Breakthrough in Poultry Farming: Researchers Develop Biochar for Ammonia Removal

Poultry farming has faced significant challenges in mitigating ammonia emissions, a major environmental concern. Researchers from Cairo University have made a breakthrough in developing a novel biochar from date palm waste biomass that can potentially be used to remove ammonia from poultry farms. The study, published in the journal Discover Sustainability, demonstrates the effectiveness of the biochar in adsorbing ammonium ions at high concentrations.

Key Takeaways:

• The research aims to produce biochar from date palm waste biomass using a reactor via slow pyrolysis at 500 °C for one hour.
• The resulting biochar shows high pH (8.65), carbon (41.03%), nitrogen (2.57%), and hydrogen (5.77%) contents, and CEC (23.40 meq/100 g) for biochar without catalysts compared with biomass.
• Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis reveals that the biochar has a rough surface and pores of varying sizes, resulting in a relatively high specific surface area (39.52 m2/g).
• Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) analysis shows that biochar contains oxygen-functional groups, including -OH and C-O-C.
• The results demonstrate that all biochars possess a high sorption affinity for ammonium, achieving an adsorption capacity of ~ 14 mg/g.
• Both Freundlich and Langmuir models reasonably well describe the isotherm data for NH4 + removal from solutions (R2 = 0.994 and 0.911, respectively).
• The study suggests that the pseudo-second-order model is suitable for modeling adsorption kinetics (R2 = 0.94).
• The researchers propose that the developed biochar can be used as a potential solution for ammonia mitigation in poultry farms.

Statistics:

• 500 °C: temperature used for slow pyrolysis to produce biochar
• 41.03%: carbon content in biochar without catalysts
• 23.40 meq/100 g: cation exchange capacity (CEC) of biochar without catalysts
• 39.52 m2/g: specific surface area of biochar without catalysts
• 14 mg/g: adsorption capacity of biochar for ammonium ions
• 0.994 and 0.911: correlation coefficients for Freundlich and Langmuir models, respectively
• 0.94: correlation coefficient for pseudo-second-order model

Sources:

• Catalyzed biochar from date palm waste for ammonium removal: potential application in poultry farms for ammonia mitigation. Discover Sustainability, 2025, 6(1): 1-15. Publisher: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s43621-025-00817-6.
• Cairo University.