CORDIS OpenAire Datacite VIRTA VTT Research Information System Sygma Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) UnpayWall Crossref Microsoft Academic Graph Pure VTT Finland Europe PubMed Central arXiv.org e-Print Archive European Union Open Data Portal http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x Environmental Science and Pollution Research Open Access 2017-03-24 2017-01-01 Open Access16 pages, 4 figures. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x Open Access16 pages, 4 figures. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x Pore space characteristics of biochars may vary depending on the used raw material and processing technology. Pore structure has significant effects on the water retention properties of biochar amended soils. In this work, several biochars were characterized with three-dimensional imaging and image analysis. X-ray computed microtomography was used to image biochars at resolution of 1.14 $��$m and the obtained images were analysed for porosity, pore-size distribution, specific surface area and structural anisotropy. In addition, random walk simulations were used to relate structural anisotropy to diffusive transport. Image analysis showed that considerable part of the biochar volume consist of pores in size range relevant to hydrological processes and storage of plant available water. Porosity and pore-size distribution were found to depend on the biochar type and the structural anisotopy analysis showed that used raw material considerably affects the pore characteristics at micrometre scale. Therefore attention should be paid to raw material selection and quality in applications requiring optimized pore structure. x-ray tomography Condensed Matter - Materials Science soil amendment pore structure ta1171 ta1182 Water Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) FOS: Physical sciences 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences 01 natural sciences 6. Clean water Diffusion Imaging, Three-Dimensional image analysis Charcoal Image Processing, Computer-Assisted 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries biochar Porosity soil amendments ta218 water retention 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Jari Hyväluoma, Sampo Kulju, Markus Hannula, Hanne Wikberg, Anssi Källi, Kimmo Rasa, 2017-03-24 journalpaper Open Access16 pages, 4 figures. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x Open Access16 pages, 4 figures. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x Pore space characteristics of biochars may vary depending on the used raw material and processing technology. Pore structure has significant effects on the water retention properties of biochar amended soils. In this work, several biochars were characterized with three-dimensional imaging and image analysis. X-ray computed microtomography was used to image biochars at resolution of 1.14 $��$m and the obtained images were analysed for porosity, pore-size distribution, specific surface area and structural anisotropy. In addition, random walk simulations were used to relate structural anisotropy to diffusive transport. Image analysis showed that considerable part of the biochar volume consist of pores in size range relevant to hydrological processes and storage of plant available water. Porosity and pore-size distribution were found to depend on the biochar type and the structural anisotopy analysis showed that used raw material considerably affects the pore characteristics at micrometre scale. Therefore attention should be paid to raw material selection and quality in applications requiring optimized pore structure. Quantitative characterization of pore structure of several biochars with 3D imaging 10.1007/s11356-017-8823-x