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Effect of KOH-N2/CO/air activation on the performance of coconut shell activated carbon for low temperature NH3 removal NO

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Abstract

This study investigates the effects of different combinations of potassium hydroxide (KOH)–nitrogen (N2)/carbon monoxide (CO)/air activation on the low-temperature ammonia (NH3) removal NO performance of coconut shell-activated carbon. KOH–N2-combined activation resulted in expanded pores of activated carbon, while high temperatures caused structural collapse. While increasing the activation temperature induced larger average pore sizes, introducing nitrogen-containing functional groups on the surface positively affected the NO conversion rate. Furthermore, while KOH–CO2-combined activation yielded activated carbon with denser and more ordered pore structures upon increasing activation temperature, a relatively large specific surface area and total pore volume were also observed. Introducing functional groups such as C = C on the surface yielded a higher overall NO conversion rate. Although KOH–air activation resulted in developed porous structures, some pore sizes were blocked, thereby yielding a smaller specific surface area. Nevertheless, introducing nitrogen-containing functional groups contributed to an overall increase in the NO conversion rate. Orthogonal experimental analysis revealed that activation time significantly impacted the physical activation process of KOH-activated carbon, followed by activation temperature, with activation gas minimally affecting the activated carbon structure and NO conversion rate. Notably, the optimal activation conditions included 1-h activated carbon activation in 3 mol/L of KOH, followed by 1-h CO2 activation at 150℃.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52264043) and the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Iron and Steel Metallurgy and Resource Utilization of the Ministry of Education (No. FMRULAB-20-4).

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  1. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Bangfu Huang, Wanjun Li, Zhe Shi & Linjing Yang

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  1. Bangfu Huang
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  2. Wanjun Li
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Contributions

B.F.: Methodology, Investigation, Validation, Writing-review & editing. W.L.: Investigation, Writing-original draft. Z.S.: Methodology. L.Y.: Methodology. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bangfu Huang.

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Huang, B., Li, W., Shi, Z. et al. Effect of KOH-N2/CO/air activation on the performance of coconut shell activated carbon for low temperature NH3 removal NO. Adsorption (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-024-00483-6

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