Pine Needles in the Production of Sustainable Adsorbents: A Teaching Mini-Project Focused on the Valorization of Biomass

This manuscript addresses the development of a mini-project for teaching adsorption based on the production of sustainable adsorbents from pine needles. The activity was tested during the Physical-Chemistry II discipline of the Agro-Industrial Engineering course and lasted 5 weeks. The students were involved in the preparation of three adsorbents, their complete characterization using usual analytical techniques, the interpretation of the results, and finally the adsorption test of methylene blue from an aqueous medium. Although the adsorbents were prepared using extremely simple techniques seeking didactic applicability, the good results obtained can be compared with those of more elaborate materials described in the current scientific literature. During the proposed activity, students improved their laboratory skills by learning about new materials characterization techniques, revisiting basic equipment operations, and making use of mass ratios.