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Advances in the Thermochemical Decomposition of Biomass

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 4236

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Guest Editor
School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
Interests: biomass; pyrolysis; renewable carbons
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biomass represents a sustainable and economical source for the production of renewable fuels and carbon materials. Thermochemical conversion is used to transform raw biomass into energy vectors or porous carbonaceous materials that are the basis of several environmental applications. For example, Biochar, the solid product of thermal decomposition of biomass, has been proposed as a porous, functionalized electrode for fuel cells or batteries, as a support for heterogeneous catalysis, or as an adsorption medium for water, air, or soil remediation. However, much of the fundamentals of the thermochemical conversion of biomass remain to be understood. This Special Issue will gather recent advances in biomass thermal conversion with the aim of bridging the knowledge gaps between a process that requires further study and the many highly sought-after applications that rely on that process.

We look forward to receiving your manuscripts.

Dr. Roberto Volpe
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biomass
  • Thermal conversion
  • Renewable carbon materials

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1677 KiB  
Article
Cationic Dye Adsorption on Hydrochars of Winery and Citrus Juice Industries Residues: Performance, Mechanism, and Thermodynamics
by Nepu Saha, Maurizio Volpe, Luca Fiori, Roberto Volpe, Antonio Messineo and M. Toufiq Reza
Energies 2020, 13(18), 4686; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13184686 - 09 Sep 2020
Cited by 55 | Viewed by 3711
Abstract
With the increasing needs of clean water supplies, the use of biomass wastes and residues for environmental remediation is essential for environmental sustainability. In this study, the residues from winery and citrus juice industries, namely grape skin and orange peel, respectively, were first [...] Read more.
With the increasing needs of clean water supplies, the use of biomass wastes and residues for environmental remediation is essential for environmental sustainability. In this study, the residues from winery and citrus juice industries, namely grape skin and orange peel, respectively, were first converted to hydrochars by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and then a cationic dye (methylene blue) adsorption was studied on hydrochars. Hydrochars from both feedstocks were produced at three different temperatures (180, 220, and 250 °C) and a fixed residence time (1 h) to evaluate the hydrochar’s performance on the dye adsorption. The hydrochars were characterized in terms of their pH, pH at point of zero charge (pHPZC), surface functionalities, and surface area. A batch adsorption study of the dye was carried out with variable adsorbate concentration, pH, and temperature. Two adsorption isotherms namely Langmuir and Freundlich models were fitted at 4, 20, and 36 °C. The thermodynamic properties of adsorption (Gibbs free energy (ΔG), enthalpy (ΔH) and entropy (ΔS)) were evaluated from the isotherms fittings. Results showed that the dye adsorption on both hydrochars was significant and followed Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity on citrus waste hydrochar was higher than the winery waste hydrochar at any corresponding HTC temperature. Although hydrochars showed the lowest surface area (46.16 ± 0.11 and 34.08 ± 1.23 m2/g for citrus and winery wastes, respectively) at 180 °C, their adsorption was the highest, owing to their maximum density of total oxygen functional groups (23.24 ± 0.22 and 32.69 ± 1.39 µmol/m2 for citrus and winery wastes, respectively), which decreased with the increase in HTC temperature. This research shows a sustainable route for the production of highly effective adsorbent materials at lower HTC temperatures from citrus and winery wastes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Thermochemical Decomposition of Biomass)
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