This study addresses the critical challenge of carbon corrosion in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) by developing hybrid supports that combine the high surface area of carbon black (CB) with the superior crystallinity and graphitic structure of carbon nanofibers (CNFs). Two commercially available CB samples were physically activated and composited with two types of CNFs synthesized via chemical vapor deposition using different carbon sources. The structure, morphology, and crystallinity of the resulting CNF–CB hybrid supports were characterized, and the performances of these hybrid supports in mitigating carbon corrosion and enhancing the PEMFC performance was evaluated through full-cell testing in collaboration with a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) manufacturer (VinaTech, Seoul, Republic, of Korea), adhering to industry-standard fabrication and evaluation procedures. Accelerated stress tests following the US Department of Energy protocols revealed that incorporating CNFs enhanced the durability of the CB-based hybrid supports without compromising their performance. The improved performance of the MEAs with the hybrid carbon support is attributed to the ability of the CNF to act as a structural backbone, facilitate water removal, and provide abundant edge plane sites for anchoring the platinum catalyst, which promoted the oxygen reduction reaction and improved catalyst utilization. The findings of this study highlight the potential of CNF-reinforced CB supports for enhancing the durability and performance of PEMFCs.

The hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass pyrolysis oil (BPO) was evaluated in the presence of two commercial alumina-supported transition metal catalysts, NiMo/alumina-1 (NM1) and NiMo/alumina-2 (NM2). The study explored two characteristic aspects: how HDO reaction conditions affected the oxygen content, density, and boiling point distribution of BPO with varying temperature and HDO reaction time, and the roles of catalysts. Characterizations of HDO-treated oils included elemental analysis, GC-MS, SIMDIS, ¹³C NMR, and ¹H NMR, and characterizations of catalysts included NH₃-TPD, XRF, and TPO-MS analysis. The results show that both NM1 and NM2 catalysts removed oxygenated compounds effectively, which led to decreases in density and shifts toward higher boiling point distributions of BPO. Compared to the NM1 catalyst, NM2 had a higher acidity and enhanced HDO activity. The best HDO reaction performance was achieved in the presence of the NM2 catalyst at 300 °C. Furthermore, HDO reactions showed a significant amount of CO₂, CH₄, C₂H₆, and C₃H₈, which suggests that HDO reactions proceeded via a series of reactions of decarboxylation, water–gas shift, and methanation. In addition, hydrocarbon fraction tests suggested a favorable potential for the blending of HDO-treated biomass pyrolysis oil (HDO-BPO) with petroleum-derived fractions.

Recently, due to the rapid increase in the demand for artificial graphite, there has been a strong need to improve the productivity of artificial graphite. In this study, we propose a new efficient process by eliminating the carbonation stage from the existing process. The conventional graphite manufacturing process usually involves a series of stages: the pulverization of needle-type coke, the granulation of pitch and coke premix, carbonation, graphitization, and surface treatment to compensate voids formed within particles. The process seems time-consuming and costly. Therefore, in our proposed shortened process, we have eliminated the carbonization stage. Instead of petroleum-derived pitch, coal tar pitch was employed. Coal tar pitch has a lower softening point than binder pitch. Apart from the cost-effectiveness of the process, it has enhanced the properties of artificial graphite by a uniform coating using a lower amount of hard carbon. In addition, the whole manufacturing time and cost was reduced by 12 h and 20% due to the skipped manufacturing step, respectively. It was observed that the artificial graphite produced by the newly proposed shortened process had improved physical properties related to the density and graphitization degree, and also showed an improvement in electrochemical performance. Raman 3D mapping and the electrochemical evaluation of artificial graphite were mainly used to compare the physical properties. This shortened process not only reduces the manufacturing cost, but also contributes to the improved performance of lithium-ion battery anode material.

Analysis of the heavy fractions in crude oil has been important in petroleum industries. It is well known that heavy fractions such as vacuum gas oils (VGOs) include heteroatoms, of which sulfur and nitrogen are often characterized in many cases. We conducted research regarding the molecular species analysis of VGOs. Further refine processes using VGOs are becoming important when considering carbon recycling. In this work, we attempted to classify compounds within VGOs provided by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Two VGOs were priorly distillated from Kuwait Export crude and Lower Fars crude. Quantitative analysis was performed mainly using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). MALDI-TOF-MS has been developed for analyzing high-molecular-weight compounds such as polymer and biopolymers. As matrix selection is one of the most important aspects in MALDI-TOFMS, the careful selection of a matrix was firstly evaluated, followed by analysis using a Kendrick plot with nominal mass series (z*). The objective was to evaluate if this work could provide an effective classification of VGOs compounds. The Kendrick plot is a well-known method for processing mass data. The difference in the Kendrick mass defect (KMD) between C_nH_2n−14S and C_nH_2n−20O is only 0.0005 mass units, which makes it difficult in general to distinguish these compounds. However, since the z* value showed effective differences during the classification of these compounds, qualitative analysis could be possible. The analysis using nominal mass series showed the potential to be used as an effective method in analyzing heavy fractions.