Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment
Abstract Anaerobic digestion (AD) was initially evaluated as a potential preprocessing method for preparing biomass-based carbon electrocatalysts in this study. The AD pretreatment succeeded in the structural depolymerization and nitrogen enrichment of Hybrid Pennisetum, which provided favorable con...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Biochar |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-024-00311-8 |
| _version_ | 1797259066537410560 |
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| author | Juntao Yang Songbiao Tang Wenjie Mei Yiquan Chen Weiming Yi Pengmei Lv Gaixiu Yang |
| author_facet | Juntao Yang Songbiao Tang Wenjie Mei Yiquan Chen Weiming Yi Pengmei Lv Gaixiu Yang |
| author_sort | Juntao Yang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Anaerobic digestion (AD) was initially evaluated as a potential preprocessing method for preparing biomass-based carbon electrocatalysts in this study. The AD pretreatment succeeded in the structural depolymerization and nitrogen enrichment of Hybrid Pennisetum, which provided favorable conditions to achieve efficient and homogeneous nitrogen introduction due to microorganism community enrichment and provided a porous structure by degradation of the biodegradable components. The resulted biochar exhibited improved physiochemical properties including higher specific surface areas, nitrogen content and graphitization degree than that obtained from pyrolyzing raw biomass. These improvements were positively correlated with the AD time and showed to have enhanced the performance in oxygen reduction reaction and practical microbial fuel cell applications. Amongst the investigated samples, the obtained biochar pretreated by AD for 15 days exhibited the most excellent performance with an onset potential of 0.17 V (VS. saturated calomel electrode) and the maximal power density of 543.2 mW cm−2 assembled in microbial fuel cells. This study suggested applying AD as a new biological pretreatment in the preparation of biomass-based electrocatalysts, and provided a unique pathway for fabricating high-performance biochar-based catalysts by structure optimization and N-containing active sites construction via gentle biological method, thereby providing a cost-effective method to fabricate metal-free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. Graphical Abstract |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T23:03:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-39d92b72552345f98251fe338be7732c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2524-7867 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T23:03:31Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Springer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biochar |
| spelling | doaj.art-39d92b72552345f98251fe338be7732c2024-03-17T12:34:07ZengSpringerBiochar2524-78672024-03-016111210.1007/s42773-024-00311-8Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatmentJuntao Yang0Songbiao Tang1Wenjie Mei2Yiquan Chen3Weiming Yi4Pengmei Lv5Gaixiu Yang6School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of TechnologyGuangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy)Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy)Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy)School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of TechnologyGuangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy)Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy)Abstract Anaerobic digestion (AD) was initially evaluated as a potential preprocessing method for preparing biomass-based carbon electrocatalysts in this study. The AD pretreatment succeeded in the structural depolymerization and nitrogen enrichment of Hybrid Pennisetum, which provided favorable conditions to achieve efficient and homogeneous nitrogen introduction due to microorganism community enrichment and provided a porous structure by degradation of the biodegradable components. The resulted biochar exhibited improved physiochemical properties including higher specific surface areas, nitrogen content and graphitization degree than that obtained from pyrolyzing raw biomass. These improvements were positively correlated with the AD time and showed to have enhanced the performance in oxygen reduction reaction and practical microbial fuel cell applications. Amongst the investigated samples, the obtained biochar pretreated by AD for 15 days exhibited the most excellent performance with an onset potential of 0.17 V (VS. saturated calomel electrode) and the maximal power density of 543.2 mW cm−2 assembled in microbial fuel cells. This study suggested applying AD as a new biological pretreatment in the preparation of biomass-based electrocatalysts, and provided a unique pathway for fabricating high-performance biochar-based catalysts by structure optimization and N-containing active sites construction via gentle biological method, thereby providing a cost-effective method to fabricate metal-free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. Graphical Abstracthttps://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-024-00311-8BiomassAnaerobic digestionBiochar materialOxygen reduction reactionElectrocatalysis |
| spellingShingle | Juntao Yang Songbiao Tang Wenjie Mei Yiquan Chen Weiming Yi Pengmei Lv Gaixiu Yang Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment Biochar Biomass Anaerobic digestion Biochar material Oxygen reduction reaction Electrocatalysis |
| title | Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment |
| title_full | Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment |
| title_fullStr | Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment |
| title_short | Valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high-performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment |
| title_sort | valorising lignocellulosic biomass to high performance electrocatalysts via anaerobic digestion pretreatment |
| topic | Biomass Anaerobic digestion Biochar material Oxygen reduction reaction Electrocatalysis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-024-00311-8 |
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