Characterisation of aged charcoal using a coil probe pyrolysis-GC/MS method optimised for black carbon
✍ Scribed by Joeri Kaal; Antonio Martínez Cortizas; Klaas G.J. Nierop
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 422 KB
- Volume
- 85
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0165-2370
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✦ Synopsis
Charred solid organic residues produced during biomass burning are collectively referred to as black carbon (BC). Depending on the extent of thermal alteration (C enrichment, aromatisation, condensation of aromatics), BC can take any form along the continuum of weakly charred plant material through charcoal to soot [1,2]. While soot is a highly condensed aromatic network formed during recondensation of reactive gases within flames, weakly charred biomass may retain most of the morphological and chemical properties of the fuel [3]. Although the average level of thermal impact on charcoal-BC is somewhere in between that of weakly charred biomass and soot, a charcoal particle can be a heterogeneous mixture of weakly-to-severely aromatised biomass, trapped combustion products and tar, sometimes comprising an uncharred interior [3,4].
Recent studies have shown that BC is not as 'inert' in the environment as previously thought. Post-fire surface oxidation further increases the chemical heterogeneity of BC [5][6][7]. Through oxidation, BC may become extractable in aqueous solutions, allowing it to interfere in humic substances extracts [8-10] and leach out of a soil [11,12]. However, these and other BC 'loss' processes are not profoundly understood, and their effects on different BC types or in different soil types are virtually unknown [3]. This knowledge is urgently needed because (1) BC may have a significant contribution to recalcitrant organic matter and consequently play an important role in global C cycling [13,14], (2) BC immobilises highly toxic organic compounds [15], (3) BC controls