A review of recent developments in catalytic applications of biochar-based materials

Biochar, produced by the thermal decomposition of various biomass sources, is applied in different fields of research due to its distinctive properties. With the recent explosion of methods of a large-scale synthesis of biochar, the number of literatures relevant to biochar and biochar based materials has increased exponentially. This review exclusively focuses on the current development of biochar based functional catalysts, and provides critical emphasis on the different applications in various reactions, including (trans)esterification, catalytic reforming/cracking, gasification/pyrolysis, hydrolysis, electrochemical reactions, photocatalytic and persulfate/peroxymonosulfate oxidation, etc. Thus, in this review, we firstly present a brief description of the design and synthesis of the biochar based catalyst, and then summary the applications of these biochar based catalysts based upon different reactions. Finally, the current advances and the future perspectives of the biochar catalysts will be presented. Hopefully, this review will offer a perspective and guidelines for the future research and development of biochar based catalysts