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Functionalisation of biowaste-derived biochar via accelerated hydrothermal-assisted post-treatment for enhanced sodium ion adsorption

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Abstract

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) is a major waste produced by the palm oil industry. The incineration or random disposal of EFB has led to serious environmental pollution. This study evaluated the potential of hydrothermally post-treated EFB biochar as an adsorbent to remove sodium cations (Na+) from an aqueous environment. Physicochemical analysis revealed the improved porous structure of the hydrothermally post-treated EFB biochar and the marginal improvement in its surface area and porosity. The post-treated EFB biochar exhibited abundant oxygen-containing functional groups that enhanced the removal of Na+ from the saline solution. The optimum hydrothermal HNO3 post-treatment conditions were achieved using 3 mol/L HNO3, 15 g of EFB biochar, treatment temperature of 120 °C, and 60 min, with the highest Na+ removal efficiency recorded as 81.92%. Upon the hydrothermal post-treatment process, the adsorption capacity of the treated EFB biochar improved significantly (P< 0.05) from 11.29 mg·g−1 (untreated EFB biochar) to 78.34 mg·g−1. The Na+ adsorption kinetic of HNO3 post-treated EFB biochar is best fitted to the pseudo-second order model, suggesting that the adsorption process is governed by chemisorption. The present study has successfully functionalised the EFB biochar and improved its adsorption performance towards Na+ using an autoclave as readily available equipment. The well-controlled pressure and temperature offered by autoclave have improved the post-treatment efficiency with a lesser amount of HNO3 and shorter treatment time than the conventional post-treatment method, thus contributing to cost and time-saving.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Funding

This research was funded by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education under Fundamental Research Grant Schemes (FRGS) with grant no. FRGS/1/2019/STG05/UTM/02/9. The authors acknowledged the funding and support by the EU project Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory – SPIL, funded as project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000456, by Czech Republic Operational Programme Research and Development, Education, Priority 1: Strengthening capacity for quality research under a collaboration agreement with the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia - UTM, Malaysia. The Mini Research Grant also funded this research by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Malaysia Branch under the Vot No. of 4C587.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Huiyi Tan, Chew Tin Lee, Pei Sean Goh & Pei Ying Ong

  2. Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Roswanira Abdul Wahab

  3. Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Roswanira Abdul Wahab & Pei Sean Goh

  4. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Keng Yinn Wong

  5. Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81300, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Keng Yinn Wong

  6. Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory – SPIL, NETME Centre, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology - VUT Brno, Technická 2896/2, 616 69, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jiří Jaromír Klemeš

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  1. Huiyi Tan
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Contributions

Huiyi Tan: conduct research, review, methodology, and original draft preparation. Roswanira Abdul Wahab: supervision, concenptualisation, review, and editing. Chew Tin Lee: supervision, concenptualisation, review, and editing. Pei Sean Goh: supervision, writing, review, and editing. Keng Yinn Wong: review and editing. Jiří Jaromír Klemeš: review and editing. Pei Ying Ong: supervision, concenptualisation, and review.

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Correspondence to Pei Ying Ong.

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Highlights

• Hydrothermal nitric acid (HNO3) pre-treatment was applied to oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) biochar.

• 3 M HNO3, 15 g EFB biochar, 120 °C, and 60 min were the optimum pre-treatment conditions.

• HNO3 pre-treated EFB biochar shows enhanced adsorption capacity of 78.3369 mg g−1 towards sodium ions.

• The adsorption kinetics of sodium ions followed a pseudo-second order model.

• The oxygen-containing functional groups in HNO3 pre-treated EFB biochar enhanced the removal of sodium ions.

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Tan, H., Wahab, R.A., Lee, C.T. et al. Functionalisation of biowaste-derived biochar via accelerated hydrothermal-assisted post-treatment for enhanced sodium ion adsorption. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-04635-6

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