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Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering

ISSN 2095-0179

ISSN 2095-0187(Online)

CN 11-5981/TQ

Postal Subscription Code 80-969

2018 Impact Factor: 2.809

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Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.    2023, Vol. 17 Issue (7) : 942-953    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2264-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Synthesis of porous carbon from orange peel waste for effective volatile organic compounds adsorption: role of typical components
Qiaoyan Zhou1,2, Huan Liu1,2(), Yipeng Wang3, Kangxin Xiao1, Guangyan Yang1, Hong Yao1
1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
2. Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518000, China
3. Universtar Science & Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen 518057, China
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Abstract

Volatile organic compounds have posed a serious threat to the environment and human health, which require urgent and effective removal. In recent years, the preparation of porous carbon from biomass waste for volatile organic compounds adsorption has attracted increasing attention as a very cost-effective and promising technology. In this study, porous carbon was synthesized from orange peel by urea-assisted hydrothermal carbonization and KOH activation. The role of typical components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) in pore development and volatile organic compounds adsorption was investigated. Among the three components, hemicellulose was the major contributor to high porosity and abundant micropores in porous carbon. Higher hemicellulose content led to more abundant –COOR, amine-N, and pyrrolic/pyridonic-N in the derived hydrochar, which were favorable for porosity formation during activation. In this case, the toluene adsorption capacity of the porous carbon improved from 382.8 to 485.3 mg·g–1. Unlike hemicellulose, cellulose reduced the >C=O, amine-N, and pyrrolic/pyridonic-N content of the hydrochar, which caused porosity deterioration and worse toluene adsorption performance. Lignin bestowed the hydrochar with slightly increased –COOR, pyrrolic/pyridonic-N, and graphitic-N, and reduced >C=O, resulting in comparatively poor porosity and more abundant micropores. In general, the obtained porous carbon possessed abundant micropores and high specific surface area, with the highest up to 2882 m2·g–1. This study can provide guidance for selecting suitable biomass waste to synthesize porous carbon with better porosity for efficient volatile organic compounds adsorption.
Keywords biomass waste      porous carbon      feedstock composition      urea-assisted hydrothermal carbonization      toluene adsorption      N-doped hydrochar     
Corresponding Author(s): Huan Liu   
About author:

* These authors contributed equally to this work.
Online First Date: 03 March 2023    Issue Date: 05 July 2023
 Cite this article:   
Qiaoyan Zhou,Huan Liu,Yipeng Wang, et al. Synthesis of porous carbon from orange peel waste for effective volatile organic compounds adsorption: role of typical components[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(7): 942-953.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-022-2264-x
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2023/V17/I7/942
Feedstock Proximate analysis Ultimate analysis
Volatile matter/(wt %) Ash/(wt %) Fixed carbon/(wt %) C/(wt %) O a)/(wt %) H/(wt %) N/(wt %)
OP 75.13 1.57 23.30 48.96 42.03 5.34 1.09
OP1 73.30 3.84 18.31 42.78 45.06 5.71 1.55
OP2 72.43 3.77 18.18 42.68 45.89 5.49 1.08
OP3 73.68 3.31 18.67 42.12 46.74 5.82 0.97
OP4 73.17 2.94 19.38 44.29 44.30 5.77 1.65
Tab.1  Chemical characteristics of orange peels on dry basis
Fig.1  Preparation method of hydrochar and porous carbons.
Sample SBET/(m2·g–1) Smicroa)/(m2·g–1) Smesob)/(m2·g–1) Pore volume/(cm3·g–1) Vmicroc)/(cm3·g–1) Vmesod)/(cm3·g–1)
OP-PC 2651 1752 899 1.46 0.78 0.68
Cel-PC 1643 1388 255 0.87 0.59 0.28
Hcel-PC 2934 2253 681 1.51 1.00 0.51
Lig-PC 2363 2140 223 1.05 0.88 0.17
Tab.2  Pore structure parameters of porous carbon from OP and model compounds
Fig.2  SEM images of porous carbon from orange peels with different compositions: (a) OP-PC, (b) OP-Cel-PC, (c) OP-Hcel-PC, and (d) OP-Lig-PC.
Fig.3  (a) N2 adsorption−desorption isotherms; (b) the specific surface area; (c) micropore distribution; (d) mesopore distribution of porous carbon from OP with typical components added.
Sample C/(wt %) Oa)/(wt %) H/(wt %) N/(wt %)
OP-PC 87.48 10.73 0.91 0.77
OP-Cel-PC 88.33 10.18 0.88 0.53
OP-Hcel-PC 88.19 10.12 0.87 0.75
OP-Lig-PC 89.32 9.32 0.92 0.40
Tab.3  Ultimate analysis of porous carbon from OP with typical components added
Sample C/(wt %) Oa)/(wt %) H/(wt %) N/(wt %) O/Cb) H/Cb) N/Cb)
Cel-char 44.53 48.08 6.20 1.19 0.81 1.67 0.02
Hcel-char 61.38 18.67 5.22 14.73 0.23 1.02 0.21
Lig-char 62.23 29.87 5.03 2.87 0.36 0.97 0.04
OP-char 54.76 32.88 5.81 6.55 0.45 1.27 0.10
OP-Cel-char 51.50 37.36 5.86 5.28 0.54 1.37 0.09
OP-Hcel-char 57.38 27.37 5.46 9.80 0.36 1.14 0.15
OP-Lig-char 57.61 31.54 5.30 5.55 0.41 1.10 0.08
Tab.4  Ultimate analysis of hydrochar on dry basis*
Fig.4  Litmus test.
Fig.5  XPS C 1s spectra and atomic relative contents (wt %) of different carbon in (a) OP-char, (b) OP-Cel-char, (c) OP-Hcel-char, and (d) OP-Lig-char.
Fig.6  XPS N 1s spectra and atomic relative contents (wt %) of different nitrogen in (a) OP-char, (b) OP-Cel-char, (c) OP-Hcel-char, and (d) OP-Lig-char.
Sample C/(wt %) Oa)/(wt %) H/(wt %) N/(wt %)
OP1-char 49.24 40.06 5.03 5.61
OP2-char 50.52 37.88 5.18 6.37
OP3-char 50.99 36.15 5.35 7.47
OP4-char 50.98 37.38 5.51 6.08
OP1-PC 69.09 27.49 1.55 1.54
OP2-PC 69.06 26.98 1.49 2.04
OP3-PC 69.93 26.79 1.33 1.69
OP4-PC 76.34 20.46 1.40 1.51
Tab.5  Ultimate analysis of hydrochar and porous carbon on dry basis
Fig.7  (a) Adsorption breakthrough curves; (b) adsorption capacity of porous carbon for toluene; (c) N2 adsorption−desorption isotherms; (d) the contents of three components (wt %) for orange peel and the specific surface area of derived porous carbons.
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