Puccini M., Stefanelli E., Tasca Andrea L., Vitolo S., 2018, Pollutant Removal from Gaseous and Aqueous Phases using Hydrochar-based Activated Carbon, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 67, 637-642.
In this study, hydrochar (HC) produced at industrial scale by hydrothermal carbonization of municipal woody and herbaceous prunings was used for producing activated carbon by KOH chemical activation. Different KOH/HC ratios were studied to produce highly porous materials with high surface area. Activated carbon with a BET surface area up to 1739 m2/g was obtained for a 3:1 KOH/HC ratio. Adsorption properties of obtained samples were studied for removing pollutants both from gas and liquid phases. Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) was used for evaluating the removal capacities of CO2 from a gaseous phase, while UV-Vis spectroscopy was used for evaluating the removal capacities of an emerging contaminant from an aqueous phase. All samples showed a good CO2 adsorption capacity at 27 °C, reaching 84.5 mg CO2/g sorbent for hydrochar activated with an impregnation ratio of 2:1. Moreover, activated chars exhibited a high removal efficiency (up to 97.9 % for a 3:1 KOH/HC ratio) for atrazine, which is one of the most common pesticides detected in superficial and groundwater aquifers.
