Production and Characterization of Activated Carbon Produced from a Suitable Industrial Sludge

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is the preparation of activated carbon using a suitable industrial sludge. The characterization of two types of industrial sludges showed that paper sludge was a better option over rice husk. The activated carbon produced from pyrolysis of paper mill sludge was chemically activated with various activating agents like zinc chloride, potassium hydroxide and potassium chloride. A systematic investigation of the effect of impregnation ratio, activation temperature and activation time on the properties of the activated carbon was done. The chemically activated carbons were characterized by measuring iodine and yield percentage. The activated carbon prepared from paper mill sludge in this study had maximum iodine of 764.80 mg/g with ZnCl2 as the activating agent. The FT-IR analysis depicts the presence of a variety of functional groups. The XRD analysis reveals that the produced activated carbon has low content of inorganic constituents compared with the precursor. 

Keywords: Activated carbon, Paper sludge, Impregnation ratio FT-IR analysis, XRD analysis

Table of Contents

CHAPTER PAGENO

Certificate (ii)

Acknowledgement (iii)

Abstract (iv)

Contents (v)

List of Tables (vii)

List of Figures (viii)-(ix)

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Production of activated carbon 2

1.2 Objective 3-4

Chapter 2 Literature Review 5-9

2.1 Classification of activated carbon 9-11

2.2 Properties of activated carbon 11-12

2.3 Applications of activated carbon 13-14

Chapter 3 Precursor selection 15-16

3.1 CHNS elemental analysis 16-18

3.2 Proximate analysis 19

Chapter 4 Preparation and Characterization of activated carbon

4.1 Preparation of activated carbon 20-22

vi

4.2 Characterization of activated carbon 22

4.2.1 Iodine value of activated carbon 23-24

4.2.2 Other physical properties of activated carbon 24-25

4.2.3 X ray diffraction analysis 25-27

4.2.4 Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy analysis 27-28

4.2.5 SEM analysis of activated carbon 28-31

Chapter 5 Results and Discussions 32

5.1 Results of CHNS and proximate analysis 32-34

5.2 Effect of chemical activating agent 34-35

5.3 Effect of concentration of ZnCl2 35-36

5.4 Effect of time of impregnation 37-38

5.5 Effect of activation temperature 38-39

5.6 Effect of activation time 40-41

5.7 FTIR Analysis 41-42

5.8 X Ray diffraction analysis 42-44

5.9 SEM analysis 44-49

Chapter 6 Conclusions 50-51

Chater 7 References 52-60