Carbonization behavior of wheat bran and utility of their carbonized products

Carbonization behavior of wheat bran was investigated. Carbon yield from wheat bran at 800 degreesC reached ca. 27%, which is much higher than the conventional cellulosic carbon resources. Gluten which was one of the components in wheat bran showed similar carbonization behavior to the wheat bran. Thus, gluten seemed to play an important role during the carbonization process of wheat bran. Glutenin which was a major component of gluten and was rich in intermolecular crosslinks through S-S bonds showed carbonization behavior like glass-like carbon. Carbonized products from wheat bran could be activated through CO2 gas reaction at a temperature higher than 900 degreesC. The adsorption capacity to methylene blue and BET specific surface area reached 158mg/g and 753.4m(2)/g, respectively.