Biochar as a sorbent for contaminant management in soil and water: a review.

Organic and inorganic contaminants removal from water with biochar, a renewable, low cost and sustainable adsorbent--a critical review.

Lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis mechanism: A state-of-the-art review

Energy shortage, environmental crisis, and developing customer demands have driven people to find facile, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and nontoxic routes to produce novel functional materials that can be commercialized in the near future. Amongst various techniques, the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process of biomass (either of isolated carbohydrates or crude plants) is a promising candidate for the synthesis of novel carbon-based materials with a wide variety of potential applications. In this Review, we will discuss various synthetic routes towards such novel carbon-based materials or composites via the HTC process of biomass. Furthermore, factors that influence the carbonization process will be analyzed and the special chemical/physical properties of the final products will be discussed. Despite the lack of a clear mechanism, these novel carbonaceous materials have already shown promising applications in many fields such as carbon fixation, water purification, fuel cell catalysis, energy storage, CO(2) sequestration, bioimaging, drug delivery, and gas sensors. Some of the most promising examples will also be discussed here, demonstrating that the HTC process can rationally design a rich family of carbonaceous and hybrid functional carbon materials with important applications in a sustainable fashion.

Engineering Carbon Materials from the Hydrothermal Carbonization Process of Biomass

Fossil fuel consumption in transportation system and energy-intensive sectors as the principal pillar of civilization is associated with progressive release of greenhouse gases. Hydrogen as a promising energy carrier is a perfect candidate to supply the energy demand of the world and concomitantly reduce toxic emissions. This article gives an overview of the state-of-the-art hydrogen production technologies using renewable and sustainable energy resources. Hydrogen from supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of biomass is the most cost effective thermochemical process. Highly moisturized biomass is utilized directly in SCWG without any high cost drying process. In SCWG, hydrogen is produced at high pressure and small amount of energy is required to pressurize hydrogen in the storage tank. Tar and char formation decreases drastically in biomass SCWG. The low efficiency of solar to hydrogen system as well as expensive photovoltaic cell are the most important barriers for the widespread commercial development of solar-based hydrogen production. Since electricity costs play a crucial role on the final hydrogen price, to generate carbon free hydrogen from solar and wind energy at a competitive price with fossil fuels, the electrical energy cost should be four times less than commercial electricity prices.

Hydrogen production from renewable and sustainable energy resources: Promising green energy carrier for clean development

Removal of lead from water using biochars prepared from hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass

Production of solid biochar fuel from waste biomass by hydrothermal carbonization

Characterization and application of chars produced from pinewood pyrolysis and hydrothermal treatment

Effects of various solvents on the liquefaction of biomass to produce fuels and chemical feedstocks

Preparation and characterization of fuel pellets from woody biomass, agro-residues and their corresponding hydrochars

Zhengang Liu

Papers

Removal of lead from water using biochars prepared from hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass

Production of solid biochar fuel from waste biomass by hydrothermal carbonization

Characterization and application of chars produced from pinewood pyrolysis and hydrothermal treatment

Effects of various solvents on the liquefaction of biomass to produce fuels and chemical feedstocks

Preparation and characterization of fuel pellets from woody biomass, agro-residues and their corresponding hydrochars