The first work package is in progress. Read our short report on what we’ve been working on recently in WP1.

Based on the literature review and the availability of the feedstock, we selected materials that will be used to produce our char samples. Aiming at the residuals from agricultural and forestry sectors, we decided to choose a representative of each main group of biomasses:

• wood,
• wheat straw,
• hay,
• olive and cherry pits,
• sunflower husks,
• walnut shells.

• 

Each of them has pros and cons, both in terms of physicochemical properties as well as economic and environmental aspects. E.g., wood provides a high-quality char, yet it has quite a lot of potential applications, which we will have to compete with. On the other hand, some of the truly useless residues, such as sunflower husks, yield chars with less developed porosity, thus do not promise good performance as the electrode material.

For now, we place a bet on the walnut shells – they yielded highly-porous char and there is not much use for them, so we will gladly try to find them a purposeful application. We are also hoping that char from the shells will have good mechanical strength.

Time will tell.

Stay tuned for the updates.