Biomass‐Derived Electrocatalysts: Low‐Cost, Robust Materials for Sustainable Electrochemical Energy Conversion

Abstract

Electrochemical energy conversion is an important strategy for addressing climate change and building a carbon‐neutral society. The use of inexpensive biomass resources to develop high‐performance catalytic materials that reduce the energy barrier of electrochemical reactions and minimize energy consumption has become a research hotspot for energy materials. Previous reviews have often categorized biomass‐derived catalysts by the biomass feedstocks used, but this classification method has major limitations because the roles of the same biomass material in different catalysts can vary. In this review, a new classification approach for biomass‐derived catalytic materials by focusing on the role of bio‐based materials in the overall catalyst system is proposed. The review is divided into three main sections, categorizing bio‐based materials by 1) the active components, 2) the carbon support, and 3) the entire catalyst. Additionally, a comprehensive summary is provided of catalytic materials at different scales, including the nanoscale, molecular scale, and single‐atom scale. It is hoped that this review will guide and inspire the future development of biomass‐derived electrocatalysts.

How to Compute Whether Biomass Fuels Are Carbon Neutral

“…Within the European Union and adjacent countries, the recent "Green Deal" exerted a major wave of innovation [1-3] on the policy level. From among the available energy-related strategies, and given its immediate technological availability [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], biomass energy has been playing a key practical role for decades already, and was conceptually supported by the traditional assumption of its carbon neutrality: under sustainable conditions, carbon dioxide emitted during combustion was held to be equal to its absorption during plant growth [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. However, in order to clarify conditions of carbon (C) neutrality quantitatively and more reliably [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], it became necessary to model the annual natural C cycle globally and to consider its changes as a result of steadily growing large-scale biomass strategies [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43].…”