Sustainable Utilization of Biomass Refinery Wastes for Accessing Activated Carbons and Supercapacitor Electrode Materials.

Biomass processing wastes (humins) are anticipated to become a large-tonnage solid waste in the near future, owing to the accelerated development of renewable technologies based on utilization of carbohydrates. In this work, the utility of humins as a feedstock for the production of activated carbon by various methods (pyrolysis, physical and chemical activation, or combined approaches) was evaluated. The obtained activated carbons were tested as potential electrode materials for supercapacitor applications and demonstrated combined micro- and mesoporous structures with a good capacitance of 370 F g (at a current density of 0.