S and P Dual-Doped Carbon Nanospheres as Anode Material for High Rate Performance Sodium-Ion Batteries

The heteroatom doping of carbon materials can significantly improve the electrochemical performance of sodium-ion batteries. However, conventional doping techniques involve more than two steps, making them unsuitable for scale-up. In this study, an S and P co-doped carbon material is synthesized using a simple, one-step plasma-in-liquid process. The synthesized material consists of abundant macropores, which can improve the electrochemical properties of sodium-ion batteries. When the synthesized anode material is applied to a sodium-ion half-cell, the cell exhibits a remarkable cycling life of 3000 cycles at a high current density of 10 A g−1, with a high reversible capacity over 125 mAh g−1. These results indicate that S and P co-doped carbon materials are promising candidates as anodes for sodium-ion batteries, and the plasma-in-liquid process is an effective strategy for heteroatom co-doping.

Preparation and Characterization of Silver-Iron Bimetallic Nanoparticles on Activated Carbon Using Plasma in Liquid Process

The mono and bi-metallic nanoparticles have conspicuous properties and are widely used in the environment, energy, and medical fields. In this study, bimetallic nanoparticles composed of silver and iron were precipitated on the surface of activated carbon in a single process using plasma in liquid process (PLP). Silver-iron ions and various radicals were actively generated in the aqueous reactant solution by the PLP. Although metals were precipitated on AC depending on the number of precursors added to the aqueous reactant solution, the standard reduction potential of silver ions was higher than that of iron ions, so silver precipitated on AC. The silver precipitate on AC was a mixture of metallic silver and silver oxide, and iron was present as Fe3O4. Spherical nanoparticles, 100–120 nm in size, were observed on the surface of the Ag-Fe/AC composite. The composition of the bimetallic nanoparticles could be controlled by considering the ionization tendency and standard reduction potential of metal ions and controlling the concentration of the precursors. The PLP presented in this study can be applied to the preparing method of bimetallic nanoparticle/carbon materials and can be expected to be used in the prepare of energy and environmental materials such as MFC and absorption materials for removing pollutants.

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Flexible Process Concept for the Production of Transport Fuels and Heat from Biomass and Renewable Electricity

Different processes have been proposed to meet the global need for renewable fuel. The Biomass to Liquid process (BtL) converts biomass via the Fischer-Tropsch route to hydrocarbon chains that can be refined to transport fuel. With the addition of electrolytic hydrogen to the Power and Biomass to Liquid process (PBtL), the carbon efficiency can be increased relative to the BtL process. It was shown in previous studies that the PBtL concept has an economic edge over BtL when cheap electricity is available to maximize the fuel yield. In this study, a techno-economic analysis is conducted for a hybrid process concept which can switch operation modes from electrolysis enhanced to only biomass conversion. In case studies the effect of the Fischer-Tropsch conversion, H2/CO ratio of the Fischer-Tropsch feed and the biomass feed rate in the electrolysis enhanced mode are analyzed. Every process configuration is modeled based on experimentally validated unit models from literature in the commercial software Aspen Plus and analyzed using DLR’s software tool TEPET. For a 200 MWth biomass input plant, production costs of 1.08 €2019/L for the hybrid concept with a carbon efficiency of 53.3% compared to 0.66 €2019/L for BtL with 35.4% and 1 €2019/L for PBtL with 61.1% were found based on the Finnish day-ahead market for the base case. The net production cost for the hybrid concept can be decreased by 0.07 €2019/L when a Fischer-Tropsch H2/CO ratio of 1.6 instead of 2.05 is used.