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The chemical process of producing activated carbon using walnut shells and plastic wastes

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Abstract

In this work, the chemical preparation of activated carbon (AC) using walnut shell (WS) and plastic wastes (primarily consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene) as feedstocks and chemical activators (KOH and NaOH) was investigated in a fixed-bed reactor. Thermogravimetric analysis (TG) (TGA) was used to carbonize WS together with plastic waste. Furthermore, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, FTIR, dye adsorption, iodine number, and SEM experiments were applied to characterize the obtained ACs. The results indicated that the polyolefinic waste acted as insulation and controlled the energy reaching WS particles to a certain extent. In addition, the reactive pyrolysis products of plastics such as styrene and light olefins reacted with the unstable structure of WS and intensified the secondary reactions during the carbonization process. Secondary reactions led to the creation of new structures that were clearly visible in the FTIR spectra. Also, the results indicated that the participation of plastics in secondary reactions has led to an increase in AC production. Furthermore, during the activation process, plastics have led to a significant increase in the surface area and volume of pores. The curve of WS degradation together with plastic waste showed that plastics have slowed down the WS degradation, as indicated by the slope of the degradation graph has clearly decreased.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has also received funding from the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO) and innovation program/ERC grant agreement no.818607 (OPTIMA). This work was also performed in the framework of the Catalisti cluster SBO project WATCH (HBC.2019.0001 “Plastic waste to chemicals”) and PREFER (The Plastics Refinery: No More Waste) with the financial support of VLAIO (Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polymerization Engineering, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute (IPPI), P.O. Box 14965/115, Tehran, Iran

    Hosein Bazgir, Mohammad Reza Rostami, Zahra Issaabadi, Mehdi Nekoomanesh Haghighi & Mehrdad Seifali Abbas-Abadi

  2. Institute for Technical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Salar Tavakkol

  3. Laboratory for Chemical Technology, Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Architecture, Ghent University, Technologiepark 125, B-9052, Zwijnaarde, Belgium

    Hamed Mohamadzadeh Shirazi, Bahman Goshayeshi, Kevin M. Van Geem & Mehrdad Seifali Abbas-Abadi

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  1. Hosein Bazgir
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  2. Mohammad Reza Rostami
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  3. Salar Tavakkol
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  4. Zahra Issaabadi
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Contributions

HB helped in methodology, software, validation, and writing—review & editing; MRR contributed to conceptualization, software, and writing—original draft; ST, BG and ZI helped in software, writing—original draft; HMS contributed to methodology and validation; KMVG done methodology, validation, writing—review & editing, and supervision; MNH performed conceptualization, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing; MSA-A contributed to conceptualization, software, and writing—original draft.

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Correspondence to Kevin M. Van Geem, Mehdi Nekoomanesh Haghighi or Mehrdad Seifali Abbas-Abadi.

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Bazgir, H., Rostami, M.R., Tavakkol, S. et al. The chemical process of producing activated carbon using walnut shells and plastic wastes. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 10125–10138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12364-1

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