# High-Purity Biomass-Derived Synthetic Graphite: Catalyst-Free Industrial Synthesis and Applications

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a sustainable, catalyst-free method to produce high-purity synthetic graphite from biomass, suitable for industrial applications like electric motors and fuel cells.

## Contribution

A novel industrial-scale, catalyst-free process for synthesizing high-purity synthetic graphite from biomass is presented.

## Key findings

- Biomass-derived graphite achieves >99.9% purity and >91% graphitization degree.
- The material matches fossil-based graphite in electrical and thermal conductivity.
- Applications in carbon brushes and fuel cell bipolar plates are confirmed.

## Abstract

To support efforts on the graphite industry’s
defossilization,
the pursuit of more sustainable options for synthetic graphite might
be in contrast with the high requirements for purity, quantity, and
quality of graphite materials. The catalyst-free graphitization of
pyrolyzed biomass residues into a synthetic graphite is presented.
The resulting biomass-derived graphite is characterized by high purity
(>99.9%), high crystallinity with a graphitization degree of >91%,
and exhibits electrical and thermal conductivity similar to fossil-based
synthetic graphites. Material characterization and application data
confirm various possible applications, namely in carbon brushes for
electric motors and polymer bipolar plates for fuel cells. Since biomass,
as called nongraphitizable carbon, is used as a raw material, the
graphitization mechanism in the absence of a metal catalyst is proposed
and discussed. The reported process and preparation of biomass-derived
graphite are confirmed at the industrial scale and thus provide a
more sustainable alternative to fossil-based synthetic graphites.