Synergistic Effect of Nitrogen Doping and Ultra-Microporosity on the Performance of Biomass and Microalgae-Derived Activated Carbons for CO Capture.

We report a unique naturally derived activated carbon with optimally incorporated nitrogen functional groups and ultra-microporous structure to enable high CO adsorption capacity. The coprocessing of biomass ( waste leaves) and microalgae (Spirulina) as the N-doping agent was investigated by probing the parameter space (biomass/microalgae weight ratio, reaction temperature, and reaction time) of hydrothermal carbonization and activation process (via the ZnCl/CO activation) to generate hydrochars and activated carbons, respectively, with tunable nitrogen content and pore sizes. The central composite-based design of the experiment was applied to optimize the parameters of the prehydrothermal carbonization procedure resulting in the fabrication of N-enriched carbonaceous products with the highest possible mass yield and nitrogen content.