Browsing by Author "Shengdao Shan"

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Machine learning prediction of biochar properties derived from food waste
(Elsevier Ltd, 2025) Ekaterina Kravchenko; Tatiana Mikhailovna Minkina; Dariya A. Privizentseva; Maksim S. Zhelnin; Tatiana Vladimirovna Bauer; Yufei Zhao; S. Srivastava; Shengdao Shan
As the global population continues to grow and urban infrastructure expands, the pyrolysis of food waste has emerged as a sustainable and efficient alternative to landfill disposal, addressing the challenges posed by limited land resources. Biochar, a carbon-rich byproduct of this process, supports the circular economy and serves various environmental applications. Its yield impacts production costs, while specific surface area (SSA) is critical for applications like adsorption, catalysis, and pollutant removal in wastewater treatment and agriculture. In this study, a comprehensive laboratory investigation of biochars derived from food waste (onion husks, potato peels, pea pods, pepper seeds, and eggshells) was conducted under varying pyrolysis conditions. Temperature (300-900 °C), residence time (30-75 min), and heating rate (5-20 °C/min) were systematically varied to analyze their effects on biochar yield and SSA. This study also proposes a machine learning approach to efficiently predict and analyze biochar properties, utilizing cross-validation and hyperparameter tuning to enhance its effectiveness in practical applications. The study highlights the effectiveness of machine learning in accurately predicting SSA, with CatBoost and XGBoost demonstrating high predictive performance. Pyrolysis temperature was identified as the most influential parameter, followed by residence time and heating rate, offering valuable insights for optimizing biochar production. The findings highlight the potential of machine learning to revolutionize biochar production, offering a scalable and resource-efficient approach to maximizing its environmental and economic benefits. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd.
Nano-biochar: A novel solution for sustainable agriculture and environmental remediation
(Academic Press Inc., 2022) Vishnu D. Rajput; Tatiana Minkina; Bilal Ahmed; Vipin Kumar Singh; Saglara Mandzhieva; Svetlana Sushkova; Tatiana Bauer; Krishan K. Verma; Shengdao Shan; Eric D. van Hullebusch; Bing Wang
Currently, the applications of biochar (BC) in agricultural practices and for environmental remediation purposes have demonstrated multifaceted advantages despite a few limitations. Nano-BC offers considerable opportunities especially for the remediation of hazardous contaminants as well as the improvement of crop productivity. Positive outcomes of nano-BC on soil physico-chemical and biological characteristics have indicated its suitability for agricultural applications. Nano-BC may effectively regulate the mobilization and sorption of important micro- and macro-nutrients, along with the hazardous contaminants including potentially toxic metals, pesticides, etc. Additionally, the sorption characteristics of nano-BC depends substantially on feedstock materials and pyrolysis temperatures. Nevertheless, the conducted investigations regarding nano-BC are in infant stages, requiring extensive field investigations. The nano-enhanced properties of BC on one hand dramatically improve its effectiveness and sustainability, on the other hand, there may be associated with toxicity development in diverse aquatic and/or terrestrial environments. Therefore, risk assessment on soil organisms and its indirect impact on human health is another area of concern linked with the field application of nano-BC. The present review delineates the potentiality of nano-BC as an emerging sorbent for sustainable agriculture and environmental applications. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.
Nanomaterials for Water Remediation: An Efficient Strategy for Prevention of Metal(loid) Hazard
(MDPI, 2022) Jyoti Mathur; Pooja Goswami; Ankita Gupta; Sudhakar Srivastava; Tatiana Minkina; Shengdao Shan; Vishnu D. Rajput
Different natural and anthropogenic global events and activities such as urban settlements and industrial development have led to a build-up of numerous pollutants in the environment, creating problems for nature and human health. Among the pollutants, metal(loid)s are persistent and ubiquitously present in the soil, water, and air. The presence of high concentrations of metal(loid)s in water is of serious concern, as water is a basic necessity of humans and plants. Through irrigation, metal(loid)s enter and accumulate in plants, and subsequently reach humans via food. There is demand for sustainable and practical technologies for tackling the challenge of metal(loid) pollution. Nanotechnology has found its place in diverse fields including cosmetics, sensors, remediation, and medicine. Nanoremediation is an effective, feasible, and sustainable technology for cleaning up water contaminated with metal(loid)s and other chemicals. The versatility of nanomaterials is huge due to their differences in size, shape, surface chemistry, and chemical composition. This review sheds light on different nanoparticles (NPs) used for water remediation and summarizes key recent findings. The successful application of NPs in laboratory studies warrants their potential use in water clean-up from a small to a large scale. © 2022 by the authors.
