Strategies for the sustainable conversion of biomass into biofuels and valuable products for environmental mitigation

ANA LEA CUKIERMAN

Buenos Aires

Simposio; Symposium Exploring the Frontiers of Chemistry: Challenges for the 21st Century; 2019

Universidad de Buenos Aires- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (FCEyN) y The Ben-Gurion of the Negev University (Israel)

Among recent strategies explored in our research group to improve yield and quality of the liquid products (bio-oils) arising from pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass for potential use as biofuels, results attained by minerals removal from selected biomasses through mild acid pretreatment are presented. Pyrolysis assays performed in a bench-scale installation for the raw and demineralized biomasses enable to obtain and characterize the three kinds of pyrolysis products, namely bio-oils, an enriched carbon solid product (bio-char), and gases, as well as to examine their potential applicability tending to promote process sustainability and biomass-based pyrolysis poly-generation technology. On the other hand, conversion of biomass into activated carbons by applying microwave assistance and hydrothermal carbonization, instead of conventional heating and carbonization, respectively, is described, including the adsorptive behavior of the resulting carbons in the removal of representative water contaminants. Recent advances targeted at the development of highly efficient activated carbons for CO2 adsorption mimicking post-combustion conditions, as an alternative to overcome drawbacks related to the absorption technology for post-combustion applications, are also summarized. Finally, mention is made of our achievements in the synthesis and potential applications of carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide nanosheets. They focus on possible use of the carbon nanotubes for H2 sensing at room temperature and transdermal delivery of therapeutic molecules, passive and electromodulated, as well as on post-combustion CO2 capture by a graphene oxide sponge, and alginate beads loaded with graphene oxide nanosheets as nanostructured adsorbents of water contaminants.