Continuous increase of domestic meat consumption has inevitably increased generation of livestock manure and caused severe environmental impacts on ecosystem and human beings. This work produced biochar from cattle manure samples with different composting aging stages and investigated the properties of the produced biochar. The result of thermogravimetric analysis showed that thermal decomposition of the manure initiated at <600^oC. The biochar yield was higher for the manure with a longer pre-composting period due to the elimination of microbially metabolized carbons during composting process. The result of FT-IR analysis showed that the number of surface functional groups were reduced during pyrolysis while enhancing the graphitic structures of the carbon framework. Manure samples tended to leach out N and P in leaching tests, with its amount higher for aged one than fresh one. However, their leaching was substantially suppressed when the manure was produced into biochar. In XPS spectra, it was found that N and P in the manure incorporated into biochar surface to form N-doped graphitic carbon and P-N-moieties, respectively. The findings of this work suggest that the thermochemical process can be of a viable option to valorize into biochar for potential environmental applications as well as to alleviate undesired nutrients loading to the environment.

Keywords: 가축분뇨, 바이오차, 부영양화, 열분해, N-doped graphitic carbon