As the world’s population increases, and more of its citizens demand access to energy, our global reliance on fossil fuel resources to provide this energy puts an incredible strain on the environment. The future success of the integrated biorefinery for carbonaceous waste management depends on a number of factors, including available biomass and valorization of waste, potential for upgrading and transforming bio-products, and identification of value-added, among other factors. In this work, we determine the feasibility of simultaneously upgrading biofuels from pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization, while co-producing a plethora of advanced materials for environmental and other applications. For example, both pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization of biomass-clay mineral composites yields bio-oil with improved stability and a sorbent material with higher BET surface area and sorption capacity for water treatment than the biomass itself. Similarly, by co-pyrolyzing carbonaceous waste materials and metal salts, we enhance the 5-methyl-furfural concentration in bio-oil (a key intermediate in the integrated biorefinery), as well as the hydrogen and methane in pyrolysis gas generated, while simultaneously producing iron oxide nanoparticles for use in advanced oxidation techniques, and silver nanospheres and nanowires for biomedical and electronic applications. This talk presents an overview of novel integrated processes from our laboratory for addressing waste management and greener synthesis of materials for energy and the environment.

Integrated processes for waste management, energy recovery, and the production of materials for environmental applications

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.