The working hypothesis for the study was that the main part of the chlorine in biomass is in an inorganic form and therefore should not vaporize appreciably below the melting point of the corresponding salt (around 700 °C) because the vapor pressure over solid salt is negligible. In the study, biomass fuels (sugarcane trash, switch grass, lucerne, straw rape) were subjected to pyrolysis in a flow of nitrogen, and the weight of the residue and its chlorine content were measured and compared to the original fuel. Contrary to the hypothesis, the results showed that during pyrolysis of biomass 20-50% of the total chlorine evaporated already at 400 °C, although the majority of the chlorine was water soluble (in grass 93%) and therefore most probably ionic species. At 900 °C, 30-60% of the chlorine was still left in the char. At 200 °C less than 10% of chlorine had evaporated from the fuel, indicating that the chlorine is not associated with water. Another result was that there was no significant difference in the chlorine release between biomass and synthetic waste, i.e., a mixture of organic and inorganic chlorides. These results are contradictory with the starting hypothesis and can therefore have new implications for the use of these fuels in combustion and gasification processes.

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Particles of iron oxide (Fe3O4 ; 20–40 nm) were embedded within activated carbons during the activation of hydrothermally carbonized (HTC) biomasses in a flow of CO2. Four different HTC biomass samples (horse manure, grass cuttings, beer production waste, and biosludge) were used as precursors for the activated carbons. Nanoparticles of iron oxide formed from iron catalyst included in the HTC biomasses. After systematic optimization, the activated carbons had specific surface areas of about 800 m2g1. The pore size distributions of the activated carbons depended strongly on the degree of carbonization of the precursors. Activated carbons prepared from highly carbonized precursors had mainly micropores, whereas those prepared from less carbonized precursors contained mainly mesopores. Given the strong magnetism of the activated carbon–nano-Fe3O4 composites, they could be particularly useful for water purification.

Activated carbons were produced by chemical activation of hydrothermally carbonized (HTC) beer waste, with phosphoric acid as the activation agent. The activation was optimized within a full factorial design, using the outcome of 19 different experiments. Four different parameters (concentration of the acid, activation time, activation temperature, flow rate) were analyzed with respect to their influence on the median pore size. The concentration of H3PO4 had a strong positive effect on the median pore size. The specific surface areas of these activated carbons were ∼1000 m2/g, which compared well commercially available activated carbons. The activated carbons had mostly large pores with a size of ∼4 nm, and a significant amount of acid surface groups. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the morphology of the HTC beer waste changed significantly after the chemical activation. The capacity to adsorb methylene blue from aqueous solutions was 341 mg/g, for one of the activated carbons at pH 7. A Langmuir model described the uptake of the dye quite well, which suggested a homogeneous adsorption of Methylene Blue (MB).