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The global Sustainable Development Goals highlight the necessity for affordable and clean energy, designated as SDG7. A sustainable and feasible biorefinery concept is proposed for the carbon-negative utilization of biomass waste for affordable H2 and battery anode material production. Specifically, an innovative tandem biocarbon + NiAlO + biocarbon catalyst strategy is constructed to realize a complete reforming of biomass pyro-vapors into H2+CO (as a mixture). The solid residues from pyrolysis are upgraded into high-quality hard carbon (HCs), demonstrating potential as sodium ion battery (SIBs) anodes. The product, HC-1600-6h, exhibited great electrochemical performance when employed as (SIBs) anodes (full cell: 263 Wh/kg with ICE of 89%). Ultimately, a comprehensive process is designed, simulated, and evaluated. The process yields 75 kg H2, 169 kg HCs, and 891 kg captured CO2 per ton of biomass achieving approx. 100% carbon and hydrogen utilization efficiencies. A life cycle assessment estimates a biomass valorization process with negative-emissions (−0.81 kg CO2/kg-biomass, reliant on Sweden wind electricity). A techno-economic assessment forecasts a notably profitable process capable of co-producing affordable H2 and hard carbon battery anodes. The payback period of the process is projected to fall within two years, assuming reference prices of 13.7 €/kg for HCs and 5 €/kg for H2. The process contributes to a novel business paradigm for sustainable and commercially viable biorefinery process, achieving carbon-negative valorization of biomass waste into affordable energy and materials.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) serve as the most promising next-generation commercial batteries besides lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Hard carbon (HC) from renewable biomass resources is the most commonly used anode material in SIBs. In this contribution, we present a review of the latest progress in the conversion of waste biomass to HC materials, and highlight their application in SIBs. Specifically, the following topics are discussed in the review: (1) the mechanism of sodium-ion storage in HC, (2) the HC precursor’s sources, (3) the processing methods and conditions of the HCs production, (4) the impact of the biomass types and carbonization temperature on the carbon structure, and (5) the effect of various carbon structures on electrochemical performance. Data from various publications have been analyzed to uncover the relationship between the processing conditions of biomass and the resulting structure of the final HC product, as well as its electrochemical performance. Our results indicate the existence of an ideal temperature range (around 1200 to 1400 °C) that enhances the formation of graphitic domains in the final HC anode and reduces the formation of open pores from the biomass precursor. This results in HC anodes with high storage capacity (>300 mAh/g) and high initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) (>80%).

The global Sustainable Development Goals highlight the necessity for affordable and clean energy, designated as SDG7. A sustainable and feasible biorefinery concept is proposed for the carbon-negative utilization of biomass waste for affordable H2 and battery anode material production. Specifically, an innovative tandem biocarbon + NiAlO + biocarbon catalyst strategy is constructed to realize a complete reforming of biomass pyro-vapors into H2+CO (as a mixture). The solid residues from pyrolysis are upgraded into high-quality hard carbon (HCs), demonstrating potential as sodium ion battery (SIBs) anodes. The product, HC-1600-6h, exhibited great electrochemical performance when employed as (SIBs) anodes (full cell: 263 Wh/kg with ICE of 89%). Ultimately, a comprehensive process is designed, simulated, and evaluated. The process yields 75 kg H2, 169 kg HCs, and 891 kg captured CO2 per ton of biomass achieving approx. 100% carbon and hydrogen utilization efficiencies. A life cycle assessment estimates a biomass valorization process with negative-emissions (−0.81 kg CO2/kg-biomass, reliant on Sweden wind electricity). A techno-economic assessment forecasts a notably profitable process capable of co-producing affordable H2 and hard carbon battery anodes. The payback period of the process is projected to fall within two years, assuming reference prices of 13.7 €/kg for HCs and 5 €/kg for H2. The process contributes to a novel business paradigm for sustainable and commercially viable biorefinery process, achieving carbon-negative valorization of biomass waste into affordable energy and materials., QC 20231106

Typical non-metallic inclusions in two industrial low-carbon steels for oil pipelines were investigated as three-dimensional objects on film filters after electrolytic extraction and filtration of metal samples. A method of soft chemical extraction using a 10%AA electrolyte was used to study the initial corrosion process in the steel matrix surrounding various non-metallic inclusions. To determine and compare "corrosive" inclusions and their influence on the initial stages of corrosion of the adjacent layer of the steel matrix, quantitative parameters (such as the diameter of the corrosion crater (D-cr) and pit (D-pit), and the relative dissolution coefficient of the metal matrix (KD) around various inclusions) were determined after chemical extraction. It was found that CaO-Al2O3-MgO oxides and TiN inclusions did not cause an initial corrosion of the steel matrix surrounding these inclusions. However, tensile stresses in the steel matrix occurred around CaS inclusions (or complex inclusions containing a CaS phase), which contributed to the initiation of corrosion around these inclusions., QC 20220421

In this study, a sustainable in situ catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of lignin was developed by using biochar and activated carbon (AC) as catalysts, which is derived from the same CFP of lignin process. The results showed that using biochar as the catalyst mainly promoted the production of non-condensable gas, water, and guaiacol-rich oil regardless of the biochar-to-lignin ratio. The catalytic effect of the biochar was mainly attributed to the surface sodium and alkali metals. Using AC44.7% and AC48.6% as the catalyst resulted in a high yield of guaiacol-rich oil, whereas using AC64.3% induced a great decrease of the tarry oil yield and a significant increase of the phenol concentration in bio-oil. The diffusion efficiency of the reactive intermediates inside the catalysts determined by the pore size was believed to be the greatest determinant of the catalytic performance of the ACs. The mesopores were large enough to allow most of the reactive intermediates to diffuse quickly and react. Moreover, by using the same catalyst, char agglomeration was almost completely suppressed after in situ CFP. Two major problems, tar production and char agglomeration, which limit the large-scale application of fast lignin pyrolysis are believed to be solved., QC 20220215

A recent three-dimensional (3D) model that revisited earlier theoretical work for longitudinal electromagnetic stirring in the continuous casting of steel blooms is analyzed further to explore how the bloom width interacts with the pole pitch of the stirrer to affect the magnetic flux density. Whereas the first work indicated the presence of a boundary layer in the steel near the interface with the stirrer, with all three components of the magnetic flux density vector being coupled to each other, in the analysis presented here we find that the component along the direction of the travelling wave decouples from those in the other two directions and can even be determined analytically in the form of a series solution. Moreover, it is found that the remaining two components can be found via a two-dimensional computation, but that it is not possible in general to determine these components without taking into account the surrounding air. The validity of the asymptotically reduced model solution is confirmed by comparing it with the results of 3D numerical computations. Moreover, the asymptotic approach provides a way to compute the time-averaged Lorentz force components that requires two orders of magnitude less computational time than the fully 3D approach., QC 20210608

Natural convection of molten steel flow in a tundish occurs due to the temperature variation of the inlet stream and heat losses through top surface and refractory walls. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was applied to study the effect of thermal buoyancy on fluid flow and residence-time distribution in a single-strand tundish. The CFD model was first validated with the experimental data from a non-isothermal water model and then applied to both scale-down model and prototype. The effects of flow control devices, including weir, dam and turbulence inhibitor, were compared and analyzed. Parameter studies of different heat losses through the top surface were performed. The results show that thermal buoyancy has a significant impact on the flow pattern and temperature distributions of molten steel in the tundish. The increase of heat loss through the top surface shortens the mean residence time of molten steel in the tundish, leading to an increase in dead volume fraction and a decrease in plug flow volume fraction., QC 20210524