The biomass revolution: exploring the wetland biomass potential via integrated chemical and catalyst synthesis.
- Beschreibung
Since the Industrial Revolution, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions has intensified global warming. To mitigate this issue, countries have invested in the bioeconomy, which integrates sustainability with economic development.
Lignocellulosic biomass plays a key role in this context, being utilized in Germany to restore wet meadows without complete drainage through a process known as Paludiculture. This practice helps preserve soil-stored carbon, reducing emissions and promoting plant oxygen conversion. Therefore, finding ways to add value to this biomass is important.
Through thermal and hydrothermal processes, this biomass can be utilised to produce platform chemicals that support the clean transition from fossil fuels to bio-based materials. Another way to add value is the production of carbon materials, such as functional carbons capable of acting as catalysts. By combining these two possibilities, it is possible to create a circular process in which all the biomass can be utilised.
Consequently, this project aims to investigate the development of a circular process where biomass can be used both as a source of sugars for the formation of platform chemicals and as a catalyst to assist in the reactions.
- Projektzeitraum
- Wintersemester 2025/2026
- Bewerbungszeitraum
- 13. bis 27.10.2025
- Durchführung
- semesterbegleitend
- Details zu Projektzeitraum und Durchführung
Estimated working plan:
The working plan is divided into four main tasks:
1) How to produce activated carbon? You will perform the thermal process, starting from biomass preparation and followed by char production. Different activation agents and thermal treatment temperatures will be tested.
2) How to perform hydrothermal reactions? You will perform the hydrothermal reactions starting from the biomass preparation, followed by the hydrothermal process using the activated carbon prepared before as a catalyst.
3) How to analyse the products obtained during the project? You will prepare solid and liquid samples from the laboratory work, experiencing the analytical part of the process using techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and others.
4) What is the outcome of each process? Based on the obtained data, you will analyse the results, identify trends, and formulate hypotheses regarding the preparation of activated carbon from Paludiculture biomass and its utilisation in hydrothermal reactions.
- Studienfach
- offen für alle Studienfächer
- Betreuende
- Jeferson Felipe Rio Vicente, Gabriel De Freitas Batista, Prof. Dr. Andrea Kruse
- Institut
- Institut für Agrartechnik (440) (Conversion Technologies of Biobased Resources (440f))
- Sprache
- deutsch/englisch
- Teilnehmendenanzahl
-
min. 1, max. 3
(1 Kleingruppen mit max. 3 Teilnehmenden ) - Arbeitsaufwand
-
ca. 180 Stunden pro Teilnehmende:r
| 6
ECTS-Punkte
Arbeitsaufwand (Stunden und ggf. ECTS) sind ungefähre Angaben. Die tatsächlich vergebenen ECTS-Punkte ergeben sich aus der tatsächlich geleisteten Arbeit.
- Für dieses Projekt ist kein Motivationsschreiben des Studierenden erforderlich
- Projektart
- experimentell
- Lernziele
-
Die Teilnehmende lernen in diesem Projekt:
In this project, the participants will learn to:
- Perform literature research and obtain knowledge of a scientific area
- Perform biomass pretreatment, thermal processes, and hydrothermal reactions
- Basics of working in a laboratory
- Quantitative and qualitative organic chemistry analysis
- Obtaining and analysing self-obtained data
- Presentation of the obtained results using graphs and tables
- Anmerkungen für Studierende
For further questions regarding the project, contact me via email: jeferson.riovicente@uni-hohenheim.de
- Schlagworte
- platform chemicals, Catalysis, Wetland biomass, Carbon-material