Effects of FeCl Catalytic Hydrothermal Carbonization on Chemical Activation of Corn Wet Distillers' Fiber.

Corn wet distillers' fiber (corn fiber) is a byproduct of the corn-ethanol production process, with high potential as a precursor for activated carbon due to its moderate nitrogen content and availability. However, there has been limited investigation into activated carbons from the corn fiber. In this work, we produce activated carbons from the corn fiber using three procedures, including direct KOH activation, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) followed by KOH activation, and FeCl-catalyzed HTC followed by KOH activation.