Merging Renewable Carbon-Based Materials and Emerging Separation Concepts to Attain Relevant Purification Applications in a Circular Economy

Abstract

The globe demands a more efficient approach to provide materials and products for the economic and living needs of a modern society. Separation processes have an important role in order to achieve the recoveries and purities required in terms of quality specifications. There are a variety of porous materials taking the role of separation agents which work effectively in many technological industrial applications based on adsorption and membrane processes. The separation agents derived from renewable materials represent a desirable alternative to face the sustainability challenges in industrial settings. In this sense, the biomass residues which are abundant in agroindustrial regions represent an opportunity to tackle the needs for sustainable separation processes. Innovation plays a key role in order to combine renewable materials and emerging separation concepts to find compelling solutions for the needs of water and gas treatment purifications. These solutions are achieved more effectively through the joint research and innovation effort between materials and process aspects. This commentary remarks the fruitful opportunity existing for separation technology to take advantage of biomass residues to be converted into tailor-made separation agents. It focuses on novel separation applications where the biocarbon electroactive properties play a significant role. These technological approaches for biocarbon are beyond its most common use as an activated carbon adsorbent. Recent research contributions providing original solutions on this aspect are discussed here mainly for gas separation of CO2 and volatile organic compounds, freshwater recovery, and electrolyte separation among others. Innovative separation solutions including tailor-made biocarbons are expected to grow at a fast pace in the coming years.