Renewable energy, cleaner environments, and sustainable agriculture from pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization of residuals

Pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization are emergent technologies that can be utilized to convert agricultural residues and municipal wastes into value-added products such as biochar and hydrochar. These processes and by-products can promote economic, energy, and environmental sustainability efforts. These processes are biosecure, eliminating pathogens, antimicrobial resistance genes, antimicrobials, and other contaminants of environmental concern from treated waste streams. The produced by-products have a variety of uses, as sorbents for odor and pollutants, as soil amendments and conditioners for reclamation and restoration of mine-impacted or otherwise degraded soils, as well as fertilizers to increase crop yields in agriculturally productive soils.