Understanding the effects of biomass composition and carbonization process on the textural properties and adsorption capacity of activated carbon

The scientific evidence available today has shown that the use of fossil resources in the different industrial branches is one of the major causes of climate change. On the other hand, the current living standards of our society and technological advances have created a dependence on the commodities produced using fossil resources. To mitigate the effects of climate change without drastically refraining from the technology benefits, it is necessary to replace fossil sources with renewable sources. This way, not only will the carbon footprint of the product be lower, but also the production chain as a whole will have a lower environmental impact. Activated carbon is one typical example of a fossil-based material since it is mostly produced using fossil coal. Activated carbons are porous materials found typically in separation applications (e. g. purification of liquid solutions or gas cleaning), in energy and gas storage systems and it is frequently used as catalyst or as catalyst support. It has been scientifically demonstrated that it is possible to obtain activated carbon with interesting properties using different types of biomass, albeit only coconut shells and wood have reached the industrial scale production. For this reason, the aims of this work were, to understand why only hard biomasses are used as renewable precursors to produce activated carbon and to explain the effect and the influence of the components and the production process on the activated carbon properties. The findings presented in this work open the door to a new field of research. One in which different types of biomass, regardless of its moisture content, particle size, and composition can be used for the development of advanced carbon materials for different technological applications.