Enhancing the Pore Properties and Adsorption Performance of Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH)-Derived Biochars via Post-Acid Treatment

In this work, the cocoa pod husk (CPH) was converted into biochar products at higher carbonization temperatures (i.e., 400–800 °C). The pore and chemical properties of the resulting biochars and its post-leaching biochars by acid washing, including specific surface area, total pore volume, pore size distribution, true density, and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were studied. Based on the pore properties, pyrolysis temperature at around 800 °C seemed to have the most profound impact on the pore development for producing biochar, where its Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) surface area is 101 m2/g. More noticeably, more pores in the CPH-based biochar could be significantly created during the acid-washing, resulting in an increase of BET surface area from 101 to 342 m2/g. According to the data on the EDS and FTIR, the resulting biochars seemed to have oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface. Furthermore, the methylene blue (MB) adsorption performance of the optimal biochar product with maximal BET surface area was tested to fit its kinetics by the pseudo-second order model, showing a strong interaction between the biochar adsorbent and the cationic adsorbate.