Food wastes derived adsorbents for carbon dioxide and benzene gas sorption.

Food wastes are produced worldwide in large quantities that could have potential to produce higher value products, including industrial adsorbents. The present work attempts valorization of food waste by CO2 activation and functionalization through nitric acid and melamine treatment. The prepared porous materials were subjected to gas phase adsorption of CO2 and benzene gases. The resultant highly porous carbon materials with surface area range from 797 to 1025 m2/g were synthesized showing uptake capacities of 4.41, 4.07, 4.18 and 4.36 mmol/g of CO2 and 345, 305, 242.5 and 380.7 mg/g of C6H6 respectively for PyF515, PyF520, PyF715 and PyF720 in the absence of doped carbon matrix. Differential thermogravimetric (DTG) analysis showed the thermostability of the precursors to validate selected initial pyrolysis temperatures (500 and 700 °C). C6H6 sorption lies mainly in the physisorption region for all adsorbents ensuring re-generation potential. PyF720 and PyF520 recorded the highest isosteric enthalpy of 64.4 kJ/mol and 48.7 kJ/mol respectively, despite the low degree of coverage of the latter. Thus, PyF515 and PyF720 demonstrated the potential for use as sustainable and cost effective adsorbents for benzene gas containment suitable for swing adsorption system.