Sustainable waste mitigation: biotemplated nanostructured ZnO for photocatalytic water treatment via extraction of biofuels from hydrothermal carbonization of banana stalk

Abstract

Working at the food-energy-water nexus, we identified an abundant agricultural waste with little intrinsic value – banana stalk – that can be converted to biofuels and a template for water treatment materials via hydrothermal carbonization.

Kinetic and isotherm insights of Diclofenac removal by sludge derived hydrochar

“…The hydrolysis and dehydration reactions during HTC promote the production of oxygenated functional groups thus making it an effective carbon material 7 . Additionally, metallic concentrations of iron and calcium get concentrated and mediate the adsorption of anionic contaminants 8 , 9 . An increase in carbon material’s cumulative surface area with a net negative charge can be achieved by improving coarseness and promoting crack development through surface modification methodologies 10 .…”

Impact of hydrothermal carbonization conditions on the formation of hydrochars and secondary chars from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste

“…One of the main advantages of hydrothermal processes is that the heterogeneous wet biomass can be processed without preliminary pre-treatment such as separating and drying [9]. For these reasons, HTC is applied to various wet residues, including: grape marc [10], off specification compost [11], olive wastes [6], food wastes [12], digestate [13], sewage sludge [14][15][16] and banana stalk [17]. Our group recently demonstrated the feasibility of this technology for large-scale development through a comprehensive economic and process analysis [18].…”

Synthesis, Characterization, and Three-Dimensional Structure Generation of Zinc Oxide-Based Nanomedicine for Biomedical Applications

“…Among natural scaffolds, eggshell membrane [146], rice [147], and banana stalks [148] have been used as biotemplates for the synthesis of ZnO NPs. Camaratta et al [146] investigated eggshell membrane-based biomimetization for the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures using zinc acetate, zinc nitrate, and zinc chloride as precursors.…”

“…Ramimoghadam et al [147] used uncooked rice as a soft biotemplate for the hydrothermal synthesis of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO NPs with flake-like, small flower-like, tooth-like, and star-like structures. Upneja et al [148] reported banana stalks as a source of biofuel and biotemplate for the hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanostructures with a ~20 m 2 /g specific surface area.…”