Engineers turn destructive plant into valuable carbon

Glasgow, UK – Researchers in Scotland and Cuba are ridding the Caribbean nation of a major ecological problem while producing a highly valuable resource.

Research led by Professor Peter Hall, of the University of Strathclyde’s Faculty of Engineering, has found that Marabú - a type of hard wood shrub that has invaded over 1.5 million hectares of land in Cuba - can be used to produce activated carbon.

Activated carbon is most commonly used to produce batteries and has many uses from water and gas purification to sewage treatment. It can also be used as a medical tool to treat poisonings and overdoses.

The purification properties are particularly valuable in Cuba, which currently imports £5 million worth of activated carbon for use in rum production - a crucial part of the country’s economy.

“Cuba appears to be the only country in the world that has such a serious ecological problem with Marabú. It is invading the terrain throughout the country at an alarming rate, destroying the environmental landscape and effectively sterilising what has historically been the world’s most productive agricultural land.

The researchers, however, have shown that Marabú can be used to produce a high quality version of activated carbon worth more than £1,200 per tonne.

“We have already been able to demonstrate water pollution control using Marabú and aside from the obvious benefits for Cuba’s economy, this research could provide good quality drinking water for developing countries throughout the world,” said Hall.

The Strathclyde team are using technology on campus to process the Marabú, and the same technique will be deployed in Cuba to convert the Marabú on a much greater scale.

Havana Energy, a renewable energy company working in partnership with the Cuban Government has played a key role instigating and leading the research and delegates visited the University this week as part of the ongoing project.

The Marabú project arose when Havana Energy was trying to identify a secondary feedstock for the bagasse power plant at the time of year when sugar cane can’t be harvested.

Researchers at Strathclyde, with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), have also used the Marabú to produce energy storage devices, in particular Li-air batteries and ionic liquid supercapacitors.