Synthesis and Characterization of Biochars and Activated Carbons Derived from Various Biomasses

Abstract

Reducing CO2 emissions is urgently needed to slow down the impacts of climate change. CO2 capture using an amine solution has been developed and implemented at pilot and commercial scales. However, amine scrubbing, in particular, produces a lot of degraded solvents as waste and is energy intensive. Solid sorbents have been used to overcome these drawbacks. In this work, waste biomass-derived carbon materials were developed and characterized. Advanced thermal chemical processes, i.e., hydrothermal and pyrolysis processes, were applied to produce materials from agrifood waste, such as soybean and okara. It was found that functional groups (-C=O and -OH) appeared in the synthesized materials, implying the generation of surface oxygenated groups. Preliminary results showed that synthesized activated carbons were obtained with good yields and relatively high surface areas, which may be applied as CO2 adsorption materials to solve CO2 emission problems.