# Sustainable Porous Carbon Derived from Lignin for High‐Performance CO2 Capture

## TL;DR

This paper reviews how lignin, a renewable by-product, can be turned into porous carbon materials for efficient and sustainable CO2 capture.

## Contribution

The paper provides a focused review on lignin-derived porous carbons for CO2 capture, emphasizing synthesis strategies and performance correlations.

## Key findings

- Lignin-derived porous carbons can be tailored for high CO2 adsorption capacity and selectivity.
- Chemical activation and templating methods enable precise control of pore structures and functionalities.
- Amine functionalization and AI-assisted design improve chemisorption and synthesis understanding.

## Abstract

The accelerating rise of atmospheric CO2 remains a central driver of global climate change, highlighting the urgent need for scalable and energy‐efficient carbon capture technologies. Porous carbons are among the most promising solid adsorbents due to their high surface area, chemical stability, and tunable pore structures, which facilitate efficient CO2 adsorption and low regeneration energy. Lignin is a renewable aromatic by‐product of the pulp and paper industry, which offers exceptional promise as a sustainable carbon source due to its abundance (50–70 Mt/year), high carbon content (>60 wt%), and rich aromatic structure. Unlike previous reviews broadly covering biomass‐derived carbons, this review focuses on recent advances in lignin‐derived porous carbons for CO2 capture, correlating preparation strategies with structural evolution and adsorption performance. Chemical activation, templating, and hybrid methods enable precise control of ultramicropores (<0.7 nm), mesoporous channels, and heteroatom functionalities, which synergistically determine adsorption capacity, selectivity, and regeneration energy. Emerging approaches such as amine functionalization introduce strong chemisorption sites for post‐combustion and direct‐air capture, while AI‐assisted design accelerates understanding of synthesis–property–performance relationships. Despite remarkable progress, remaining challenges in feedstock variability, scalability, and greener process development are discussed along with future prospects for sustainable CO2 capture using lignin‐derived porous carbons.

Lignin‐derived porous carbons offer a sustainable and scalable route for high‐performance CO2 capture. By tailoring ultramicroporosity, hierarchical pore networks, and heteroatom functionalities through chemical activation, templating, and hybrid methods, adsorption capacity and selectivity can be optimized. This review correlates. synthesis–structure–performance relationships to enable the rational design of scalable, energy‐efficient carbon capture materials for circular carbon technologies.