Analytical & Circular Chemistry

Another piece of great work spearheaded by recent PhD graduate Willem Vercruysse (@FWOVlaanderen). Congrats to the entire team! 🙌

The results: ✅ Co-pyrolysis doubles nitrogen retention! ✅ It doesn't decrease porosity development. ✅ Additionally, demineralization increased meso- and microporosity, resulting in the co-pyrolyzed activated carbon outperforming the commercial reference!

🪶 Did you know that each year, the poultry industry leaves us with nearly 10 million tons(!) of chicken feathers? This fluffy food waste is a major source of nitrogen emissions. 👎 A potential solution? Incorporating the nitrogen into biochar via pyrolysis. 👍

“What’s more, the nitrogen sorbed from the slurry by the biochar was not released as NH3 during soil application of the solid fractions and was not released as mineral N in the short term, i.e. within 28 days.” 4/4 Read the full story doi.org/10.1016/j.wasm…

“Cattle slurry storage is a major source of gaseous nitrogen emissions,” says first author Jarinda Viaene from @ILVOvlaanderen. “Amendment of biochar reduced NH3 emissions during cattle slurry storage.” 3/4

As part of our SBO-project #BASTA in collaboration with @ILVOVlaanderen, we studied the effects of biochar on NH3 and greenhouse gas emissions 💨 during the storage of cattle slurry 🐄💩 and after soil application. 🌱 1/4

Throwback to a great PhD defense last week. Congratulations, Dr. Amine Lataf! 🥳

🥳 Woop woop! Congratulations, Dr. Vercruysse! 🎓 Yesterday, at his PhD defense, Willem Vercruysse impressed the jury and the audience with his work on the "Co-pyrolysis of nitrogen-rich biomass to produce biochar and activated carbon for electrochemical energy storage."

As few existing studies evaluate cadmium adsorption for >24 h, our new results provide a solid basis for future soil-based experiments. ♻️ Congrats to the entire team! 🙌 The results were published earlier this summer in the journal Waste Management: doi.org/10.1016/j.wasm… 5/5

Amine et al. investigated the long-term cadmium removal capacity of fourteen biochars from seven biomass sources: “We wanted to select the best feedstock-pyrolysis temperature combination for optimal Cd2+ removal during a 10-day incubation period.” 4/5

Yesterday we celebrated the achievements of #BASTA at the closing event in Maasmechelen. 🥳 BASTA = a multidisciplinary research collaboration between @CMK_Uhasselt and @ILVOvlaanderen focused on Biochar's Added value in Sustainable land use with Targeted Applications. 1/5

Congratulations Willem and the entire team! 👏 ➡️ Vercruysse et al. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2023 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac… ➡️ Vercruysse et al. Separation and Purification Technology 2023 doi.org/10.1016/j.sepp… 6/6

Well, we’ve thought of that too. In another paper published recently in Separation and Purification Tech, we show the successful removal of impurities from common ivy through treatment with a natural deep eutectic solvent (or NADES), namely choline chloride-malic acid. 5/6

Let’s talk about common ivy 🌿 Willem Vercruysse et al. envision an urban circular biorefinery concept for common ivy: from cultivation in vertical ecosystems via refinery into bioproducts and valuable nutrients and then back into the soil. 1/6