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Converting Polystyrene and Corn Waste into Activated Carbon with High Surface Area
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Researchers converted polystyrene plastic waste and corn stover into high-performance activated carbon through co-pyrolysis followed by KOH chemical activation, achieving a remarkable surface area of 914.83 m²/g — making waste plastics a viable feedstock for advanced materials used in energy storage and environmental remediation.
The significant challenges of plastic waste management and agricultural by-product treatment demand innovative and sustainable solutions. Polystyrene (PS) is a widely used synthetic polymer; however, without effective post-use treatment, it can cause significant adverse impacts on both human health and the environment. In recent years, co-pyrolysis technology has emerged as a promising thermochemical approach for converting such materials into value-added products. This work investigates the co-pyrolysis of both PS and CS to produce biochar (BC), followed by chemical activation using 5 M KOH to obtain activated carbon (AC) with high surface area. We found that the optimal conditions for copyrolysis were identified at a PS:CS mass ratio of 1:2, a temperature of 500 °C, and a residence time of 1.5 h. The BC obtained under these conditions exhibited a surface area of 58.74 m² g⁻¹. Subsequent the activation process with KOH at a BC: KOH mass ratio of 1:3, a temperature of 750 °C, and a duration of 3h have synthesized the achieved AC with an excellent surface area of 914.83 m² g⁻¹.The results of work demonstrate the promising of combining co-pyrolysis with chemical activation as a sustainable strategy for waste valorization that promise for wider applications in environmental energy storage, and other advanced technological fields.
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Turning Waste into Value: Comparative Synthesis of Activated Carbon from Non-Recyclable Polystyrene, Corn Stalks and Coffee Grounds
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Researchers synthesized high-surface-area activated carbon from two distinct waste feedstocks—coffee grounds and non-recyclable polystyrene mixed with corn stalks—finding comparable BET surface areas (~914–976 m²/g) despite different processing routes, demonstrating viable pathways for converting diverse waste materials into high-performance adsorbents.
Activated carbon production from Polystyrene Co-Pyrolysis: a bibli-ometric analysis
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Researchers conducted a bibliometric analysis of research on activated carbon production from polystyrene co-pyrolysis, mapping the growth and trends in this field as a sustainable approach to valorizing waste plastic while producing adsorbents for environmental contaminant removal.
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This review examines how waste plastics can be transformed into activated carbon through chemical activation and carbonization processes. Researchers analyzed various methods for converting different plastic types into porous carbon materials with practical applications. The findings suggest that turning plastic waste into activated carbon offers a valuable alternative to traditional disposal methods.
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Researchers optimized CO₂ activation of pine-derived biochar for polystyrene microplastic removal, finding that increasing activation temperature to 850°C expanded surface area from 236 to 600 m²/g and drove removal efficiency to 99%, establishing activation temperature as the dominant tuning parameter for microplastic remediation performance.
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