Preparation and characterization of activated carbon prepared from palm kernel shell for dye removal

JUAN RAFAEL GARCÍA; ZAINUL AKMAR ZAKARIA; MUHAMMAD ABBAS AHMAD ZAINI; ULISES SEDRAN

Kaohsiung

Conferencia; The Ninth Annual Conference on the Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering - CESE 2016; 2016

National Kaohsiung Marine University, Taiwan

The palm oil industry generates large amounts of biomass waste such as empty fruit bunch, palm oil mill effluents and palm kernel shells (PKS). Environmental pollution from pigment-containing wastewater from various industrial sources are of concern nowadays. Utilization of waste biomass such as that from palm oil industry offers an interesting alternative based on its potential to be converted into activated carbon. Activated carbon was prepared in this study from the pyrolysis (500 and 550°C, 1 h) of palm kernel shell biomass impregnated with ZnCl2 (PKS:ZnCl2 1:1 and PKS:ZnCl2 2:1). The different samples of activated carbon were characterized by means of nitrogen adsorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The activated carbons were evaluated for its dye removal efficiency using methylene blue (MB) water solutions with different initial concentrations. Maximum uptake (qmax) of MB by the adsorbents were determined based on the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The sample with the best adsorption capacity (qmax=225.3 mg/g) was the one activated at 550 °C using 1:1 ratio of PKS:ZnCl2, which has a high surface area (1050 m2/g). The kinetic studies of dye removal (batch experiments) showed that, in all cases, the 95 % of the equilibrium uptake value was reached during the first 240 min. The results of this study demonstrated the potential of using palm oil mill waste biomass as a cheap and proper raw material to produce activated carbon with good adsorption properties for dye removal from wastewaters.