Characterization of Biochar from Various Carbon Sources
Hendrix Yulis Setyawan (a*), Nimas Mayang Sabrina Sunyoto (a), Yusron Sugiarto (b), Beauty Suestining Dyah Dewanti (a), Vindhya Tri Widayanti (a), Lukman Hakim (d), Syahrul Kurniawan (c), Gabryna Auliya Nugroho (c), Devy Ulandari (a), Annisa Choirun (e), Fasa Aditya Hanindipto (f), Shafira Arini Sundari (a), Ilham Akbar Pamungkas (a), Andhika Putra Agus Pratama (a)

a) Department of Agro-industrial Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Universitas Brawijaya, Jalan Veteran Malang 65145 Indonesia
*hendrix[at]ub.ac.id
b) Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Universitas Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran Malang 65145 Indonesia
c) Department of Soil Science, Agriculture Faculty, Universitas Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran Malang 65145 Indonesia
d) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran Malang 65145 Indonesia
e) Department of Agricultural Technology, Politeknik Negeri Jember, Indonesia
f) Indonesia Research Fertilizer Institute, PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), Indonesia

Abstract

Various types of carbon sources, including rice husk, corn cobs and bagasse sugarcane can be transformed into new material such as biochar. Biochar is a carbon rich material, by product of bioenergy generated through pyrolysis. A lot of studies have proven that biochar is a good soil amendment and can be used as a carrier for some elements of plant nutrition. The purpose of this study was to produce biochar with optimum characteristics including its moisture content, ash content, fixed carbon content, volatile matter, calorific value, particle size and its elemental analysis results. This study was conducted using a Randomized Group Design with three replications. Three carbon sources, rice husk (RH), corn cobs (CC), and Bagasse Sugarcane (BS) was pyrolised for 2 hours at temperature of 400 oC, 500 oC and 600 oC. The results of this study was the temperature of pyrolysis at 600 oC can optimally produce biochar with lowest moisture content, ash content and volatile matter value, and highest fixed carbon and calorific values. The particle size analysis shows that biochar produced using this optimum condition process has the smallest average particle size distribution. The elemental analysis conducted through SEM-EDX shows some various elements in each biochar produced from the three different carbon sources.

Keywords: Biochar- Carbon- Characterization

Topic: Waste and environmental management