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Porous and adsorption properties of activated carbon prepared from cocoa pod husk by chemical activation

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Abstract

Utilization of cocoa pod husk (CPH) for the preparation of high-surface-area activated carbon (AC) by using low-pollution potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an activating agent was studied in this work. The thermochemical results of CPH, including the proximate analysis, calorific value, organic and mineral component analyses, showed that the biomass should be a great precursor based on its large percentage of volatile matter and less amount of fixed carbon. A series of activation experiments were conducted to produce activated carbons from dries CPH at different temperatures (i.e., 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 °C) held for 30 min. To evaluate the potential for adsorbent in removing environmental pollutants, the resulting activated carbons were subject to the analyses of chemical and physical properties, including elemental analysis, true density, surface area/pore volume, and surface morphology by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Based on the pore properties, activation temperature at around 800 °C seemed to be the optimal condition for producing highly microporous AC, where its BET surface area (> 1800 m2/g) and total pore volume (about 0.95 cm3/g) largely increased compared with that of the AC produced at 400 °C (ca. 6.0 m2/g). Based on the adsorption kinetic performance tests, it showed that it is feasible to use the resulting AC as an effectively low-cost adsorbent for the removal of organic compound (e.g., dye) from aqueous solution in comparison with commercial AC.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express sincere appreciation to the Instrument Centers of National Chung Hsing University and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology for their assistance in elemental analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation, respectively.

Funding

The authors thank the Pingtung County Government (Taiwan) and Wel-Han Environmental Industrial Co. (Pingtung County Government, Taiwan) for providing financial support for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Institute of Bioresources, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Neipu Township, Pingtung, 912, Taiwan

    Wen-Tien Tsai

  2. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, 912, Taiwan

    Yun-Chi Bai, Yu-Quan Lin & Yi-Ching Lai

  3. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin, 640, Taiwan

    Chi-Hung Tsai

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  1. Wen-Tien Tsai
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Tsai, WT., Bai, YC., Lin, YQ. et al. Porous and adsorption properties of activated carbon prepared from cocoa pod husk by chemical activation. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 10, 35–43 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-019-00403-7

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