• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.28-37
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• 2022

The lignite and bituminous coal are mainly used in thermal power plant. They exhaust green house gas (GHG) such as CO₂, and become deplete, thus require alternative energy resources. To solve the problem, the hydrochar production from biomass is suggested. In this study, both hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and solvothermal carbonization (STC) were used to produce high quality hydrochar. To improve the reactivity of water solvent process in HTC, STC process was conducted using ethanol solution. The experiments were carried out by varying the solid-liquid ratio (1:4, 1:8, 1:12), reaction temperature (150~300 ℃) and retention time (15~120 min) using kenaf. The characteristic of hydrochar was analyzed by EA, FT-IR, TGA and SEM. The carbon content of hydrochar increased up to 48.11%, while the volatile matter decreased up to 39.34%. Additionally, the fuel characteristic of hydrochar was enhanced by reaction temperature. The results showed that the kenaf converted to a fuel by HTC and STC process, which can be used as an alternative energy source of coal.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2015

Hydrochar has been generated from food waste via hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) reaction. As a solid product of HTC reaction, hydrochar has a great potential as an adsorbent of pollutants from the various media. The surface area and pore volumes are very important parameters to be served as an adsorbent. It requires an expensive equipment and consumes time to measure those parameter. Therefore, titration methods including iodine and methylene blue adsorption were evaluated to be correlated with that of BET analysis. Even though the absolute values of the computed surface area and pore volumes were not able to be matched directly, the patterns of change were successfully correlated. Among the reaction conditions, the reaction time and temperature at $230^{\circ}C$ for 4 h was determined as an optimization condition, which confirmed by titration method and BET analysis. Titration method for surface area and pore volumes computed by combination of iodine and methylene blue adsorbing values would be a simple and fast way of determining the optimization condition for hydrochar as an adsorbent produced by HTC reaction.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 2020

In this study, iron nanoparticles impregnated hydrochar (FeNPs@HC) was synthesized using lignocellulosic waste and simple one-pot synthetic method. During hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process, the mixture of lignocellulosic waste and ferric nitrate (0.1~0.5 M) as a precursor of iron nanoparticles was added and heated to 220℃ for 3 h in a teflon sealed autoclave, followed by calcination at 600℃ in N₂ atmosphere for 1 h. For the characterization of the as-prepared materials, X-ray diffraction (XRD), cation exchange capacity (CEC), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) were used. The change of Fe(III) concentration in the feedstock influenced characteristics of produced FeNPs@HC and removal efficiency towards As(V) and Pb(II). According to the Langmuir isotherm test, maximum As(V) and Pb(II) adsorption capacity of Fe_0.25NPs@HC were found to be 11.81 and 116.28 mg/g respectively. The results of this study suggest that FeNPs@HC can be potentially used as an adsorbent or soil amendment for remediation of groundwater or soil contaminated with arsenic and cation heavy metals.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.384-392
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• 2020

The presence of high fluoride concentration (> 1.5 mg/L) in water causes serious health problems such as fluorosis, infertility, brain damage, etc., which are endemic to many places in the world. This study has investigated the fluoride removal capacity of the novel activated biochar (BTS) and hydrochar (HTS) using Teff (Eragrostis tef) straw as a precursor. Activated biochar with mesoporous structures and large specific surface area of 627.7 ㎡/g were prepared via pyrolysis process. Low-cost carbonaceous hydrochar were also synthesized by an acid assisted hydrothermal carbonization process. Results obtained from both adsorbents show that the best local maximum fluoride removal was achieved at pH 2, contact time 120 min and agitation speed 200 rpm. The thermodynamic studies proved that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic in nature. Both adsorbents equilibrium data fitted to Langmuir isotherm. However, Freundlich isotherm fitted best for BTS. The maximum fluoride loading capacity of BTS and HTS was found to be 212 and 88.7 mg/g, respectively. The variation could primarily be attributed to a relatively larger Surface area for BTS. Hence, to treat fluoride contaminated water, BTS can be promising as an effective adsorbent.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.213-225
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• 2021

