Lead Removal by Hydrochar from Hydrothermal Carbonization of Food Waste

Abstract

Food waste recently emerged as a resource with a potential to be converted to hydrochar which could be utilized in various applications. In this study, we focused on investigation of the lead removal of hydrochar obtained from hydrothermal carbonization of food waste. Hydrochar was collected after hydrothermal liquefaction of food waste at 180 C for 2 h. The adsorption of hydrochar towards Pb 2+ in aqueous solution was conducted in batch mode to investigate the sorption kinetics, isotherm and pH edge. The results showed that hydrochar derived from food waste exhibits high performance in adsorption of lead from aqueous solution, achieving 160.21 mg g -1 removal capacity within the first 2 h of reaction. This indicated promising application as heavy metal sorbents of hydrochar from hydrothermal conversion of food waste.