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Production and characterization of waste nutshells derived biocarbon through slow pyrolysis: an investigation on the effects of pyrolysis temperature

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Abstract

The nutshell waste streams (pine nut shells (PNS), walnut shells (WNS), and almond shells (ANS)) were effectively converted into biocarbon materials employing slow pyrolysis in a fixed bed horizontal reactor at 500 and 900 °C with a 10 °C min−1 heating rate and 60 min holding time. The acquired biocarbon materials were then characterized to understand the influence of pyrolysis temperature on their ash content, elemental composition, thermal stability, graphitic content, functionality, surface morphology, and electrical conductivity. The obtained results established that the pyrolysis temperature has a leading impact on the yield and physicochemical properties of biocarbon. Increasing the pyrolysis temperature of PNS, WNS, and ANS from 500 to 900 °C, respectively, decreases the biocarbon yields from 32, 28, and 28 wt.% to 28, 24, and 25 wt.%. Furthermore, the increasing pyrolysis temperature increases the carbon content and purity of PNS, WNS, and ANS biocarbon due to the elimination of oxygen. Thus, the electrical conductivity of PNS, WNS, and ANS biocarbon acquired at 900 °C was significantly higher than 500 °C. Overall, it can be surmised that biocarbon prepared at a higher temperature is preferable for material applications due to its greater characteristics.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and analyzed for the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

The authors are thankful for the financial support from the following to carry out this research: (i) The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Collaborative Research and Development Grants (CRD) Project Nos. 401637 and 401730 with the partner industries Prism Farms Limited and Competitive Green Technologies, Leamington, Ontario, Canada; (ii) the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)- Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative (Project No. 055217); (iii) the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance – Bioeconomy for Industrial Uses Research Program (Project Nos. 030332 and 030578); (iii) the NSERC, Canada Research Chair (CRC) Program Project No. 460788 and the NSERC Discovery Grants Project No. 401716.

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Author notes

  1. Ranjeet Kumar Mishra

    Present address: Department of Chemical Engineering, M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560054, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre (BDDC), Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Crop Science Building, 117 Reynolds Walk, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

    Kikaoseh Agweh, Michael R. Snowdon, Ranjeet Kumar Mishra, Guowei Chen, Amar K. Mohanty & Manjusri Misra

  2. Sustainable Materials and Nanotechnology Lab (SMNL), Department of Physics, V. H. N. S. N. College (Autonomous), Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, 626 001, India

    Singaravelu Vivekanandhan

  3. School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 80 South Ring Road E, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada

    Amar K. Mohanty & Manjusri Misra

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  1. Kikaoseh Agweh
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Contributions

KA and MS: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing—original draft preparation, and writing—review and editing. SV, RM, and GC: methodology and writing—review and editing. AKM and MM: project conceptualization, methodology, administration, resources, funding acquisition, and supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Amar K. Mohanty or Manjusri Misra.

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Agweh, K., Snowdon, M.R., Mishra, R.K. et al. Production and characterization of waste nutshells derived biocarbon through slow pyrolysis: an investigation on the effects of pyrolysis temperature. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-03851-4

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