Technology advances and techno-economic analysis of the carbon materials derived from biowaste utilization

Abstract

Due to the low cost, abundant resources and multiple functions, the biowaste derived carbon materials have aroused great research attention in the fields of waste management, energy utilization, and environmental remediation. The carbon materials derived from biowaste utilization (C-BW) could serve as highly efficient absorbents to clean the toxic heavy metal ions and persistent organic compounds from different environmental media. Previous research confirmed that the biowaste feedstock and the pyrolysis method were the determining factors that influenced the C-BW performances. In addition, considering the pyrolysis process was an energy consuming and labor intensive process, the economic feasibility of the C-BW producing strategies could determine the final commercialization of a particular C-BW production project. Therefore, the current review focused on summarizing the recent advances on the C-BW production in terms of the types of biowaste feedstock, pyrolysis technique advances, as well as the techno-economic analysis on these utilization strategies. Moreover, a general framework for the techno-economic analysis of C-BW was proposed, which provides a plausible model for the future economic feasibility studies. The future perspective of C-BW is also discussed, which could shed light on the technological development of the C-BW production industry.