Sustainable porous carbons from garlic peel biowaste and KOH activation with an excellent CO2 adsorption performance

• Published in: Biomass conversion and biorefinery 2020-06, Vol.10 (2), p.267-276
• Main Authors: Huang, Gege, Wu, Xingxing, Hou, Yanrui, Cai, Jinjun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Adsorption; Biomass; Biotechnology; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Carbon sequestration; Energy; Garlic; Low cost; Microporosity; Original Article; Porosity; Pyrolysis; Renewable and Green Energy; Surface area; Surface chemistry
• ISSN: 2190-6815; 2190-6823
• DOI: 10.1007/s13399-019-00412-6

Biomass is regarded as promising low-cost carbon source while the direct biomass pyrolysis usually shows low-surface-area or even non-porous, and therefore not useful for CO 2 capture. Here, garlic peel was chemically activated by KOH to obtain carbons via the variation of temperature and KOH mass ratio, and the pore structure of carbons was evaluated by N 2 adsorption. Importantly, carbon (gC-47) activated by four-fold KOH in mass at 700 °C exhibits well-developed porosity with surface area and pore volume of 1638 m 2 /g and 0.88 cm 3 /g, respectively. However, carbon (gC-27) activated by two-fold KOH in mass with lower surface area and pore volume but higher microporosity shows the highest CO 2 uptake of 4.1 mmol/g at 25 °C and 1 bar. The results indicated that the critical factor for CO 2 capture on carbon is microporosity not the traditionally believed surface area or pore volume, and an increase in porosity with special micropore size and moderate surface area will lead to the enhancement of CO 2 uptake. This research provides significant guidance in designing adsorbents for CO 2 capture, and the carbons from garlic peel can provide feasible option for CO 2 capture with low-cost, environment friendship, and high capture capability.