Biochar for future and futuristic biochar

Biochar, a close-to-natural product derived from renewable biomass resources, has proven to be a promising carbon-negative material for achieving sustainable development goals and improving the future well-being of ecosystems and human life. Over the past thousands of years, advances in biochar research could generally be divided into three stages: the historical application stage, the recognition and investigation stage, and the rapid engineered development and advancement stage. In this perspective, we describe the development history of biochar, discuss the features of futuristic biochar, and propose new research directions for biochar in the future.