Sustainable food waste management: synthesizing engineered biochar for CO2 capture

Yuan, X. et al. (2022) Sustainable food waste management: synthesizing engineered biochar for CO2 capture. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 10(39), pp. 13026-13036. (doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c03029)

Abstract

Humanity needs innovative ways to combat the environmental burden caused by food waste, which is one of the critical global issues. We proposed food waste-derived engineered biochar (FWDEB) for CO2 capture from a life cycle perspective. FWDEB samples were prepared by carbonization and chemical activation for CO2 adsorption. FW400-KOH600(2), carbonized at 400 °C and then activated at 600 °C with a KOH/biochar mass ratio of 2, presented the best CO2 adsorption capacities of 4.06 mmol g–1 at 0 °C (1 bar) and 2.54 mmol g–1 at 25 °C (1 bar) among all prepared samples. The CO2 uptake at 25 °C (1 bar) was affected by both micropore volume and surface area limited by narrow micropores less than 8 Å. Basic O- and N-functional groups were generated during the KOH activation, which are beneficial for enhancing the FWDEB-based CO2 adsorption. Moreover, a life cycle assessment was implemented to quantify the potential environmental impacts of FW400-KOH600(2), indicating that negative net global warming potential could be achieved using the FWDEB-based CO2 capture approach. Owing to the environmental benefits, we highlighted its potential as a promising technical route to mitigate climate change and achieve a waste-to-resource strategy.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by a grant from the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science and Technology Development (Project No. PJ01475801) from Rural Development Administration, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIT, No. 2021R1A2C2011734), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFE0125100. This research was also supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2021R1A6A1A10045235), Youth Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72104257), and Hong Kong Environment and Conservation Fund (Project 104/2021).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: You, Dr Siming
• Authors: Yuan, X., Wang, J., Deng, S., Dissanayake, P. D., Wang, S., You, S., Yip, A. C. K., Li, S., Jeong, Y., Tsang, D. C.W., and Ok, Y. S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• ISSN: 2168-0485
• ISSN (Online): 2168-0485
• Published Online: 05 September 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 American Chemical Society
• First Published: First published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering 10(39): 13026-13036
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy