Hao Tianwei, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), University of Macau (UM), and his research team have received the 2021 Best Paper Award from the top environmental engineering journal Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE) for their research study in sludge biochar, which provides important implications for sludge recycling.
The application of sludge biochar is a trending topic in recent years and the production of biochar can contribute to the process of carbon capture and storage around the world. Biochar not only is used as soil amendment, catalyst, or adsorbent, but also can be applied in the preparation of electrochemical capacitors when modified because of its large surface area. Titled ‘“A“Seawater-in-Sludge”approach for capacitive biochar production via the alkaline and alkaline earth metals activation”, the UM team’s paper proposes modifying sewage sludge pyrolysis by using a large amount of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals found in seawater as activators.
The results of the study show that seawater is an effective activator and the surface area and capacitance of the biochar can be enhanced through this process. When pyrolysis is performed at 750 °C, the seawater-activated biochar could reach the maximum surface area (480.3 m2/g). The high degree of graphitisation and low number of functional groups in activated biochar resulted in a lower resistivity in comparison with the biochar without sweater addition. The research results provide important implications for sludge recycling.
Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering is an international journal jointly published by Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Higher Education Press. It covers all major branches of environmental science and engineering. The journal published a total of 133 papers in 2021 and the UM paper was selected by the editorial board of the journal. The paper can be viewed here: https://journal.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-020-1295-0
| Source: Faculty of Science and Technology | |
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