Negative impacts of perishable waste biochar to Escherichia coli and exploring potential damage factors
(Elsevier B.V., 2024) Xuan Gao; Chao Li; Haozhe Zhang; Lingya Jiang; Jing Fang; Min Zhang; Shengdao Shan; Rixiang Huang; Tatiana Minkina; Sudhakar Srivastava
Agricultural application of pyrolysis‑carbonized perishable wastes can target reduction treatment and resource utilization of the wastes. However, potential undesirable impact has rarely been assessed. In this study, the adverse effect of perishable waste biochars (PWB) from different pyrolysis temperatures on Escherichia coli (E. coli) was explored and the potential risk factors were further analyzed. The results showed that PWBs pyrolyzed at 350, 500, and 650 °C inhibited the growth of E. coli, and PWB pyrolyzed at 500 °C showed the most inhibition. The exposure to PWB damaged the antioxidative system, as revealed by the concentration-dependent increasing of intracellular ROS. In addition, the toxicity at the gene level in terms of cell division and growth inhibition, the damage of cell membrane, antioxidant system disturbance, and DNA damage occurred, resulting in loss of the cell rules of morphology and eventual death. According to our results, the inhibitory effect on the growth of E. coli was mainly caused by PWB solids, accounting for >70 %. The membrane disruption and oxidative damage of E. coli by PWB were possibly induced by the direct physical interaction between cell and char particles. The growth of E. coli can be partly influenced by PWB extraction solutions that varied between PWB types, due to the differences in pH, released DOC and the production of extracellular ∙OH. The exploration of these potential hazards could provide new insights into the fate and toxicity of PWB in the environment and help guide the safe and sustainable applications for PWB. © 2024
Pyrolysis temperature affects the inhibitory mechanism of biochars on the mobility of extracellular antibiotic resistance genes in saturated porous media
(Elsevier B.V., 2022) Jing Fang; Wenchao Li; Yiyang Tian; Zhiwen Chen; Yijun Yu; Shengdao Shan; Vishnu D. Rajput; Sudhakar Srivastava; Daohui Lin
The migration of extracellular antibiotic resistance genes (eARGs) in porous media is an important pathway for ARGs to spread to the subsoil and aquifer. Biochar (BC) has been widely used to reduce the mobility of soil contaminants, however, its effect on the mobility of eARGs in porous media and the mechanisms are largely unknown. Herein, the effects of BCs synthesized from wheat straw and corn straw at two pyrolysis temperatures (300 °C and 700 °C) on the transport of plasmids-carried eARGs in sand column were investigated. The BC amendments all significantly decreased the mobility of eARGs in the porous medium, but the mechanism varied with pyrolysis temperature. The higher temperature BCs had a stronger irreversible adsorption of plasmids and greatly enhanced the attachment and straining effects on plasmids during transport, thus more effectively inhibited the mobility of eARGs. The lower temperature BCs had weaker adsorption, attachment, and straining effects on plasmids, but induced generation of hydroxyl radicals in the porous medium and thereby fragmented the plasmids and hindered the amplification of eARGs. These findings are of fundamental significance for the potential application of BC in controlling the vertical spread of eARGs in soil and vadose zones. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
Sulfur-modified tea-waste biochar improves rice growth in arsenic contaminated soil and reduces arsenic accumulation
(Elsevier Inc., 2024) Saurabh Kumar Pathak; Shraddha Singh; Vishnu D. Rajput; Shengdao Shan; Sudhakar Srivastava
Arsenic (As) is a non-essential carcinogenic metalloid and an issue of concern for rice crops. This study investigated the effects of sulfur-loaded tea waste biochar (TWB) due to modification with sodium sulfide (SSTWB) or thiourea (TUTWB) on As stress and accumulation in rice plants. The results showed that sulfur-modified TWB improved plant morphology compared to plants grown in As-contaminated soil alone. Biochar amendments elevated the activity of antioxidant enzymes in rice plants harvested at 15 and 30 days after transplant (DAT). Additionally, SSTWB and TUTWB significantly reduced As content in shoots by 26% and 19% at 15 DAT, respectively, as compared to TWB. This trend continued at 30 DAT with SSTWB achieving the maximum decrease of 30%. Similar reductions were observed in plant roots. The study suggests that sulfur-modified biochar amendments offer a promising strategy to mitigate the negative effects of As on, and reduce its accumulation in, rice. © 2024 The Authors