Generating Energy and Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data of Activated Carbon Production Using Machine Learning and Kinetic Based Process Simulation

TLDR

Activated carbon production from diverse biomass has environmental impacts that are poorly quantified, with existing life‑cycle assessments limited to single species or lacking systematic analysis of feedstock and process variation. This study develops a modeling framework that combines artificial neural networks and kinetic‑based process simulation to fill these gaps. The framework generates life‑cycle inventory data for AC from 73 woody biomass types using 250 characterization samples. Energy use and GHG emissions vary widely (43.4–277 MJ kg⁻¹ AC and 3.96–22.0 kg CO₂‑eq kg⁻¹ AC), driven mainly by biomass composition and activation temperature.

Abstract

Understanding the environmental implications of activated carbon (AC) produced from diverse biomass feedstocks is critical for biomass screening and process optimization for sustainability. Many studies have developed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for biomass-derived AC. However, most of them either focused on individual biomass species with differing process conditions or compared multiple biomass feedstocks without investigating the impacts of feedstocks and process variations. Developing LCA for AC from diverse biomass is time-consuming and challenging due to the lack of process data (e.g., energy and mass balance). This study addresses these knowledge gaps by developing a modeling framework that integrates artificial neural network (ANN), a machine learning approach, and kinetic-based process simulation. The integrated framework is able to generate Life Cycle Inventory data of AC produced from 73 different types of woody biomass with 250 characterization data samples. The results show large variations in energy consumption and GHG emissions across different biomass species (43.4–277 MJ/kg AC and 3.96–22.0 kg CO2-eq/kg AC). The sensitivity analysis indicates that biomass composition (e.g., hydrogen and oxygen content) and process operational conditions (e.g., activation temperature) have large impacts on energy consumption and GHG emissions associated with AC production.