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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

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Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.    2022, Vol. 16 Issue (6) : 78    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1512-5
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Recovery and reuse of floc sludge for high-performance capacitors
Di Zhang1,2, Rong Hou1, Wenbo Wang1,2, He Zhao1()
1. Beijing Engineering Research Center of Process Pollution Control, CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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Abstract

• The feasibility of facile fabrication of capacitor from floc sludge is discussed.

• The porous carbon composites are obtained by acidification and KOH activation.

• The as-prepared 3D structure has large surface area and optimal pore size.

• Admirable specific capacitance and outstanding cycling stability are obtained.

In this paper, floc sludge was transformed into porous carbon matrix composites by acidification and KOH activation at high temperature and used as an electrode material for application in capacitors. The effects of different treatment processes on the electrochemical properties of sludge materials were compared. The results of electrochemical tests showed that the sludge electrode exhibited excellent energy storage performance after HNO3 acidification and KOH activation with a mass ratio of 3:1 (KOH/C). The specific capacitance of the sludge electrode reached 287 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. In addition, the sludge electrode material showed excellent cycle stability (specific capacity retained at 93.4% after 5000 cycles at 5 A/g). Based on XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, and BET surface analysis, the morphology of sludge electrode materials can be effectively regulated by chemical pretreatment. The best-performing material showed a 3D porous morphology with a large specific surface area (2588 m2/g) and optimal pore size distribution, improving ion channels and charge conductivity. According to the life cycle assessment of floc sludge utilization, it reduced the resource consumption and toxicity risk by more than 90% compared with ordinary sludge disposal processes. This work provided a cost-effective and eco-friendly sludge reuse method and demonstrated the application potential of sludge-based materials in high-performance supercapacitors.
Keywords Floc sludge      Porous carbon electrode      Energy storage performance      Supercapacitors     
Corresponding Author(s): He Zhao   
Issue Date: 19 October 2021
 Cite this article:   
Di Zhang,Rong Hou,Wenbo Wang, et al. Recovery and reuse of floc sludge for high-performance capacitors[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(6): 78.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-021-1512-5
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2022/V16/I6/78
Fig.1  Schematic procedure for the fabrication of porous electrode material from floc sludge.
Fig.2  SEM (a–g) and TEM (h–k) images of floc sludges: FS (a), CS (b), AS (c), AS-N-1 (d, h), AS-N-2 (e, i), AS-N-3 (f, j), and AS-N-4 (g, k).
Fig.3  FTIR spectra and XRD patterns of floc sludge pretreated with different acids (a, c) and treated with different mass ratios of KOH (b, d).
Fig.4  N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms (a) and pore size distribution (b) of sludge samples treated with different mass ratios of KOH/C (pressure of 10−5 Pa to ambient pressure at a nitrogen boiling point of 77K).
Samples SBET1) (m2/g) Vmicro2) (cm3/g) Vtotal3) (cm3/g) Vmicro/Vtotal
(%)
AS-N-1 1279 0.54 1.38 39.13
AS-N-2 2241 0.61 1.51 40.39
AS-N-3 2588 0.81 1.82 44.51
AS-N-4 2480 0.67 1.94 34.53
Tab.1  Surface area and textural properties of sludge treated with different mass ratios of KOH
Fig.5  (a) CV curves, (b) GCD curves, and (c) Nyquist curves of AS-N-1, AS-F-1, and AS-S-1. (mass ratio of the sludge material to KOH= 1:1, scan rate= 50 mV/s, voltage range= −0.1–0 V, and current density= 1 A/g).
Fig.6  (a) CV curves of AS-N-1,AS-N-2,AS-N-3, and AS-N-4. (b) CV curves of AS-N-3 at different scan rates. (c) Nyquist curves of AS-N-1, AS-N-2, AS-N-3, and AS-N-4. (Scan rate= 50 mV/s and voltage range= −0.1–0 V).
Fig.7  Galvanostatic charge-discharge curves and specific capacitance of pretreated sludge materials: (a) AS-N-1, AS-F-1, and AS-S-1 from sludge pretreated with different acids and (b) AS-N-1, AS-N-2, AS-N-3 and AS-N-4 from sludge treated with different mass ratios of KOH ((a, b) current density= 1 A/g). (c) Galvanostatic charge-discharge curve of AS-N-3 (current density were measured at 0.5, 1, 2, 5, and 10 A/g). (d) Specific capacitance of AS-N-3 (current density were measured at 0.5, 1, 2, 5, and 10 A/g).
Fig.8  Cycling stability of AS-N-3 at a current density of 5 A/g.
Fig.9  Percentage contribution of environmental impact categories to 1 g dried sludge material powder utilization. (a) Carbon emissions (CEs), (b) Chinese fossil fuel depletion potential (CADP), (c) ecological ecotoxicity potential (ET), and (d) human toxicity potential (HT).
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