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The heat treatment of nutshells, followed by the densification of its biochar particles, can be used as a process to improve its quality for use as a solid fuel. In this study, Taguchi method, gray relational analysis (GRA), and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to elucidate the effect of compressive force, particle size, and binder content on physical properties of biochar briquettes produced from nutshells, they were also used to determine the optimum conditions of compressing the fuel briquettes. The percentage contribution of each controllable factor was also determined. The solid fuel briquettes were produced by compacting the mixture of the ground biochar and the binder (molasses) at ambient temperature, using a piston and mold process. The results showed that the obtained biochar has a good fuel quality; the amount of binder is the most influent parameter; and that the energy briquettes obtained under the optimal conditions (compressive force of 112 MPa; binder amount of 40%; particle size <200 µm) present a high density, high calorific value, and a good compressive strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energies have been considered as alternative, clean, available, and ecological sources of energy. The production of biochar from biomass by thermochemical means is considered an efficient method of converting biomass for energy production. In this study, the biochars were produced from the biomasses of peanut shells and sugar cane bagasse at different pyrolysis temperatures (400°C, 450°C, and 500°C). The biomass samples and their produced biochars were characterized using calorific value, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM and EDX), compressibility index, and combustion behavior in order to analyze their potential. Experimental results showed that biochar has better fuel qualities compared to raw biomass. We also found that increasing the pyrolysis temperature clearly improved the calorific value, the morphology, the porosity of the biochars as well as the compressibility index of the biochars. The interest of this study was to produce renewable biochar from peanut shell waste and sugar cane bagasse for use as solid fuel., Competing Interests: On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Chaimaa Hadey et al.)

Agricultural waste can be exploited for the adsorption of dyes, due to their low cost, availability, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. In this study, we were interested in the elimination of crystal violet dye, from aqueous solutions, by adsorption on almond shell-based material, as a low-cost and ecofriendly adsorbent. The almond shells were first analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction; then, the influence of adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration time, and pH were studied to assess adsorption capacity under optimal experimental conditions. Experimental results indicate that almond shell adsorbent removes about 83% of the dye from the solutions at room temperature and in batch mode; the kinetic study showed that the equilibrium time is about 90 min, and the model of pseudo-second order could very well describe adsorption kinetics. The modulation of adsorption isotherms showed that retention follows the Langmuir model. The thermodynamic study has shown that the adsorption is endothermic (Δ H ° > 0) and spontaneous (Δ G ° < 0)., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Ilyasse Loulidi et al.)