CHARACTERIZATION AND KINETIC ADSORPTION OF THE DIFFERENT SOURCES ACTIVATED CARBON FOR LIQUID-PHASE ADSORPTION

Abstract

The activated carbon from oil-palm stones of agricultural by-products from palm-oil mills, a coconut shells and a solid waste exploring coals mining (ex-coal mining) were studied in this paper. The different chemical activators such as H₃PO₄, KOH, H₂SO₄ in the different ratio and also different activated temperature from 550 to 850°C was done. The adsorptive properties are including the textural properties of the activated carbons are investigated. For chemical characterization a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to identify the surface organic functional groups of the activated carbons. The adsorptive capacity of the activated carbons, adsorption of phenol was carried out using spectrophotometric analyses. It was found that the temperature and hold time had significantly influences on the surface area and pore size in the distribution of the activated carbon. The optimum conditions for preparing these activated carbons from chars. pyrolyzed at 600°C to derive the highest specific surface areas were found to be an activation temperature of 750°C for phenol adsorption of KOH for carbon from coconut shells, H₃PO₄ for oil palm stone and ex-coal mining activator in 850°C. Experimental results showed that phenol could be adsorbed effectively by the three different activated carbons. The adsorptive capacity of these activated carbons was comparable with those of some commercial activated carbons by using Juan et al. model’s ²³⁾.

Keywords: activated carbon: oil palm stone, coconut shell, ex-coal mining, phenol reduction, adsorptive capacity