Issue 48, 2021

A molten-salt electrochemical biorefinery for carbon-neutral utilization of biomass

Abstract

Solar-driven photosynthesis to produce biomass and photocatalysis to reduce carbon dioxide are both carbon sinks. Efficient harvesting of high-performance photocatalysts from photosynthesis-derived biomass is hence promising to reduce the carbon footprint. Herein, a molten-salt electrochemical biorefinery that converts rice husks and silver chloride to silicon-carbide nanowires embedded in a carbon matrix with surface-loaded silver nanoparticles (SiC/C/Ag) is reported as a showcase of carbon-neutral utilization of biomass. The molten-salt electrochemical biorefinery features reduced CO2 emissions, low energy consumption, and compositional/structural refining of cathodic SiC/C/Ag. The resulting SiC/C/Ag shows noticeably enhanced overall CO2 photoreduction. Life cycle assessment (LCA) shows that the CO2 equivalent emission from the production of SiC/C/Ag is compensated for by photocatalytic reduction of gaseous CO2 for only 24.77 hours over the SiC/C/Ag.

Graphical abstract: A molten-salt electrochemical biorefinery for carbon-neutral utilization of biomass

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Nov 2021
Accepted
22 Nov 2021
First published
23 Nov 2021

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021,9, 27442-27447

A molten-salt electrochemical biorefinery for carbon-neutral utilization of biomass

J. Wang, J. Xiao, Y. Shen, X. Liang, T. Lv and W. Xiao, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021, 9, 27442 DOI: 10.1039/D1TA09498J

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