Catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of water hyacinth: An investigation into bio-oil generation and co-synthesis of Cu core-shell carbon hybrids

ABSTRACT

The present study involved examining the hydrothermal liquefaction of Cu-impregnated water hyacinth for bio-oil production, and the co-synthesis of Cu Core-shell carbon hybrids. Effects of operating parameters such as temperature and Cu-impregnated biomass-to-water ratio on bio-oil and carbon hybrid yield were discussed. Results showed the highest total bio-oil yield of 34.82% was attained at 280°C with a biomass-to-water ratio of 1:9 at a residence time of 15 min. Carbon nanometal hybrids were characterized by TEM and FESEM to confirm the formation of Cu Core-Shell carbon hybrids and resulted in the average particle size of 351 nm, whereas XRD and XPS ensured the catalytic carbothermal transition of Cu²⁺ to Cu⁺/Cu particles. GC-MS and NMR analyzed the bio-oil samples and identified alcohols, alkanes, and esters in light oil. In contrast, carboxylic acids, ethers, esters, and phenols were key compounds in heavy oil.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Bio-oil
• Cu core-shell carbon hybrids
• hydrothermal liquefaction
• water hyacinth

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15435075.2023.2253872

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education India .