Biochar: Achieving Agro-Environmental Sustainability

This book is considered a highly eco-friendly and sustainable means to improve soil quality and fertility by influencing the physico-chemical properties of the soil, increasing the mobility of essential elements, and improving the organic carbon content. Biochar has a high carbon content, and its application enhances the soil's capacity to retain nutrients, increases water-holding capacity, and decreases CH₄ emissions.

This book presents to its readers a vivid account of the use of biochar in achieving sustainable agricultural goals. A wide array of topics will be covered, including:

• A general overview of biochar
• Sustainable use of biochar in agriculture and animal husbandry
• Waste and wastewater treatment
• Biochar as a sustainable engineering material

In addition, the book provides a comprehensive account of the use of biochar in stress management and mitigation, soil fertility, and agriculture. It offers possible sustainable solutions for agriculture and environmental management, supported by recent information and up-to-date citations. We believe this book will be of immense importance to readers seeking novel ways to address sustainability issues in agriculture and environmental management.

As we live in a complex environment with multiple interlinked factors playing a pronounced role in modulating our surroundings, biochar has shown its potential as an effective stress ameliorator in multiple niches and has made its mark on the circular bioeconomy. In our opinion, this edited volume will serve as a valuable reference material to summarize what has been achieved so far and where future emphasis is needed.

Dr. Debojyoti Moulick worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Assam University, Silchar, India. In 2018 he bagged the prestigious Research Associateship (DBT-RA) award from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. Recently in 2025, Dr. Moulick have secured his place among world’s top 2% most influential scientists list, across all fields prepared by Stanford University-USA and Elsevier, based on bibliometric data from the Scopus database. He is a graduate in Microbiology and Post-graduate in Biotechnology. He was awarded with M. Phil. and Ph.D degrees in Environmental Science by University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India. Dr. Moulick is also recipient of Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) from the Ministry of Environment and Forest for supporting his Ph.D research. Beside these, he was also awarded Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), Govt. of India. He carried out his PhD work under the supervision of Prof. S.C. Santra, a well-recognized Environmental Biotechnologist and a global expert of arsenic toxicity. Before joining to M. Phil., he worked on gas-hydrates and Geochemical exploration in Geochemistry Division of KDMIPE of ONGC in Dehradun, India under the supervision of Dr. A.K. Jain. Dr. Moulick has gathered extensive experience in biomonitoring, seed priming technology and phytotoxicity, grain quality analysis etc. in soil – water - crop agroecosystem. In 2018, Dr. Moulick’s research work have been recognized by Department of Science and Technology (Govt. of India) in Vigyan Prasar (India Science Wire) and several media hoses as a breakthrough in proposing an alternative, cheap and farmer-friendly mitigation option for minimizing Arsenic-induced phytotoxicity and transmission through rice plant and grain respectively. Apart from these, three edited volumes have published since 2022 {CRC Press (Taylor and Francis Group. Boca Raton (Florida, USA) ISBN: 9781003258063) and second one is from Frontiers Media SA. bearing the ISBN: 978-2-8325-4944-5; Springer Nature Switzerland with ISBN:978-3-031-93956-3. At present, three other edited volumes are undergoing printing stage (Springer Nature, Singapore and Switzerland). Moreover, from February 2017 onwards he has reviewed 350+ papers for various international publication houses, edited book (CRC, Press), empaneled as editorial board member {BMC Plant Biology (Springer Nature), Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (Oxford University Press)}. As of December 2025, Dr. Moulick’s publications are cited over 2570+ times as per Google Scholar with an h-index of 30 and i10 index of 63.

 Dr. Shuvasish Choudhury is an Associate Professor of Plant Science in the Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar, India. He has been included in the world’s top 2% of scientists, as listed by Stanford University, USA, and Elsevier, the Netherlands. He completed his Ph.D. in Life Science from Assam University, Silchar in 2009 and thereafter his post-doctoral research from Oklahoma State University, USA in 2013–2014. His research focuses on understanding the physiological, molecular, and metabolic responses of crop plants under diverse stress conditions. He has published around 80 papers in several journals of international repute and also edited books published by Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Apple Academic Press and Frontiers. His current research includes developing stress resilience through seed priming technology, nutrient management, and achieving the SDGs, specifically by converting waste biomass to biochar and exploring its possible implications for abiotic stress mitigation. Besides this, his research interest also includes the potential applications of polyamines, etc. in stress mitigation as well as metabolomics of abiotic stress in plants. As of February 2026, his publications have been cited 3947 times with an h-index of 29 and an i10 index of 42 as per Google Scholar and 2180 times with an h-index 24 as per Scopus (Science Direct, UK)      

Prof. Jayanta Kumar Biswas is a Full Professor and Head at the International Centre for Ecological Engineering, Department of Ecological Studies, University of Kalyani, India. He holds an M.Sc. in Zoology, M.Phil. in Ecology, and Ph.D. in ecotechnological management of aquatic systems. His research interests include monitoring and risk assessment of soil and water contamination,  ecotoxicology, phyto- and microbial remediation, ecological engineering,  environmental microbiology, nanobiotechnology, and environmental sustainability. He has received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships. He has been serving as Asian Chair (from India) of the Board of the Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health (UK) since 2023. He has been featured in Stanford's List of World's Top 2% Scientists. He is credited with publishing 9 books (from Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, etc), >190 original research papers in reputed international journals, and 56 book chapters, with >9550 citations, H-Index: 51, i10-Index: 170, and cumulative Impact Factor >800. He serves on the editorial boards of a dozen of international journals published by Elsevier, Springer, Oxford University Press, Sage, etc. as Associate Editor, Advisory Board Member and Editorial Board Member. 

Meththika Vithanage is a Professor of Water Quality in GEUS, Denmark and founder of the Ecosphere Resilience Research Centre, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Her academic background covers hydrogeochemistry, environmental remediation of toxic metals, antibiotics, agrochemicals, serpentine soil chemistry, atmospheric pollution monitoring, waste biomass conversion and microplastics. She is a Highly Cited Researcher – 2021 by Clarivate. She received the prestigious Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi award from The World Academy of Science (TWAS) in 2020. Further, she was listed as Top 2% of the most cited scientists across various disciplines globally in 2017 to 2023. She has contributed over 290 Science Citation Indexed journal articles, over 80 book chapters and 12 co-edited books published by Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and CRC Press. Her citation record is over to 29,000 with an H index of 88. Her contribution to the newspaper articles exceeds 100. She additionally contributed to 2 Korean patents and 1 Sri Lankan patent for environmental remediation of antibiotics using biochar and synthesis of nanozero valent iron.