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Jiancheng Hong, Caizhu Liu, Jieying Jing, Haowei Liu, Ruiqi Wang, Ying Li, Yuxiang Zheng, Yuhua Wu, Jianbo Wu, Hui Zhang, Hongcun Bai. Engineering Micropores in Biochar from Waste Cow Dung for Hydrogen Storage: Structure, Capacity, Kinetics and Mechanistic insights. Green Energy&Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.03.009
Citation: Jiancheng Hong, Caizhu Liu, Jieying Jing, Haowei Liu, Ruiqi Wang, Ying Li, Yuxiang Zheng, Yuhua Wu, Jianbo Wu, Hui Zhang, Hongcun Bai. Engineering Micropores in Biochar from Waste Cow Dung for Hydrogen Storage: Structure, Capacity, Kinetics and Mechanistic insights. Green Energy&Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.03.009
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Engineering Micropores in Biochar from Waste Cow Dung for Hydrogen Storage: Structure, Capacity, Kinetics and Mechanistic insights

doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.03.009

  • 1. State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Utilization of Coal and Green Chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750021, China;

  • 2. State Key Laboratory of Clean and Efficient Coal Utilization, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China;

  • 3. Liupanshan Laboratory, Yinchuan, Ningxia 750021, China;

  • 4. School of Mechanical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750021, China

Funds:

52363008), Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia (No. 2024AAC05001), and State Key Laboratory of Clean and Efficient Coal Utilization, Taiyuan University of Technology (Grant No. MJNYSKL202410).

This work was mainly financially supported by NSFC (No. 22478206 &

  • Received date 29 October 2025, Accepted date 17 March 2026, RevRecd date 14 January 2026, Available online 25 March 2026
    Abstract
  • The resource utilization of massive amount of cow dung (CD) generated from modern animal husbandry is crucial for sustainable development. Converting CD into porous biochar for energy storage represents a promising strategy for high-value utilization. However, the application of CD-derived biochar for efficient hydrogen-storage remains challenging, primarily due to the difficulties in the controllable fabrication of microstructures and the unclear structure-performance relationship. To address these issues, this work presents a synthetic strategy involving KOH activation coupled with ultrasound-assisted technology to fabricate porous biochar from CD with tailored microporous structures. The optimized biochar exhibits ultra-high specific surface area of 2850 m2·g–1 and large pore volume of 2.31 cm3·g–1, leading to a remarkable hydrogen uptake capacity of 4.08 wt% at 77 K and 40 bar. A strong linear correlation was established between hydrogen storage capacity and micropore surface area, underscoring the critical role of micropores, especially at low pressures. Furthermore, first-principles calculations reveal enhanced H2 binding with N/O heteroatoms. RDG and EDA provide qualitative and quantitative insights into the physical adsorption nature. Finally, kinetics calculations with several adsorption and diffusion models confirm rapid hydrogen diffusion and equilibrium within biochar, highlighting its excellent kinetic performance for practical hydrogen-storage.

     

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