removal of contaminants.
• New approaches such as engineered and designer biochars are being rapidly developed.
• Biochars developing into advanced materials and healthcare research and applications.
• Biochar technology poised for commercialization in multiple fields.

Biochar, produced through pyrolysis of biomass under low or no oxygen conditions, has found a wide range of applications from soil fertility improvement to removal of contaminants. Initial interest in biochar is to use it as a means to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; however, recent developments are seeing biochar being applied in engineering, and health care and life sciences, some of those applications have large potentials for rapid commercialization. We expect a paradigm shift towards the development of the next generation of biochar with applications in a range of new fields.