June 10–11, 2026: Biochar Summit 2026 (Vienna, Austria)

On June 10–11, 2026, Professor Valentina Pidlisnyuk and Dr. Karim Al Souki, UJEP participated in the Biochar Summit 2026 in Vienna, Austria. This international event, hosted by Biochar Europe, focused on the role of biochar in innovation and industrial integration. The summit provided extensive discussions on ensuring safe and efficient biochar logistics, integrating biochar and pyrolysis into urban systems, and developing effective project financing strategies. Industry leaders shared their experiences in incorporating biochar into sustainable value chains and advancing practical climate solutions. This year’s event was held under the theme: “From Innovation to Integration: Scaling Biochar to Climate Relevance” and brought together some 400 participants from around the world.

The summit program included the plenary sessions: Delivering Biochar at Scale: Insights from Across the Production Process; Setting the Global Standard for Biochar Carbon Removal (BCR); Defossilising Europe’s Metallurgical Sector; Biochar at Sea: Safety, Regulations and Self-Heating Properties; Austria in Action: Biochar Delivering Impact; The Biorefinery Opportunity in Europe and How Policy Enables Success; Laying the Foundation for Biochar in Construction Materials; and Breaking the Cycle: How Biochar and Pyrolysis are Cleaning Our Waste Systems. The event also featured a broad range of poster presentations covering the main conference’s themes, followed by topic’s panel after each session.

Professor Pidlisnyuk presented a poster report entitled “Biochar-Enhanced Miscanthus Phytotechnology for the Restoration of Military-Conflict-Affected Soils,” co-authored by Tatyana Stefanovska, Karim Al Souki, Anastasia Guseva, Andrej Skwiercz, Oleksandr Zhukov, and Valentina Pidlisnyuk. Dr. Al Souki presented a poster report entitled “Potential of Miscanthus × giganteus phytoremediation supported by biochar in a brownfield soil” authored by Robert Ato Newton, Karim Al Souki, Abdulmannan Rouhani, Zdenka Kwoczynski, and Valentina Pidlisnyuk. During the poster session, Prof. Pidlisnyuk and Dr. Al Souki discussed the presented research findings and answered to the numerous questions from participants.

While attending the summit, Professor Pidlisnyuk and Dr. Al Souki held meetings/discussions with several international experts, including Professor Ondřej Mašek (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom), Professor Franz Winter (TU Wien, Austria), Dr. Anjali Jayakumar (Newcastle University, United Kingdom), Professor Jelena Radonić and Dr. Maja Turk Sekulić (University of Novi Sad, Serbia), Ing. Ueli Steiner (Carbon Standards International, Switzerland), Ing. Tomas Harcourt (Solar, France), and Dr. Iryna Loginova (University of Tübingen, Germany).

The next Biochar Summit is scheduled to take place on June 8–9, 2027, in Valencia, Spain.