Biochar is being used as a soil amendment for a while now but there is still confusion regarding its classification. Saifullah et al. (2018) have clearly referred to it as an organic amendment but Kammann et al. (2016) has separated it from orgainc amendments.
Your valuable comments are highly anticipated.
Thank you
Biochar is thermal degradation product of biomass obtained in absence of oxygen, it is an inorganic product.
Dear Subhan, this is a very interesting technical question for which in my opinion there is no really clear answer. As you know, biochar is produced by slow pyrolysis from organic biomass, and in the end a charcoal-like material is obtained which is rich in carbon (sometimes over 80% carbon content). However, like e.g. brown coal or bituminous coal it still contains significant amounts of organic material and organic functional groups. Thus biochar can be seen as a material somewhere on the way between purely organic material and purely inorganic graphite. It is certainly mostly inorganic, but the organic constituents cannot be neglected.
I hope this helps clarifying your question. Good luck with your work and best wishes!
Since Biochar contains high percentage of carbon, it is considered as organic in nature. Also since it is produced from organic biomass, that is another reason for considering Biochar as an organic material.
Biochar is generated by heating organic materials like crop waste, grass, wood, and manure at a high temperature. Then what remains behind is the carbon which is inorganic .
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