Use of Hydrothermal Carbonization and Cold Atmospheric Plasma for Surface Modification of Brewer’s Spent Grain and Activated Carbon
Krystian Krochmalny,
Halina Pawlak-Kruczek,
Norbert Skoczylas,
Mateusz Kudasik,
Aleksandra Gajda,
Renata Gnatowska,
Monika Serafin-Tkaczuk,
Tomasz Czapka,
Amit K. Jaiswal,
Vishwajeet,
Amit Arora,
Tomasz Hardy,
Mateusz Jackowski,
Michał Ostrycharczyk,
Łukasz Niedźwiecki
Affiliations
Krystian Krochmalny
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Halina Pawlak-Kruczek
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Norbert Skoczylas
The Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Mateusz Kudasik
The Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Aleksandra Gajda
The Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Renata Gnatowska
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, Institute of Thermal Machinery, Częstochowa University of Technology, Armii Krajowej 21, 42-200 Częstochowa, Poland
Monika Serafin-Tkaczuk
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Tomasz Czapka
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Amit K. Jaiswal
School of Food Science and Environmental Health, Faculty of Science, Technological University Dublin-City Campus, Central Quad, Grangegorman, D07 ADY7 Dublin, Ireland
Vishwajeet
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Amit Arora
Department of Chemical Engineering, Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Ferozepur 152004, Punjab, India
Tomasz Hardy
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Mateusz Jackowski
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Michał Ostrycharczyk
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Łukasz Niedźwiecki
Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Department of Energy Conversion Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
This paper presents results that show the effect of hydrothermal carbonization and subsequent cold plasma jet treatment with helium and argon on the structure and sorption properties of a material—spent brewery grain. Treatment of activated carbon, with a cold atmospheric plasma jet, was used comparatively. The effect of activation on the pore structure of the materials was carried out by the volumetric method at low pressure (N2, 77 K). The specific surface area as well as the total pore volume, average pore size, and pore size distribution were determined using different theoretical models. A high improvement in the sorption capacity parameter was obtained for hydrochars after cold atmospheric plasma jet treatment with an increase of 7.5 times (using He) and 11.6 times (using Ar) compared with hydrochars before cold atmospheric plasma jet treatment. The increase in specific surface area was five-fold (He) and fifteen-fold (Ar). For activated carbon, such a large change was not obtained after plasma activation. Regardless of the gas used, the increase in structural parameter values was 1.1–1.3.
