Effect of Physical and Chemical Preparation on Characteristics of Activated Carbon from Agriculture Solid Waste and their Potential Application

Abstract

This work focus on the effect of physical and chemical carbonization and activation processes on physicochemical properties of activated carbon from date stone (ACDS) and their applications. Twelve ACDS samples were obtained from two date stone samples at three different temperatures (300, 500, 700 o C) using physical carbonization and activation, and using chemicals (NaCl, H 3 PO 4 , NaOH) at 500 o C. The characterization of these ACDS samples were evaluated using moisture content (MC), pH, bulk density (BD), ash content (AC), conductivity (CD), total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity (SA) and carbon yield (CY), and its potential application on adsorption process as low-cost adsorbent. The CY, BD, MC, CD, TDS and SA of ACDS prepared by physical activating process decreased with increasing temperature, while the pH values increased from 4.70 to 6.74 with increasing activation process temperature from 300 to 700 o C, respectively. The highest Ni(II) ions adsorbed onto ACDS was obtained from ACDS activated with chemical activating process using NaOH at 500 o C. Therefore, ACDS prepared chemically by NaOH is the best to be used in waste water treatment.