Publication detail

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

Goh Pei Sean Klemeš Jiří, prof. Ing. Dr. habil. DrSc. dr. h. c. Lee Chew Tin Ong Pei Ying Tan Huiyi Wahab Roswanira Abdul Wong Keng Yinn

English title

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

Type

WoS Article

Language

en

Original 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 degrees 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 center dot g(-1) (untreated EFB biochar) to 78.34 mg center dot 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.

Keywords in English

Oil palm empty fruit bunch, Biochar, Hydrothermal nitric acid post-treatment, Box-Behnken design, Sodium ions, Adsorption kinetics

Released

2025-10-01

Publisher

Springer Nature

Journal

Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery

Volume

15

Number

19

Pages from–to

25777–25794

Pages count

18

BIBTEX


@article{BUT201486,
  author="{} and  {} and  {} and  {} and  {} and Jiří {Klemeš} and  {}",
  title="Functionalisation of biowaste-derived biochar via accelerated hydrothermal-assisted post-treatment for enhanced sodium ion adsorption",
  journal="Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery",
  year="2025",
  volume="15",
  number="19",
  pages="25777--25794",
  doi="10.1007/s13399-023-04635-6",
  issn="2190-6815",
  url="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13399-023-04635-6"
}