The influences of feedstocks on biochar properties are widely reported. However, the influence of the transformation of biomass components (mainly cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) during feedstock pyrolysis on the obtained biochar has not been clearly stated. Here, biochar was pyrolyzed from four biomass types with different fractions of the three main components, of which surface area, pore structure, functional group, and thermogravimetric analyses were conducted. Further, we investigated the links among the physicochemical properties and water-holding capacity (WHC) of the biochar by measuring the WHC of a biochar–silica-sand (SS) mixture. Cellulose and hemicellulose were considered the easily pyrolyzable components of the feedstock owing to their low thermal stabilities. Additionally, the thermal decomposition of the easily pyrolyzable components caused the disappearance of most functional groups from the biochar that was synthesized at >350 °C. Moreover, the WHC of the biochar–SS mixture correlated significantly with the surface area and pore volumes of the biochar. Notably, the thermal residual mass and the WHC of the biochar–SS mixture exhibited the strongest correlation. Poplar wood sawdust (PT), which accounted for the highest mesopore volume of the biochar sample, contained the highest amount (86.09%) of the easily pyrolyzable components. The PT-derived biochar exhibited superior WHC than other biochar types, indicating that the dehydration, deoxygenation, and condensation of the easily pyrolyzable components of biomasses promoted gradual pore formation, further contributing to the increased WHC of the mixture. Rather than high-temperature-pyrolyzed biochar, PT350 demonstrated the highest WHC (599 mg/g), revealing that attention should be drawn to the contribution of low-temperature-pyrolyzed biochar to soil water retention in future research.

Biochar is a soil amendment that has the potential to effectively improve soil salinization. However, there is a paucity of studies on sodium adsorption using biochar, and the adsorption mechanism remains unclear. To better understand the adsorption mechanism of Na⁺ on the surface of biochar, both pyrochar and hydrochar were produced at different temperatures. The capacity and influencing factors of Na⁺ adsorption in biochar were analyzed via batch adsorption experiments. Pore filling dominated the Na⁺ adsorption in the concentration of the NaCl solution when it was ≤100 mg/L, where wheat straw pyrochar (WB, 3.95–4.94 mg/g Na) and poplar wood chip pyrochar (PB, 0.62–0.70 mg/g Na) presented the release and adsorption of Na⁺, respectively. When the concentration of the NaCl solution was >100 mg/L, the adsorption capacity of WB (25.44–36.45 mg/g) was significantly higher than PB (4.46–6.23 mg/g). Both the adsorption and release of Na⁺ in hydrochar was insufficient. In a high concentration of NaCl solution, ion exchange became the key mechanism determining the adsorption of Na⁺ in pyrochar, in which K⁺ contributed to more than 94% of the Na⁺ adsorption. The findings proposed strategies for the structural design of biochar used for Na adsorption. These will promote the utilization of solid biowaste for sodium adsorption and the potential of soil salinization amendment for agriculture in arid lands.