Microbial Targeted Degradation Pretreatment: A Novel Approach to Preparation of Activated Carbon with Specific Hierarchical Porous Structures, High Surface Areas, and Satisfactory Toluene Adsorption Performance

Abstract

Hierarchical porous carbon shows great potential for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) removal due to its high surface area and abundant porous framework. However, current fabrication protocols are complex and cause secondary pollution, limiting their application. Here, as a novel strategy, microbial lignocellulose decomposition as a pretreatment was introduced to fabricate hierarchical porous carbon (M-AC) from crude biomass substrate. The M-AC samples had high specific surface areas (maximum: 2290 m2·g–1) and surfaces characterized by needle-like protrusions with a high degree of disorder attributed to hierarchical porous structures. Dynamic toluene adsorption indicated that the carbon materials with microbial pretreatment had much better adsorption performances (maximum: 446 mg/g) than activated carbon without pretreatment. The M-AC material pretreated with a cellulose-degrading microbe showed the best adsorption capacity due to well-developed micropores, whereas the M-AC material pretreated with a lignin-degrading microbe showed excellent transport diffusion due to well-developed mesopores. Therefore, this simple and effective approach using microbial decomposition pretreatment is promising for the development of hierarchical porous carbons with adjustable pore structures and high specific surface areas to remove target VOCs in practical applications.

Functionalized Activated Carbon for Competing Adsorption of Volatile Organic Compounds and Water

“…The adsorption amount was calculated through the integral of the breakthrough curves, eq . ,, where q (g·g –1 ) is the estimated maximum adsorption capacity, Q (mL·min –1 ) is the total flow rate of the mixture, C in and C out (mg·L –1 ) are the inlet and outlet VOC concentrations, respectively, m (g) is the mass of activated carbon, and t s (min) is the time of break-through for the outlet concentrations more than 5% lower than the inlet concentration ( C out / C in = 0.05).…”

“…Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a kind of air pollutants with a boiling temperature ranging from 50 to 260 °C at atmospheric pressure (101.325 kPa). , The excessive VOC emission can cause environmental problems, such as photochemical smog, ozonosphere hole, and haze smog. − Furthermore, their toxicity and carcinogenicity for human health are well documented. , Until 2018, the annual production of VOCs was about 30 million tons in China, making it the third largest pollutant in the air after sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides . Moreover, VOCs will chronically exist in the environmental medium such as water, air, and soil .…”

Random mutagenesis of a Pseudomonas putida strain capable of acclimating to high-concentration formaldehyde via atmospheric and room temperature plasma(ARTP)

“…Potential strategies include physical adsorption, chemical catalysis, and biodegradation. Currently, chemical, physical and biological degradation methods have been employed to remove formaldehyde from soil, water and air [19,20,21,22]. However, the method of physically absorbed formaldehyde easily results in saturation and does not truly remove pollution [23].…”

Route‐Optimized Synthesis of Bagasse‐Derived Hierarchical Activated Carbon for Maximizing Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Adsorption Capture Properties

“…In recent years, due to its advantages of reasonable utilization of resources and easy preparation, waste biomass‐derived activated carbon prepared have been gradually applied to various environmental control fields such as the electric chemical water treatment of food organic pesticide removal, gas or heavy metal ions adsorption capture [1–4] . Notably, the adsorption capture of VOCs using biomass‐derived AC has become popular because of serious requirement of environmental control, but the resultant great adsorption capacity and selectivity of VOCs ceaselessly demand improved structural properties and surface character of AC obtained through rational synthesis control, [5–10] which has not been explored yet.…”