Hydrochar: A Review on Its Production Technologies and Applications

Recently, due to the escalating usage of non-renewable fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and petroleum coke in electricity and power generation, and associated issues with pollution and global warming, more attention is being paid to finding alternative renewable fuel sources. Thermochemical and hydrothermal conversion processes have been used to produce biochar and hydrochar, respectively, from waste renewable biomass. Char produced from the thermochemical and hydrothermal decomposition of biomass is considered an environmentally friendly replacement for solid hydrocarbon materials such as coal and petroleum coke. Unlike thermochemically derived biochar, hydrochar has received little attention due to the lack of literature on its production technologies, physicochemical characterization, and applications. This review paper aims to fulfill these objectives and fill the knowledge gaps in the literature relating to hydrochar. Therefore, this review discusses the most recent studies on hydrochar characteristics, reaction mechanisms for char production technology such as hydrothermal carbonization, as well as hydrochar activation and functionalization. In addition, the applications of hydrochar, mainly in the fields of agriculture, pollutant adsorption, catalyst support, bioenergy, carbon sequestration, and electrochemistry are reviewed. With advancements in hydrothermal technologies and other environmentally friendly conversion technologies, hydrochar appears to be an appealing bioresource for a wide variety of energy, environmental, industrial, and commercial applications.