Study on the potential of sludge-derived humic acid as energy storage material.

• Sludge-derived humic acid is converted into carbon materials. • Low-cost energy storage materials can be prepared. • The purified humic acid-based carbon material has better performance. • Optimized material exhibits high performance in supercapacitors. As one of the main methods for sludge treatment, recovery of renewable biogas energy by anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising strategy to deal with the conflict between carbon neutralization and sharply increase of sewage sludge. Humic acid (HA) in sludge is a major inhibitor of biogas yields and needs to be removed or pretreated. However, as the graphene oxide-like material, HA is an ideal precursor for the preparation of energy storage materials with high performance. Based on that, this study i) proposes the extraction and utilization of HA in sludge, ii) discusses the feasibility of HA-based materials after thermal reduction as electrodes for supercapacitor, and iii) investigates the factors with positive influences on the structure and electrochemical performance. It reveals that, with a synergistic effect of purification and activation at a low mass ratio, the HA-based material exhibits superior capacitive performance with the highest specific capacitance of 186.7 F/g (at 0.05 A/g), as well as excellent rate capability and cycling stability. Sludge is verified a cheaper and more abundant precursor resource of HA for energy storage application. The results of this study are expected to provide a new green, energy-efficiency and sustainability way for sludge treatment, which has the double benefits: efficient conversion and capture of bio-energy during AD process, and high value-added utilization of HA for supercapacitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]