Doctoral student KeLiang Wang places a graphene-coated electrode into a button cell to make a supercapacitor.
Credit: Emily Weber

Researchers from the South Dakota State University (SDSU) have used a pyrolysis process to transform plant materials such as corn stover, native grasses and dried distillers grain solids (DDGS) into bio-oil and biochar, which could then be converted into graphene.

The resulting product – graphene, is many times more valuable than the agricultural residue. Zhengrong Gu, an assistant professor at the SDSU agricultural and biosystems engineering department, states that the pyrolysis process converts the plant materials in