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This paper presents, for the first time, a comprehensive comparative analysis of the potential of using biochars from three distinctly different UK-sourced biomass feedstocks, produced via three different thermal processing techniques, to adsorb methylene blue dye. Biochars were made from rapeseed, whitewood, and seaweed (Laminaria Digitata), produced via hydrothermal conversion, pyrolysis, and torrefaction. Adsorption kinetic models were developed for each biochar at different temperatures, pH and initial dye concentrations. Relatively high levels of methylene blue adsorption capacity were achieved by seaweed-based biochars (∼150 mg/g), with reasonable levels for rapeseed-based biochars (∼60 mg/g), whilst adsorption levels were found to be relatively low for whitewood-based biochars (

Pilot projects in the past that have experimented with a Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) in Manitoba and Ontario, and a recent study of the feasibility of a GBI in British Columbia, indicate that provinces are not in an ideal position to successfully implement an affordable and effective GBI. However, a GBI implemented by the federal government, financed by eliminating the GST credit and lowering personal tax exemptions, could be both effective and affordable. It could also do so without requiring the elimination of those provincial social assistance programs that are more deeply targeted toward people’s needs. By using its revenue powers, the federal government could create more fiscal capacity for the provinces to provide other cash and in-kind social supports, allowing for greater provincial benefit targeting. The federal government’s centrality in designing and implementing tax structures and collecting tax revenue make it singularly suitable for administering and delivering a GBI. Financing the GBI by eliminating the modest GST credit and lowering the current basic personal income tax exemption could provide a significant reduction in the rate, depth and intensity of poverty in Canada, without imposing an excessive tax burden on Canadians. If provinces use the GBI as a replacement for certain less-targeted provincial social assistance income transfers, the freed-up payments and reduced caseloads could also allow provinces to target more effectively those needs not addressed by the GBI. The recent COVID-19 pandemic exposed longstanding gaps in Canada’s income- support frameworks, with lower-income workers facing exceptional economic vulnerability. At the same time, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit proved edifying in terms of how to best design a basic-income program. In addition, the federal government’s experiences with the poverty-reducing impacts of the Canada Child Benefit, the Old Age Supplement and the Guaranteed Income Supplement have moved Canada closer than ever to a workable GBI. While it comes with additional costs, those costs will be less burdensome than many GBI skeptics might believe. They must also be put into perspective, by comparing them against the costs of current and, in many cases ineffective income transfers and, just as importantly, against the human cost of leaving more Canadians living in poverty., The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol. 15 No. 1 (2022)

Microwave has become an attractive technology in the valorisation of renewable biomass and in the mitigation of challenges of climate change. In this work, the synergic effects of coupling microwave and mild conventional heating conditions has been investigated in preparing engineered ultra-micropore carbons from lignocellulosic biomass. The processing conditions were systematically investigated and correlated to the physicochemical properties of activated carbons produced and their performance in post-combustion CO2 capture. The highest CO2 uptake (225 mg g−1) was achieved for the hybrid carbon produced at low temperature (600 °C) and modest microwave intensity. The synergic effect of hybrid heating was confirmed by the significant CO2 uptake increase up to 80 and 60 % for the activated carbons prepared by microwave and conventional heating, respectively. The enhanced adsorption was confirmed by cyclic regeneration up to 99 % after 16 adsorption–desorption cycles, showing a linear correlation between the surface area, micropore volume and CO2 uptake. The Pseudo-first order model accurately describes the adsorption phenomena, indicating that physisorption is the primary mechanism governing the process. The results acquired from this study highlight the process intensification in the synthesis of porous materials with comparable properties that are typically attained in conventional heating using energy intensive conditions. Additionally, this approach reveals the benefits of conventional treatment for increasing the material's microwave susceptibility and as consequence to reduce the processing time by microwave heating. The synergic effects confirms the potential of hybrid heating for applications where fast and selective heating is paramount.

This study has investigated valorisation of CPH by comparing the extraction of phenolic compounds using microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) with conventional solvent extraction (CSE). Extraction time, temperature, ethanol concentration, and solvent to feed (S/F) ratio were investigated to obtain the maximum yield. The extract quality was presented as total phenolic content (TPC) which was measured by using a UV/Vis Spectrophotometer. The results showed that at a lower temperature (60 °C), MAE could produce higher TPC (107.3±1.4 mg GAE/g dw) than CSE at 70 °C (105.4±0.9 mg GAE/g dw) even when the same heating rate was applied. It can be believed that the high extraction yield on MAE is due to the selective heating effect. Results of this study suggest that MAE has potential to valorise CPH waste into valuable ingredients based on phenolic compounds.&nbsp

This study has demonstrated, for the first time, a simple, fast and flexible microwave processing method for the simultaneous preparation of bio-products (bio-oil, bio-gas and biochar) using a methodology that avoids any form of catalyst or chemical activation. The dielectric properties of biomass and physicochemical characterisation such as TGA, elemental and proximate analysis, XRD, SEM/EDX and textural properties, showed that 8 kJ g−1 of microwave energy can produce superior biochars for applications in CO2 capture. The maximum CO2 uptake capacity for biochar produced was 2.5 mmol g−1 and 2.0 mmol g−1 at 0 and 25 °C and 1 bar, which and also exhibited high gas selectivity compared with N2, fast kinetics of adsorption (95%) after 20 cycles. GC-MS analysis of generated bio-oil products revealed that higher microwave energies (>8 kJ g−1) significantly enhanced the amount of bio-oil produced (39%) and specifically the formation of levoglucosan, furfural and phenolics compounds, and bio-gas analysis identified trace levels of H2 and CH4. The results from this study confirm a green, inexpensive and efficient approach for biomass valorisation which can easily be embedded within bio-refinery process, and also demonstrates the potential of biochars for post-combustion CO2 uptake.