Porous carbon foam (PCF), known for its high surface area and abundant functional groups, is considered to exhibit superior

adsorption capacity and wide applicability for gases. Wheat, being a widely cultivated and easily accessible crop

globally, contains abundant carbon elements. In this study, wheat powder served as the carbon precursor, and β-alanine,

rich in amino and carboxyl groups, was introduced into the hierarchical pore structure of wheat powder. Subsequently, the

material underwent secondary hydrothermal treatment with the activation agent potassium hydroxide (KOH), resulting in

hydrothermal wheat powder PCF (HWPCF) rich in a three-dimensional interconnected structure with layered pores as the

representative feature. This structural treatment increased the specifi c surface area (2278 m 2 ·g −1 ) and total pore volume

(1.17 cm 3 ·g −1 ) of PCF, accelerating the rapid mass transfer of gas molecules and signifi cantly enhancing the utilization of

adsorption sites in the modifi ed PCF. HWPCF exhibited outstanding adsorption performance for acetone (608.7 mg g −1 ) and

n-hexane (517.6 mg g −1 ). In addition, the modifi ed PCF showed good adsorption capacity for CO 2 (4.99 mmol·g −1 ). This

study highlights the eff ective modifi cation of expired wheat powder with β-alanine, reducing the overall carbon footprint of

the production process and achieving the reuse of waste in an environmentally friendly manner.