A Themed Issue in Honor of Professor Vicente Gómez Serrano: Innovation in Production, Characterization and Applications of Activated Carbon, Biochar and Other Carbon-Based Materials

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2024 | Viewed by 3469

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
GIR-QUESCAT, Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Universidad de Salamanca, E-37007 Salamanca, Spain
Interests: heterogeneous catalysis; lanthanoid oxides; carbon materials; surface science; nanoparticles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Processes is pleased to announce the publication of this Special Issue in honor of Prof. Vicente Gómez Serrano on the occasion of his retirement.

He was born in Monte Lope Álvarez (Jaén, Spain) and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Granada in 1982. After a short stage in England, in 1983, he moved to the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Extremadura, where he has worked for nearly forty years and risen through the academic ranks to Full Professor. In addition to his teaching and management activities, Prof. Gómez Serrano has developed a very intense research activity, as evidenced by his outstanding contributions in the field of carbon-based materials. Currently, he has authored more than 140 scientific publications, including peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters, with a h-index of 42 and more than 6400 citations. Besides this prolific career, Prof. Gómez Serrano has been an excellent mentor, with whom it has been a great pleasure to work.

This Special Issue of Processes is intended to provide a broad overview of recent progress and research trends in the field of carbon-based materials, including but not limited to activated carbon and biochar. Accordingly, both original research and review articles covering the latest findings in their preparation, characterization, and applications are welcome. We strongly encourage Ph.D. students, collaborators, and friends of Prof. Gómez Serrano to submit their original contributions in order to honor his outstanding research career.

Prof. Dr. Adrián Bogeat-Barroso
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • activated carbon
  • biochar
  • carbon-based materials
  • preparation
  • characterization
  • adsorption
  • catalysis
  • energy storage
  • biomedical applications

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1190 KiB  
Article
A Study of the Feasibility of Pinus patula Biochar: The Regeneration of the Indigo Carmine-Loaded Biochar and Its Efficiency for Real Textile Wastewater Treatment
by Carolina Gallego-Ramírez, Edwin Chica and Ainhoa Rubio-Clemente
Processes 2024, 12(5), 939; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12050939 - 5 May 2024
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Abstract
The feasibility of an adsorbent material like biochar (BC) depends on its regeneration capacity and its ability to achieve high removal efficiencies on real wastewater (WW) effluents. In this study, the regeneration capacity of the Pinus patula BC previously used in the removal [...] Read more.
The feasibility of an adsorbent material like biochar (BC) depends on its regeneration capacity and its ability to achieve high removal efficiencies on real wastewater (WW) effluents. In this study, the regeneration capacity of the Pinus patula BC previously used in the removal of Indigo Carmine from water was evaluated. The regeneration technique that resulted in the highest desorption efficiency was a thermo-chemical method that consisted of heating the spent BC in a stove at 160 °C for 45 min followed by regeneration with ethanol (C2H6O) at a concentration of 75% for 6 h. Through this regeneration method, it was found that Pinus patula BC could be used in seven consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles. The feasibility of this BC was also assessed by evaluating the adsorbent’s efficiency in real textile WW. Under optimal operational conditions (solution pH = 3, BC dose = 13.5 g/L, and BC particle size = 300–450 µm), the highest removal efficiencies in terms of colour and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were 81.3 and 76.8%, respectively, for 120 min of treatment. The results obtained in the regeneration studies and the treatment of real textile WW suggested that the use of Pinus patula BC could be suitable to be scaled to an industrial level, contributing to sustainable development and the circular bioeconomy by using a waste to solve the dye pollution problem of another waste. Full article
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12 pages, 1069 KiB  
Article
Surface Chemistry of Cherry Stone-Derived Activated Carbon Prepared by H3PO4 Activation
by Jose M. González-Domínguez, Carmen Fernández-González, María Alexandre-Franco and Vicente Gómez-Serrano
Processes 2024, 12(1), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12010149 - 8 Jan 2024
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Abstract
The preparation of activated carbons (ACs) from cherry stones and chemical activation with H3PO4 can be controlled by the experimental variables during the impregnation step in order to obtain a tailored porous structure of the as-prepared ACs. This control not [...] Read more.
The preparation of activated carbons (ACs) from cherry stones and chemical activation with H3PO4 can be controlled by the experimental variables during the impregnation step in order to obtain a tailored porous structure of the as-prepared ACs. This control not only extends to the ACs’ texture and porosity development, but also to the chemical nature of their surface. The spectroscopic and elemental characterization of different series of ACs is presented in this study. The spectroscopic band features and assignments strongly depend on the H3PO4 concentration and/or the semi-carbonization treatments applied to the feedstock before impregnation, which ultimately influence different characteristics such as the AC hydrophilicity. Different surface chemistries arise from the different tailored impregnation solutions, showing a practical outcome for future applications of the as-prepared ACs. Full article
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16 pages, 2467 KiB  
Article
Experimental Studies of Methane Adsorption on Activated Carbon and 3D Graphene Materials
by Ziwen Zhu and Muyuan Zhang
Processes 2023, 11(8), 2487; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11082487 - 18 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1434
Abstract
Two kinds of slit pore carbon materials, namely activated carbon (AC) and 3D graphene materials (3D-GS), were purchased to examine their methane storage capabilities. The structural analysis and characterization of AC and 3D-GS were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy [...] Read more.
Two kinds of slit pore carbon materials, namely activated carbon (AC) and 3D graphene materials (3D-GS), were purchased to examine their methane storage capabilities. The structural analysis and characterization of AC and 3D-GS were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the X-ray energy dispersive spectrum (EDS), and N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms. Additionally, a thermodynamic framework was employed in the Henry’s law region to evaluate the potential well between the adsorbed fluid and adsorbent. The adsorption behavior of methane on two materials at room temperature and high pressure was also investigated. The results show that the Toth equation is the most suitable model for predicting adsorption isotherms than the Langmuir and L-F equations and determines that the absolute uptake of methane storage on AC and 3D-GS are, respectively, 7.86 mmol·g−1 and 8.9 mmol·g−1 at 298 K and 35 bar. In the Henry’s law region, the isosteric heat of methane adsorption on 3D-GS is larger than that of AC. Meanwhile, the potential well between methane and carbon-based materials decreases as the temperature increases. This indicates that the capacity of methane uptake is enhanced at lower temperatures, which is consistent with the measurements of adsorption isotherms. The research concludes that the 3D-GS is more suitable as a material storage medium than AC. This study provides valuable theoretical guidance for exploring the potential of methane storage on slit pore carbon-based material. Full article
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