Recent Advances and Challenges in Photoreforming of Biomass-Derived Feedstocks into Hydrogen, Biofuels, or Chemicals by Using Functional Carbon Nitride Photocatalysts.

Photoreforming of biomass into hydrogen, biofuels, and chemicals is highly desired, yet this field of research is still in its infancy. Developing an efficient, novel, and environmentally friendly photocatalyst is key to achieving these goals. To date, the nonmetallic and eco-friendly material carbon nitride has found many uses in reactions such as water splitting, CO reduction, N fixation, and biorefinery, owing to its outstanding photocatalytic activity.

Removed heavy metal ions from wastewater reuse for chemiluminescence: Successive application of lignin-based composite hydrogels.

The novel sulfomethylated lignin-grafted-polyacrylic acid (SL-g-PAA) hydrogel was fabricated in this work via a facile and green synthetic strategy for the efficient removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater, and then successively reused for chemiluminescence (CL). The sulfomethylation of lignin was first performed to improve its water solubility and introduce numerous active sites for adsorption of heavy metal ions. The as-synthesized SL-g-PAA hydrogel with high content of lignin exhibited the highly efficient and rapid removal of various metal ions from simulated wastewater.

Nitrogen-doped lignin-derived biochar with enriched loading of CeO nanoparticles for highly efficient and rapid phosphate capture.

Development of lignin-derived carbon adsorbents with ultrahigh phosphate adsorption activity and rapid adsorption kinetics is of great importance, yet limited success has been achieved. Herein, we develop a CeO functionalized N-doped lignin-derived biochar (Ce@NLC) via a cooperative modification strategy for effective and fast phosphate capture. The novel modification strategy not only contributes greatly to the loading of well-dispersed CeO nanoparticles with a smaller size, but also significantly increases the relative concentration of Ce(III) species on Ce@NLC.

Recent advances and challenges on removal and recycling of phosphate from wastewater using biomass-derived adsorbents.

As the severe damage of phosphate enrichment in the water ecosystem and the supply shortage of phosphate rock, developing an efficient method for the removal and recycling of phosphate from wastewater is of great significance. To achieve this goal, adsorption technology has been widely investigated, and various adsorbents were developed. Among them, the biomass-derived adsorbents including biomass-derived carbon-based materials, biomass-based anion exchangers and metal-biomass composites have attracted increasing attention over the past years due to the low cost, abundant renewable raw materials and environmental friendliness.

Enhanced adsorption activity for phosphate removal by functional lignin-derived carbon-based adsorbent: Optimization, performance and evaluation.

Design of carbon-based adsorbents derived from industrial lignin with superior phosphate adsorption performance is of great significance, yet limited researches have been reported. Here, we report a MgO-functionalized lignin-based bio-charcoal (MFLC) as an efficient adsorbent for phosphate removal. The obtained MgO nanoparticles were dispersed homogeneously on MFLC with particle size of 50-100 nm and higher loading content (28.