Biochar in Agriculture for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Biochar in Agriculture for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals introduces the state-of-the-art of biochar for agricultural applications to actualize sustainable development goals and highlight current challenges and the way forward. The book focuses on scientific knowledge and biochar technologies for agricultural soil improvement and plant growth. Sections provide state-of-the-art knowledge on biochar production and characterization, focus on biochar for agricultural application and soil improvement, discuss the roles of biochar for environmental improvement in farmland to relieve water and waste management as well as climate change, highlight biochar used for boosting bioeconomy and clean energy, and discuss future prospects.

This book will be important to agricultural engineers and researchers as well as those seeking to improve overall soil and environmental conditions through the use of biochar.

• Focuses on biochar utilization in agricultural applications, targeting deeper elaboration of biochar as a cost-effective and renewable material in field-scale agriculture applications
• Highlights biochar's role in boosting the bioeconomy which shows great potential for promoting a circular economy and maximizing environmental, social and economic benefits
• Connects biochar applications with sustainable development goals

Daniel C.W. Tsang is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Pao Yue-Kong Chair Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization of Zhejiang University in China. He was a Professor and MSc Programme Leader at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland in Australia and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University in the US, an IMETE Scholar at Ghent University in Belgium, and a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College London in the UK. With over 20 years of R&D experience, he has published more than 600 articles in top-tier journals and has been recognized among Stanford University’s Top 2% Scientists and Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers in the fields of Engineering and Environment & Ecology. His team is dedicated to developing green technologies for long-term decarbonization and promoting resource circularity and sustainable development. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of npj Materials Sustainability (Springer Nature), Chairman of the Hong Kong Waste Management Association (2023-2025), and Chairman of the Waste Management Subcommittee of the Advisory Council on the Environment (2023 & 2024) of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Dr. Ok is a full professor and global research director of Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He has published over 900 research papers and books, 92 of which have been ranked as Web of Science ESI top papers (90 have been selected as “Highly Cited Papers” (HCPs), and two as “Hot Papers”). He has been a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) since 2018 in Cross Field, Environment and Ecology, and Engineering. In 2019, he became the first Korean to be selected as an HCR in the field of Environment and Ecology. Again in 2021, he became the first Korean HCR in two fields: Environment and Ecology, and Engineering. He is working at the vanguard of global efforts to develop sustainable waste management strategies and technologies to address the rising crisis in electronic and plastic waste, and pollution of soil and air with particulate matter.

Dr. Ok has also served in a number of positions worldwide including, as an honorary professor at the University of Queensland (Australia), a visiting professor at Tsinghua University (China), an adjunct professor at the University of Wuppertal (Germany), and a guest professor at Ghent University (Belgium). He maintains a worldwide professional network by serving as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, an Editor of Environmental Pollution, a member of the editorial advisory board of Environmental Science & Technology, and an editorial board member of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, and several other top journals.

He currently serves as the Director of the Sustainable Waste Management Program for the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and the Co-President of the International ESG Association. Moreover, he has served on the Scientific Organizing Committee of P4G Nature Forum: Climate Change and Biodiversity, and Nature Forum: Plastics and Sustainability. Dr. Ok has also served as the chairman of numerous major conferences such as Engineering Sustainable Development series (ESD series), organized by the APRU and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). In 2021, Dr. Ok hosted the first Nature conference among South Korean universities in Seoul on waste management and valorization for a sustainable future together with Chief Editors of Nature Sustainability (Dr. Monica Contestabile), Nature Electronics (Dr. Owain Vaughan), and Nature Nanotechnology (Dr. Fabio Pulizzi). Prof. Ok will host the first Nature Forum on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) for Global Sustainability: the “E” Pillar for Sustainable Business.