(583a) Marine-Based Biomass-Derived Biochar for Environmental Applications

Biochars prepared from bio-based materials via various thermochemical processes combined with a plethora of physical/chemical/photochemical activation processes, are touted as potential cost-effective, renewable and environmentally-benign replacements to conventional activated carbon sorbents for energy and environmental applications such as energy storage, adsorbents for flue gas purification and remediation of emerging water contaminants, and as sustainable vehicles for carbon sequestration; with huge implications for sustainability and climate change reversal. Therefore, the availability of vast biomass resources such as marine algae in the world’s oceans provide sustainable alternatives to limited land resources, which could be explored and utilized for the preparation of biochars. This paper will provide state-of-the-art overview of the progress in biochar production from marine-based renewable resources and its application in sorption science, including author’s recent study in collaboration with other investigators, involving the use of novel activated carbons and pyrolysis chars prepared from two representative marine seaweed species (sargassum and enteromorpha), and their efficiencies and mechanisms for mercury removal in the presence of other flue gas constituents such as CO₂, SO₂, NO_x and O₂. The experimental data and associated adsorption kinetic models from a comprehensive review of the literature, will be compared. The economic and environmental aspects of large-scale production and utilization will also be addressed.

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