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Research on the environmental impacts of black carbon has focused largely on sorption. Besides being a strong geosorbent, black carbon is redox-active and may facilitate abiotic and microbial transformation. Using a wood-derived black carbon (biochar) and the bacterium Geobacter metallireducens (GS-15), we showed that air-oxidized biochar served as an electron acceptor to enable acetate oxidation, and that chemically or biotically reduced biochar served as an electron donor for nitrate reduction. The bioavailable (to GS-15) electron storage capacities (ESCs) of the biochar, estimated on the basis of acetate oxidation and nitrate reduction, were 0.85 and 0.87 mmol e – /g, respectively, comparable to the ESCs of humic substances and other biochars measured electrochemically. We propose that black carbon should be regarded as a rechargeable reservoir of bioavailable electrons in anaerobic environments. The redox cycling of biochar in natural and engineered systems and its impact on microbial processes and contaminant fate merit further investigations.
Saquing et al. (Tue,) studied this question.