Hundreds of millions of tons of biomass are generated annually, with a good fraction ending up as wastes in landfills and other environmental matrices. Conversion of low-value biomass to energy sources or other high-value products diverts them from landfills and contributes to the economy. Production of activated carbon from waste biomass can also contribute to drinking water and wastewater treatment. Our group aims to convert low-value biomass to adsorbents via thermal processes. Of particular interest is the application of the synthesized adsorbents for removing important contaminants from water and recycling the adsorbents for repeated use. We aim to tailor the chemistry of adsorbents to optimize their performance for contaminants of interest, and develop mechanistic understanding of interactions between adsorbents and contaminants using experimental, analytical, and computational approaches.

Specific current research projects include:

• Removal of ciprofloxacin by porous carbon derived from shrimp waste
• Immobilization of organic contaminants in agricultural soil by starch-derived biochar

Selected Publications

Foroutan, R.; Mohammadi, R.; Adeleye, A. S.; Farjadfard, S.; Esvandi, Z.; Arfaeinia, H.; Sorial, G. A.; Ramavandi, B.; Sahebi, S. (2019). Efficient arsenic(V) removal from contaminated water using natural clay and clay composite adsorbents. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26:29748-29762.