{"683093":{"#nid":"683093","#data":{"type":"news","title":"\u2018Biochar\u2019 Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia\u2019s Roads","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA charcoal-like material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors could be a cheap, sustainable way to keep pollution from washing off roadways and into Georgia\u2019s lakes and rivers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEngineers at Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern University have found that this biological charcoal, or biochar, can be mixed with soil and used along roadways to catch grimy rainwater and filter it naturally before it pollutes surface water.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir tests found the biochar effectively cleans contaminants from the rainwater and works just as well in the sandy soils of the coastal plain as in the clays of north Georgia. Their biochar-soil mixture can be easily substituted for expensive material mined from the earth that\u2019s typically used on roads.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThough they focused on Georgia, the researchers said the findings could easily apply across the U.S., providing a simple, natural way to keep road pollutants out of water sources. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jenvman.2025.126259\u0022\u003EThey published their approach in the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Environmental Management\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/biochar-can-naturally-clean-pollution-rain-washes-georgias-roads\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELearn about their system on the College of Engineering website.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways."}],"uid":"27446","created_gmt":"2025-07-10 17:09:21","changed_gmt":"2025-07-10 17:25:28","author":"Joshua Stewart","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-07-10T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-07-10T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"677386":{"id":"677386","type":"image","title":"Yongsheng-Chen-Ahmed-Yunus_5613-web.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Yongsheng Chen (left) and Ph.D. student Ahmed Yunus work with a wastewater reactor system in the lab. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1752167370","gmt_created":"2025-07-10 17:09:30","changed":"1752167370","gmt_changed":"2025-07-10 17:09:30","alt":"Ahmed Yunus and Yongsheng Chen working with a wastewater reactor system in the lab.","file":{"fid":"261281","name":"Yongsheng-Chen-Ahmed-Yunus_5613-web.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/07\/10\/Yongsheng-Chen-Ahmed-Yunus_5613-web.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/07\/10\/Yongsheng-Chen-Ahmed-Yunus_5613-web.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1037044,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/07\/10\/Yongsheng-Chen-Ahmed-Yunus_5613-web.jpg?itok=NyQGN1U_"}}},"media_ids":["677386"],"groups":[{"id":"1237","name":"College of Engineering"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"188020","name":"go-rbi"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71911","name":"Earth and Environment"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jstewart@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJoshua Stewart\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jstewart@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}