In this paper, we investigated the carbonization characteristics of lignin hydrochar prepared by hydrothermal carbonization and established a model for predicting the carbonization degree using near-infrared spectroscopy and partial least squares regression. The carbon content of the hydrothermally carbonized lignin at the temperature of 200 ℃ was higher by approximately 3 wt% than that of the untreated sample, and the carbon content tended to gradually increase as the heating time increased. Hydrothermal carbonization made lignin more carbon-intensive and more homogeneous by eliminating the microparticles. The discriminant and predictive models using near-infrared spectroscopy and partial least squares regression approppriately determined whether hydrothermal carbonization has been applied and predicted the carbon content of hydrothermal carbonized lignin with high accuracy. In this study, we confirmed that we can quickly and nondestructively predict the carbonization characteristics of lignin hydrochar manufactured by hydrothermal carbonization using a partial least squares regression model combined with near-infrared spectroscopy.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.112-121
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• 2018

The hydrothermal carbonization method has received great attention because of the conversion process from biomass. The reaction produces various products in hydrochar, bio-liquid, and gas. Even though its yield cannot be ignored in amount, it is difficult to find research papers on bio-liquid generated from the hydrothermal carbonization reaction of biomass. In particular, the heterogeneity of feedstock composition may make the characterization of bio-liquid different and difficult. In this study, bio-liquid from the hydrothermal carbonization reaction of food wastes at $230^{\circ}C$ for 4 h was investigated. Among various products, fatty acid methyl esters were analyzed using two different extraction methods: liquid-liquid extraction and column chromatography. Different elutions with various solvents enabled us to categorize the various components. The eluents and fractions obtained from two different extraction methods were analyzed by gas chromatography with a mass spectrometer (GC/MS). The composition of the bio-liquid in each fraction was characterized, and seven fatty acid methyl esters were identified using the library installed in GC/MS device.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.456-461
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• 2018

The solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) has promoted the development and application for biogas production from biomass which operate a high solid content feedstock, as higher than 15% of total solids. However, the digested byproduct of SS-AD can be used as a fertilizer or as solid fuel, but it has serious problems: high moisture content and poor dewaterability. The organic residue from SS-AD has to be improved to address these problems and to make it a useful alternative energy source. Hydrothermal carbonization was investigated for conversion of the organic residue from the SS-AD of livestock waste to solid fuels. The effects of hydrothermal carbonization were evaluated by varying the reaction temperatures within the range of $180-240^{\circ}C$. Hydrothermal carbonization increased the calorific value through the reduction of the hydrogen and oxygen contents of the solid fuel, in addition to its drying performance. Therefore, after the hydrothermal carbonization, the H/C and O/C atomic ratios decreased through the chemical conversion. Thermogravimatric analysis provided the changed combustion characteristics due to the improvement of the fuel properties. As a result, the hydrothermal carbonization process can be said to be an advantageous technology in terms of improving the properties of organic waste as a solid-recovered fuel product.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.174-181
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• 2017

Bio-liquid is a liquid by-product of the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) reaction, converting wet biomass into solid hydrochar, bio-liquid, and bio-gas. Since bio-liquid contains various compounds, it requires efficient sampling method to extract the target compounds from bio-liquid. In this research, fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in bio-liquid was extracted based on hollow fiber supported liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) and determined by Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). The well-known major components of biodiesel, including methyl myristate, palmitate, methyl palmitoleate, methyl stearate, methyl oleate, and methyl linoleate had been selected as standard materials for FAME analysis using HF-LPME. Physicochemical properties of bio-liquid was measured that the acidity was 3.30 (${\pm}0.01$) and the moisture content was 100.84 (${\pm}3.02$)%. The optimization of HF-LPME method had been investigated by varying the experimental parameters such as extraction solvent, extraction time, stirring speed, and the length of HF at the fixed concentration of NaCl salt. As a result, optimal conditions of HF-LPME for FAMEs were; n-octanol for extraction solvent, 30 min for extraction time, 1200 rpm for stirring speed, 20 mm for the HF length, and 0.5 w/v% for the concentration of NaCl. Validation of HF-LPME was performed with limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantitation (LOQ), dynamic range, reproducibility, and recovery. The results obtained from this study indicated that HF-LPME was suitable for the preconcentration method and the quantitative analysis to characterize FAMEs in bio-liquid generated from food waste via HTC reaction.