Chemical and physical properties of biochar | Minnesota Stormwater Manual

Chemical and physical properties of biochar.
Property	Range found in literature¹	Median value from literature
Total phosphorus (%)	0.0061 - 1.086	0.0618
Total nitrogen (%)	1.2 - 2.4	0.88
Total potassium (%)	0.0079 - 1.367	0.181
Total carbon (%)	24.2 - 90.9	66
Total hydrogen (%)	0.67 - 4.3	2.8
Total oxygen (%)	2.69 - 28.7	16.3
pH	6.43 - 10.4	9.66
Cation exchange capacity (cmol/kg)	0.1 - 562	43.1
Surface area (m²/g	2.78 - 203	30.6
Electrical conductivity (μs/cm)	100 - 2221	231.5
Pore volume (cm³/g)	0.006 - 0.51	0.036
Total calcium (%)	0.0954 - 3.182	0.590
Total magnesium (%)	0.0297 - 0.2801	0.0587
Total copper (%)	0.0001 - 0.0078	0.00025
Total zinc (%)	0.0002 - 0.0152	0.00135
Total aluminum (%)	0.001 - 0.1929	0.0290
Total iron (%)	0.0009 - 0.2209	0.0333
Total manganese (%)	0.0001 - 0.1025	0.00145
Total sulfur (%)	0.01 - 0.44	0.05
Primary references for this data: Gai et. al, 2014 Krishna et al., 2014 Yaoa et al., 2011 Zhaoa et al., 2013 Rimena et al., 2017 Jindo et al., 2014