Biomass Chars: Elaboration, Characterization and Applications ?

Abstract

Biomass can be converted to energy, biofuels, and bioproducts via thermochemical conversion processes, such as combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification. Combustion technology is most widely applied on an industrial scale. However, biomass gasification and pyrolysis processes are still in the research and development stage. The major products from these processes are syngas, bio-oil, and char (called also biochar for agronomic application). Among these products, biomass chars have received increasing attention for different applications, such as gasification, co-combustion, catalysts or adsorbents precursors, soil amendment, carbon fuel cells, and supercapacitors. This Special Issue provides an overview of biomass char production methods (pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization, etc.), characterization techniques (e.g., scanning electronic microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, nitrogen adsorption, Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and temperature programmed desorption and mass spectrometry), their properties, and their suitable recovery processes.