Surface Structural Transformation of Pre-carbonized Solid Biomass from Japanese Cedar via ATR-FTIR and PCA

This present research applied the ATR-FTIR technique and principle component analysis (PCA) to investigate molecular surface changes in pre-carbonized solid biomass, called Kindai Bio-coke (BIC) and Japanese cedar. The product is utilized as an alternative to coal coke in the cupola furnace in the steel industry in order to reduce CO2 emissions. The aim is to explore key elements for improving the BIC product applications from the fundamental molecular scale by using PCA to distinguish between changes during the BIC transformation and the differences in BIC samples. Results revealed that transformation occurred at the surface of Japanese cedar raw materials and Japanese cedar BIC. Major changes were observed in the O–H, C–H and C–O stretching regions. The intensity of the IR bands attributed to aliphatic methyl (CH3) and methylene (CH2) stretching modes increased, while a weak O–H stretching intensity associated with BIC hydrophobic characteristic decreased.